Patterico's Pontifications

5/16/2013

Obama Has Marine Hold Umbrella Over His Head

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:08 pm



Hold your own umbrella there, cowboy:

UPDATE: Allahpundit:

Via Greg Hengler, I’m sure this has been done before by other presidents, simply because the optics are sufficiently bad that Team O wouldn’t have tried it without precedent to cite in its defense.

Yeah? Let’s see them prove it.

63 Responses to “Obama Has Marine Hold Umbrella Over His Head”

  1. What a ^%*&^*&^.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. I was a Naval officer. It would never occur to me to use a Marine this way.

    But then it would never occur to me to hold a press conference on a day with a potential for rain without a tent or some other cover.

    Steve57 (9b1cdb)

  3. Evidently the Marines are the last people in the administration able to accomplish the tasks given them.

    SPQR (768505)

  4. Isn’t that contrary to Marine regs?

    JD (ee8414)

  5. Heh, at least he thought the other speaker deserved the same treatment.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  6. Where are the female Marines?

    mg (31009b)

  7. The other speaker was Turkish PM Erdogan. Obama considers Erdogan one of his top 5 international friends. One of Erdogan’s goals for his trip is to further the process of establishing the Palestinian state, a goal he shares with President Obama. Thus, this Rose Garden press conference was important to Obama — important enough to use whoever and whatever it took to make it happen as planned.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  8. 6. Where are the female Marines?

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:31 pm

    Female Marines at a presser with an Islamist? Get serious.

    Those were the gay Marines.

    Semper Faah-bulous!

    Steve57 (9b1cdb)

  9. The other speaker was Turkish PM Erdogan. Obama considers Erdogan one of his top 5 international friends. One of Erdogan’s goals for his trip is to further the process of establishing the Palestinian state, a goal he shares with President Obama. Thus, this Rose Garden press conference was important to Obama — important enough to use whoever and whatever it took to make it happen as planned.

    Why couldn’t he just hold the umbrella himself?

    Patterico (9c670f)

  10. In Texas they would say someone who behaves this way has gotten too big for his britches.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  11. And not use the servants?

    SPQR (768505)

  12. 8- Steve57
    I think female marines are the only marines allowed to hold an umbrella. With the left hand, so they can salute.

    mg (31009b)

  13. anyone with sense would have put the lecterns on the covered porch in the background…

    would it be racist to point out that they had two Caucasian Marines doing the umbrella holding? 😎

    redc1c4 (403dff)

  14. Marines holding umbrellas is extremely rare.

    I don’t know why Obama didn’t hold the umbrella himself. Maybe he thought about it and wanted to impress Erdogan, or maybe he didn’t think about it but he just assumes people at the White House are there to wait on him — including the Marines.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  15. I don’t think Marines are there to wait on the President. I think they are there to protect the President. Perhaps Obama doesn’t see the difference but I do.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  16. This is one mission that Obama was not afraid to call in the Marines.
    After all, those raindrops attacked him—unprovoked !
    But we still need to investigate who asked the Marine to “stand up.”
    Was there a conflicting order for him to “stand down” ?

    Elephant Stone (c306c5)

  17. If I was responsible for giving a presentation, and I knew there were people standing beside me to be at my beck and call, i might have asked them also, I mean, I don’t often speak in front of reporters in the rain with marines next to me.

    Though I would likely not have insisted on having an outside photo op in the rain either.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  18. Isn’t his body man supposed to do his personal bidding?

    PatAZ (f11d55)

  19. If this was the worst thing he had done this week, we could all rejoice and let it pass.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  20. I think the SS are more the actual security detail anyway, aren’t they?

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  21. I still want to know what he did on 9/11

    JD (ee8414)

  22. Well, bad planning and all that. At least he was sort of apologetic.

    Patricia (be0117)

  23. The only thing I want to see held over Obama’s head are things like the following.

    washingtonsblog.com, May 15, 2013:

    In the wake of the twin scandals of the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Department of Justice spying on AP reporters, the comparisons between Obama and Nixon are everywhere. But what do experts say?

    Former New York Times general counsel James Goodale – who represented the paper during its Pentagon Papers fight with the Nixon administration – said in an interview yesterday that Obama is worse than Nixon when it comes to press freedoms.

