Obama Has Marine Hold Umbrella Over His Head
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.
What a ^%*&^*&^.
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:13 pmI 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:13 pmEvidently the Marines are the last people in the administration able to accomplish the tasks given them.
SPQR (768505) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:16 pmIsn’t that contrary to Marine regs?
JD (ee8414) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:22 pmHeh, at least he thought the other speaker deserved the same treatment.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:23 pmWhere are the female Marines?
mg (31009b) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:31 pmThe 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:34 pmFemale Marines at a presser with an Islamist? Get serious.
Those were the gay Marines.
Semper Faah-bulous!
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:35 pmWhy couldn’t he just hold the umbrella himself?
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:37 pmIn Texas they would say someone who behaves this way has gotten too big for his britches.
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:41 pmAnd not use the servants?
SPQR (768505) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:42 pm8- Steve57
mg (31009b) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:47 pmI think female marines are the only marines allowed to hold an umbrella. With the left hand, so they can salute.
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) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:52 pmMarines 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:52 pmI 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:54 pmThis is one mission that Obama was not afraid to call in the Marines.
Elephant Stone (c306c5) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:58 pmAfter 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” ?
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) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:58 pmIsn’t his body man supposed to do his personal bidding?
PatAZ (f11d55) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:59 pmIf this was the worst thing he had done this week, we could all rejoice and let it pass.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/16/2013 @ 6:59 pmI think the SS are more the actual security detail anyway, aren’t they?
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:00 pmI still want to know what he did on 9/11
JD (ee8414) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:03 pmWell, bad planning and all that. At least he was sort of apologetic.
Patricia (be0117) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:22 pmThe only thing I want to see held over Obama’s head are things like the following.
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) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:43 pmThis 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:53 pmAn interesting angle;
https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10151616666133588
narciso (3fec35) — 5/16/2013 @ 7:53 pmhttp://storify.com/ElaheIzadi/the-president-and-the-umbrella
WHAT A JERK
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:07 pmGoogle “umbrella, reagan.”
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:08 pmgoogle this…
Colonel Haiku (4f3f6e) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:09 pmNo 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:10 pmI’m telling you, Obama is sociopathic.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:11 pm“No Marines in those photos.”
– Patterico
This is a stupid post. Maybe your other one is better.
Off to check!
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:17 pmhttp://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) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:33 pmI 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:33 pmLeviticus, 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:35 pmLeviticus,
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) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:43 pmThey also guard him when he is in the Rose Garden, but they aren’t there to guard him from the rain.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:46 pmI’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) — 5/16/2013 @ 8:55 pmComment by no one of consequence (f14b28) – Currently # 37
I agree.
Bill M (c8f413) — 5/16/2013 @ 9:38 pmHe 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 9:39 pmProphylaxis courtesy of the Marines.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 5/16/2013 @ 9:44 pmAs 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 9:44 pmHe 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…
Mark (9ba6f2) — 5/16/2013 @ 10:09 pmMark, 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 10:23 pmMisuse 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) — 5/16/2013 @ 10:23 pmWhy, Patrick, have you forgotten this picture already?
http://www.marthastewart.com/sites/files/marthastewart.com/imagecache/img_360x450/images/content/web/pets/generic/pets_ap_first_pet_bush43_barney_hd.jpg
cpk (651995) — 5/16/2013 @ 11:54 pmObama 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) — 5/17/2013 @ 4:21 amMr 57 wrote:
And now you know the difference between men and boys.
The Dana who tells it like it is (3e4784) — 5/17/2013 @ 4:52 amDRJ wrote:
Apparently, that was an incorrect statement.
The realistic Dana (3e4784) — 5/17/2013 @ 4:54 amIt 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) — 5/17/2013 @ 5:06 amCould it be, GB having his umbrella held by one of our men???http://i.imgur.com/8FSvGGg.jpg
vicki (47e050) — 5/17/2013 @ 12:32 pmLeviticus,
Google this…Gene Kelly, umbrella.
Elephant Stone (65a34b) — 5/17/2013 @ 12:50 pmlooks 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) — 5/17/2013 @ 1:04 pmWow. 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) — 5/18/2013 @ 4:55 amunderpinned 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) — 5/18/2013 @ 5:51 amAgreed when he forgot the name of MOH winner, when he regarded the assasination of Ambassador Stevens,
narciso (3fec35) — 5/18/2013 @ 5:59 amas a ‘roadbump’ and a ‘sideshow’, that is a measure of his character.
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) — 5/18/2013 @ 6:00 amHmmm, I think I wrote a post that was caught in the filter, and JD is not around to find it…wo is me.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/18/2013 @ 6:06 amMaybe I prayed the wrong thing this morning.
You’re all a bunch of idiots for arguing about this.
FLuSHUnderground (8e0a05) — 5/18/2013 @ 1:53 pmFLuSHUnderground–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) — 5/18/2013 @ 2:26 pmApparently 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) — 5/18/2013 @ 3:47 pmA casual observation on this, and other threads:
This is a bad week for Leviticus.
The Imperial Presidency of RMN:
askeptic (2bb434) — 5/18/2013 @ 4:07 pmHe stumbled big time on his proposed uniform for the uniformed Secret Service that protects the WH.
The proposal was widely compared to Gilbert & Sullivan.
What?
nk (875f57) — 5/18/2013 @ 5:02 pmNixon was just ahead of his time.
nk (875f57) — 5/18/2013 @ 5:09 pm