June 20, 2009
Are there any grownups in charge at the White House?
"Professional" skateboarder Tony Hawk rides his skateboard in the White House Saturday, with the permission of the current residents.
According to the Daily News, the Obama Administration gave Tony Hawk permission to ride his skateboard in the White House, with photos of the middle-aged man gliding down the hallways on his toy.
I was bothered when I saw the photo on Drudge this afternoon; it strikes me as fundamentally unserious and undignified, an unfitting use of our White House. Greg Gutfeld thinks it says something about the current occupants of the President's home, too.
Am I an old fart or am I right to be pissed that some jackass is skateboarding down the halls of the White House while all this Iranian shit is going down?
We truly have succumbed to the idiocy of the MTV/Mountain Dew/Road Rules backward hat and baggy short culture. Did I miss something, or is the White House the future set for the next Real World? Where are the wallet chains? Is Hot Topic handling our foreign policy? Obama should be grounded for a week for letting Tony Hawk play in OUR house. Where in hell are the adults?
Look: Tony Hawk is in his mid forties. He’s a grown man…and he skateboards. Could you imagine your dad or anyone who lived during World War II treating a man who skateboards with anything less than scorn and ridicule?
Right now, people are risking their lives for the glimmer of freedom, and Tony Hawk is in the White House tweeting about Frosted Flakes.
Someone please dig up Reagan. I’d take a dead leader with balls over a living camp counselor who wants all the cool kids to like him.
What a screaming joke.
It's a joke, alright. The joke's on us.
So why am I not laughing?
George Bush, a president with whom I had numerous disagreements -- hell, he ultimately drove me away from rejoining the GOP -- believed that the White House and the office of the president deserved respect, and as such declared that the era of jeans and sneakers, favored by his predecessor, was over on the day he took office. Suit and tie was the dress code, and class and dignity were the watchwords.
The Bush years were derided by liberals, who claimed that our international reputation suffered as a result of the supposed rube in charge. These same folks proclaimed that Pres. Obama would swiftly restore us to our proper place of honor on the international stage, through his spectacular oratory, intellect and charm.
Instead we're treated to days of waffling and indecision as millions of Iranians demonstrate against the repressive regime of the mullahs -- and the spectacle of eternal adolescents goofing off in the heart of the American presidency.
Can you imagine what the mullahs are thinking? What the steely eyed Russian strongman Putin must think? How this looks to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il? Serious men all. Deadly serious.
Does "serious" seem like the most accurate adjective to describe our nation's leaders?
Posted by Mike Lief at June 20, 2009 10:47 PM
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Comments
I'm not sure that it is fair to pick on the guy because he rides a skateboard for a living. There is nothing more American and more admirable than a guy who found a way to turn what he loves into a very comfortable living. He is the epitome of the American dream and exactly what we teach our kids: "become the best and reap the rewards..." You also cannot criticize a guy who inspired many a kid to get their rear ends outside and be active. In an age where kids waistlines make cross country truckers jealous, anybody who can make an active lifestyle somewhat cool deserves some credit.
All of that aside, I think Tony missed a GOLDEN opportunity to solidfy his place as a role model. He should have taken the opportunity to show kids that there is a time and place for everything. Instead he took the opportunity to behave just like the kids that ride their skateboards right under the "NO SKATEBOARDING" sign at my Vons.
As for what the Koreans, Russians or anybody else thinks about what he did, WHO CARES. They are not going to get any more hostile to us anyway. I am surprised that you give a crap about any of those leaders and what they think.
Or, do you just hate skateboarders that much?
Posted by: RW at June 21, 2009 08:44 PM
Misguided rant, Mike. I don't think skateboarding in hallowed halls will be regarded by our enemies as a sign of weakness. It seems a small thing in history compared, say, to the many mistresses, ponies, and cronies that have desecrated the White House in the past.
Posted by: The Little Coach at June 22, 2009 06:16 AM
no, you *are* on the right track here, mike. i don't blame hawk so much - he's a bidnissman, and skating at the white house is terrific free advertising. it's gonna sell him a lot of videogames, which was why he did it. the people who *let him do that* - now there's a different story.
yes, in the grand scheme of things, it's a small thing. just another brick in the wall of the ongoing national infantilization. but since observation teaches that true character and class (and strength) is most revealed in the details, and the little things....it's a bad bad sign. washington would have had no part of it, which is really all that need be said. as for the 'mistresses and ponies' noted above, the ponies in question were for *actual* children. and mistresses are the playthings of full-grown MEN - not cutoff-wearing, flipflopped overgrown 40-year-old teenagers wearing baseball caps backwards.
after seeing this, is iran/north korea/china/russia/islam MORE likely or LESS likely to fear us; respect us; or take us seriously in any way? since everybody keeps telling us how smart obama is, why doesn't he know this? or is it that he just doesn't care?
Posted by: nom de guerre at June 23, 2009 05:13 PM