    Former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald noted last year: We supposedly learned important lessons from the abuses of power of the Nixon administration, and then of the Bush administration: namely, that we don’t trust government officials to exercise power in the dark, with no judicial oversight, with no obligation to prove their accusations. Yet now we hear exactly this same mentality issuing from Obama, his officials and defenders to justify a far more extreme power than either Nixon or Bush dreamed of asserting: he’s only killing The Bad Citizens, so there’s no reason to object!

    Jonathan Turley – perhaps the top constitutional law expert in the United States (and a liberal) – writes: The painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be. Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments.

    Nixon was known for his attacks on whistle-blowers. He used the Espionage Act of 1917 to bring a rare criminal case against Ellsberg. Nixon was vilified for the abuse of the law. Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined. While refusing to prosecute anyone for actual torture, the Obama administration has prosecuted former CIA employee John Kiriakou for disclosing the torture program.

    Other Nixonesque areas include Obama’s overuse of classification laws and withholding material from Congress.

    Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half. Many Democrats and progressive activists find themselves unable to oppose Obama for the authoritarian powers he has assumed. It is not simply a case of personality trumping principle; it is a cult of personality.

    Daniel Ellsberg notes that Obama’s claimed power to indefinitely detain people without charges or access to a lawyer or the courts is a power that even King George didn’t claim. Former judge and adjunct professor of constitutional law Andrew Napolitano points out that Obama’s claim that he can indefinitely detain prisoners even after they are acquitted of their crimes is a power that even Hitler and Stalin didn’t claim.

    Simply put, for anyone to have reached the age that Obama is — 51 years old — and to still be so oddly and idiotically leftwing is a sign of an intrinsic defect in its own right. It’s not sarcasm when noting that the behavior pointed out above, placed against the strange ironies and contradictions emanating from Obama, indicates a form of mental illness.

    Mark (9ba6f2)

  24. This is very frustrating to see.

    Obama has such little respect for those he sends in harm’s way.

    Why didn’t they just have this event indoors? It’s that simple. This man did not work as hard as he must have just so he could adorn a president like a piece of furniture.

    Dustin (2da3a2)

  25. Google “umbrella, reagan.”

    Leviticus (17b7a5)

  26. google this…

    Colonel Haiku (4f3f6e)

  27. No Marines in those photos.

    I have a new compare and contrast post up that I think Leviticus will love.

    I have held umbrellas for others and others have held umbrellas for me.

    I would not do what Obama did.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  28. 24. …Why didn’t they just have this event indoors? It’s that simple. This man did not work as hard as he must have just so he could adorn a president like a piece of furniture.

    Comment by Dustin (2da3a2) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:53 pm

    I’m telling you, Obama is sociopathic.

    Steve57 (9b1cdb)

  29. “No Marines in those photos.”

    – Patterico

    This is a stupid post. Maybe your other one is better.

    Off to check!

    Leviticus (17b7a5)

  30. http://storify.com/ElaheIzadi/the-president-and-the-umbrella

    Thanks for the link, Leviticus. We now have proof, thanks to Leviticus, that no other President used Marines in this way. Civilian aids, yes, but at what event we can’t know.

    By that I mean we can’t know from the context if Leviticus has provided if Reagan was waving during a scheduled press conference or just walking out of a building after a meeting.

    And Dubya was holding his own durned umbrella. WTFO, Leviticus?

    Nixon might have been speaking at a press conference. Thanks.

    But none of these Presidents abused their Marine guards in the same manner as Obama. None of the pics show other Presidents making Marines hold umbrellas over their heads. Please go and look at the link that Leviticus has helpfully provided.

    Me, as a Naval officer, I use Marines as G-d and Chesty Puller intended and only as intended because I respect the corps.

    If you go to Leviticus’ link you’ll see the people there try to shift the focus to “someone else held an umbrella for a president so what’s the big deal?”

    No, that’s not the point. THIS President used Marines for that task. Leviticus’ rebuttal proves that the other Presidents didn’t do that. Seriously. Go look at his link.

    Steve57 (9b1cdb)

  31. I would not do what Obama did.

    Comment by Patterico

    well then, the rise of the oceans will NOT continue slowing and our planet will NOT continue healing!

    Colonel Haiku (4f3f6e)

  32. Leviticus, Bush was holding his own umbrella in your comparison.

    And the other presidents were using apparent civilians for their umbrella service.

    We all know that all presidents have people doing little chores. Someone is scrubbing the presidential bathroom and washing the presidential dishes. But our military in dress uniform should be given respect and dignity in these types of functions. They represent the hundreds of thousands of troops around the world, many in harms way, many who will not ever come home to their families. They should be seen as vanguards, not manservants. DRJ gets it. This is symbolism, and Obama shows a lack of respect.

    Dustin (2da3a2)

  33. Leviticus,

    Marines are not White House ushers (as in the Reagan photo) or Presidential aides. They are sentries who guard the door of the West Wing when the President is at work.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  34. They also guard him when he is in the Rose Garden, but they aren’t there to guard him from the rain.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  35. I’m telling you, Obama is sociopathic.

    Comment by Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:11 pm

    He is, but I think the reason is more petty: the rain (it started raining while the press was waiting) made it a better bet that the PC would be shorter.

    But to your point, what normal boss says, “they’ll look good next to us” when asking a subordinate to do a menial personal task? While caring not at all about all the other people getting wet.

    Obama is a very angry man. And very, very passive aggressive. The rain was a feature, not a bug.

    no one of consequence (f14b28)

  36. Comment by no one of consequence (f14b28) – Currently # 37

    I agree.

    Bill M (c8f413)

  37. He did indeed force a breech of Marine Corps regulations.
    The daily caller has the rules and regs printed in the following article.
    Part of it says:
    Male Marines are informed never to carry an umbrella from the earliest phases of training.

    Not even the President of the United States can request a Marine to carry an umbrella without the express consent of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, according the Marine Corps Manual.

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/16/obama-breaches-marine-umbrella-protocol/

    visitor (56e074)

  38. Prophylaxis courtesy of the Marines.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  39. Not even the President of the United States can request a Marine to carry an umbrella without the express consent of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, according the Marine Corps Manual.

    As lame as this decision was, it was a lawful order. Obama outranks the Marine Corps Manual and everyone in a uniform. It’s true that he forced a breach of regulation, but he can do that.

    Dustin (2da3a2)

  40. He did indeed force a breech of Marine Corps regulations.

    This is another one of those gaffes that I’d attribute to purely clumsy etiquette, were it not for the total, full context of Barack Obama. IOW, knowing what makes him tick, if he completely understood the symbolism behind what he had the Marine do, I’d predict he’d treat it with a smirk and a cavalier wave of the hand. Or sort of a variation of, but also the flip side to, the following…

    abcnews.go.com, November 2009: An old friend — an academic with expertise about the Japanese Empire, and in general a supporter of President Obama — sends me the following note, relating to photographs of President Obama bowing to Emperor Akihito of Japan.

    “Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel….The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms… The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.”

    telegraph.co.uk, April 2009: The White House denied that the president bowed during a meeting on the sidelines of the London conference, though photographs show Mr Obama at least stooped significantly before the 84-year-old monarch.

    “American presidents do not bow before foreign dignitaries, whether they are princes, kings, or emperors,” said the Weekly Standard’s blog.

    State department protocol indeed decrees that presidents bow to no one, and has had to deal with similar controversies before, when then president Bill Clinton did a semi-bow to Japan’s Emperor Akihito.

    Mark (9ba6f2)

  41. Mark, he’s so bad he makes you wonder if he means to be. And as Althouse said recently, “we need to redraw the line between paranoia and vigilance.”

    It’s hard for me to accept people are actually intentionally bad guys, but that is pretty much just a limitation I have personally.

    Dustin (2da3a2)

  42. Misuse of our military dates back to the Clintons who thought it would be really neat to have those cute little Commanders and Majors with the gold braid on their hats serve drinks at a WH function. But then Nixon had some strange ideas appropriate dress for WH staff, but those were not military if memory serves.

    bobathome (c0c2b5)

  43. I use Marines as G-d and Chesty Puller intended and only as intended because I respect the corps.

    Obama thinks he’s using the Marines as intended: umbrella stands. Or personal servants for him.

    It’s not like he’d use them for something for which they’re clearly unintended, like, for example, saving an ambassador whose life is threatened by an al-Qaeda mob.

    Great White Rat (1bcfce)

  44. Mr 57 wrote:

    And Dubya was holding his own durned umbrella. WTFO, Leviticus?

    And now you know the difference between men and boys.

    The Dana who tells it like it is (3e4784)

  45. DRJ wrote:

    They also guard him when he is in the Rose Garden, but they aren’t there to guard him from the rain.

    Apparently, that was an incorrect statement.

    The realistic Dana (3e4784)

  46. It is against regulations for male Marines to carry an umbrella while in uniform. Obviously, as Commander-in-Chief, the President is the source of all military regulations, and he can alter them to suit his needs, so it would have been a lawful order for the President to have instructed the Marines to hold the umbrella over his head.

    However, those Marine guards would not have been carrying the umbrellas with them; those umbrellas would have had to have been handed to them by someone else, almost certainly a civilian. Unless the President, personally, ordered those Marines to hold those umbrellas over the heads of Prime Minister Erdogan and himself, that order would have had to have come from either a civilian not in the chain of command — the Secretary of Defense could lawfully have given that order, but he wasn’t there — or a military officer. Unless that officer was the Commandant of the Marine Corps — who also was not there — the order would have been unlawful.

    The realistic Dana (3e4784)

  47. Could it be, GB having his umbrella held by one of our men???http://i.imgur.com/8FSvGGg.jpg

    vicki (47e050)

  48. Leviticus,

    Google this…Gene Kelly, umbrella.

    Elephant Stone (65a34b)

  49. looks like vicki’s picture is from the clinton library dedication

    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/politics/19library.html

    so clearly it would’ve been President Herpes what was responsible for turning a soldier into an umbrella stand not President Bush

    you can see here where they are in vicki’s pictures

    http://blog.mysanantonio.com/cards/files/legacy/IMG_0273.JPG

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  50. Wow. You people will find ANYTHING to bitch about when it comes to this President. It’s become surreal.

    I’d tell you to get a life but it has gone so far past that. besides, your fellow psychotics in the GOP and the media are co-signing this idiocy.

    Not too far in the future, examinations of this era will describe it as what it has really been: a hysterical obstructionist reactionary period underpinned by seething racism to which none would admit, but which was blatantly obvious to those looking at it with clear sight. Deny it as vehemently as you wish — the louder you deny, the more guilty you are.

    Maryscott O'Connor (e46d78)

  51. underpinned by seething racism to which none would admit

    Heh! Least of all Obama supporters. Obama has no qualifications for the Presidency other than the color of his skin. Therefore, any criticism of him is a criticism of the color of his skin. Racists!

    nk (875f57)

  52. Agreed when he forgot the name of MOH winner, when he regarded the assasination of Ambassador Stevens,
    as a ‘roadbump’ and a ‘sideshow’, that is a measure of his character.

    narciso (3fec35)

  53. Ms. O’Connor-

    I agree with you that there are more important things than asking your near-by Marine detail to hold an umbrella. But then, I’m not a Marine or an expert in protocol so I don’t know.

    Do you have any comment on the IRS asking for the contents of someone’s prayers as part of an application for tax exempt status?
    If one prayed for Romney to win the election, did that mean they were not qualified?

    Or the clear fact that Mr. Carney lied about the Benghazi talking points?

    Or the wide sweeping harvest of AP phone records? I can imagine how that would have looked if done under Bush: “The Bushitler Gestapo has struck!!”

    Oh, yes, and there is that thing about Holder being in contempt of Congress for refusing to be cooperative with the Fast and Furious investigation.

    So, even if we are all hysterical obstructionist hating mean seething racists, those things are all still true, are they not? Do you think each of those items is acceptable?

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  54. Hmmm, I think I wrote a post that was caught in the filter, and JD is not around to find it…wo is me.
    Maybe I prayed the wrong thing this morning.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  55. You’re all a bunch of idiots for arguing about this.

    FLuSHUnderground (8e0a05)

  56. FLuSHUnderground–Ann Althouse, too, has some nice posts on umbrellas and Freud and the U.S. Military and the Rose Garden and Obama’s Dreams from my Father, in case you have extra time on your hands and would like to toddle on over there to drop a helpful comment as well.

    elissa (6dd12f)

  57. Apparently d Ms O’conner thinks it’s racist to show Marines a base level of respect. I’m honestly quite amused by that one.

    Dustin (2da3a2)

  58. A casual observation on this, and other threads:

    This is a bad week for Leviticus.

    The Imperial Presidency of RMN:
    He stumbled big time on his proposed uniform for the uniformed Secret Service that protects the WH.
    The proposal was widely compared to Gilbert & Sullivan.

    askeptic (2bb434)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1076 secs.