Patterico's Pontifications

12/22/2009

The White House Christmas Tree Ornaments

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 8:34 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Big Government notices some White House Christmas tree ornaments are decorated with pictures of Mao, “legendary transvestite Hedda Lettuce,” and Obama super-imposed onto Mt. Rushmore (there are photos at the link):

“Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy. For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.”

This isn’t the first White House Christmas tree that’s been the focus of a political statement, although it may be the first time it’s happened to an indoor tree. In 2008, First Lady Laura Bush asked the 435 members of Congress “to pick artists to decorate ornaments for the White House tree to showcase all 435 congressional districts.” The ornaments were used to decorate trees on the White House lawn.

Rep. Jim McDermott’s office picked a Seattle artist who is “anti-Iraq war, anti-torture, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-feminism, pro-diversity and pro-spreading-the-wealth” and she designed an ornament that included the phrase “Impeach Bush.” Mrs. Bush decided not to display the ornament — the only one not included — but she nevertheless invited the designer to attend a White House party for the artists. To his credit, Rep. McDermott supported Mrs. Bush’s decision.

I wonder who made the decisions about the Obama ornaments. It seems to be something that is traditionally within the First Lady’s ambit, but Michelle Obama may have delegated this to her staff and/or the designer. Normally I wouldn’t care but given the Obama Administration’s repeated social mistakes in gift-giving and guest management, it would be interesting to learn who was in charge.

— DRJ

25 Responses to “The White House Christmas Tree Ornaments”

  1. it would be interesting to learn who is in charge.

    Children. Selfish, irresponsible children.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  2. Michelle Obama’s sour feelings about America were fully aired during the campaign. That means we can find her behavior repugnant but we can no longer find it surprising.

    Kevin Stafford (abdb87)

  3. Why, how can you say that, EW? Isn’t it SO much better not to have an ignorant cowboy who constantly makes gaffes, is autocratic, and has issues with “tone” and bipartisanship?

    Hope and Change!

    We hope for a change in ’10!

    Eric Blair (ddbceb)

  4. Is this the first time she is proud of her Christmas Holiday Tree?

    Audacity (2fd5ad)

  5. * Christmas was supposed to be striked out in my previous comment.

    Audacity (2fd5ad)

  6. Yet another foreign diplomacy blunder. Don’t these people know that Mao didn’t celebrate Christmas!!

    Political hero and inspiration for members of this administration and all, perhaps, but celebrate Christmas? Not any more than Bo Jackson could play hockey.

    MD in Philly (d4668b)

  7. Audacity- when you mark something for strike out, you actually have to add the “trike” after the “s” in the shorthand marks.

    I needed help figuring it out once also.

    MD in Philly (d4668b)

  8. Ok, they didn’t know there were ornaments with MAO on them? They didn’t know about Van Jones past speeches… Obama didn’t know if Reverend Wright’s radical, racist views (even though he spent two decades listening to his rants)…

    How many times do they think they can go to the “we didn’t know” well?

    JHTRazor (a1f2bc)

  9. JHT, for being a brilliant man, President Obama sure doesn’t seem to know much…

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  10. With all do respect to BigGovernment, the first question I would ask is:

    Are the images of the ornaments real?

    Since someone as obscure as “Hedda Lettuce” is on them, that indicates to me that they are, but I still reserve judgment.

    If they are real, I would have to ask — sincerely — if the White House employs any grown-ups?

    Again, my judgment says it does, but my heart has a sinking feeling.

    And to bring nincompoopiness to a whole new level, check this out.

    Here’s the company response.

    Ag80 (525921)

  11. FWIW, cameras used in Oprah Winfrey’s visit to the White House showed a brief shot of an Xmas ornament that had an image of Obama morphed into looking like Abraham Lincoln.

    A lot of chutzpah, ego, hubris and idiocy, all rolled into one.

    Mark (411533)

  12. Gotta say, with all the narcissism tied to this Obama winter solstice tree, perhaps the worst tree was the Clinton orgy-decoration tree.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  13. Proof positive that arrogance and stupidity go hand in hand. The biggest mass murderer IN HISTORY! And his likeness is on an ornament hanging from the WH tree. It will be interesting to see if any lefties crawl out of the woodwork to defend this latest display of total cluelessness.

    Icy Texan (2c17c8)

  14. How many times do they think they can go to the “we didn’t know” well? Comment by JHTRazor

    Apparently as long as it works; it already has about 2 years longer than sense dictates it would.

    MD in Philly (d4668b)

  15. Joining Obama on Mount Rushmore are Stalin, Mao and Castro.

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  16. I would say if anything this reflects on the newbie management more than anything else. Obama’s team should have been smart enough to watch out for this sort of thing. i mean, i don’t think Obama or his team sat down and said, “gee, let’s have mao ornaments on our tree.” i think that they just were asleep at the wheel so they let this idiot create an issue where otherwise there wouldn’t be one. i will say that obama will never intentionally say a good word about mao if he thinks anyone is listening. whether he actually admires mao is a separate subject.

    So this is just another example of the ineptitude of this administration.

    But trust them, they can run your healthcare with no problem!

    A.W. (e7d72e)

  17. This is but another ploy to keep the right incensed and focused on things most Americans believe can’t be true. How can anyone in their right mind believe they would have an ornament of Mao? Surely the right wing nuts are crazy – and thus all arguments about socialism et al must therefore be crazy. Most are still unwilling to face the facts. Honestly, could anyone have believed just a few years ago that we would have such an administration today?

    Corwin (ea9428)

  18. Mao sightings are becoming the newest “Where’s Waldo?”

    Why do I think there’s a whole lot of backroom snickering going on?

    em (11cf60)

  19. And in parts of California, there’s a ban on angels and stars appearing on Christmas decorations in county buildings. We are doomed.

    Old Coot (d2bd0f)

  20. No class trash will do things like that.

    Mike Myers (3c9845)

  21. I would say if anything this reflects on the newbie management more than anything else. Obama’s team should have been smart enough to watch out for this sort of thing.

    It seems to be something that is traditionally within the First Lady’s ambit, but Michelle Obama may have delegated this to her staff and/or the designer. Normally I wouldn’t care but given the Obama Administration’s repeated social mistakes in gift-giving and guest management, it would be interesting to learn who was in charge.

    Why does anyone assume that Mrs. Obama didn’t willfully approve of the ornaments? I don’t have any problem believing that all three would have freely been approved by her because *she* herself wouldn’t see any reason to object.

    The left excels in romanticizing the most horrible political figures (see: Che, Chavez, Castro, Mao).

    The left are live-and-let-live re sexuality.

    And certainly, she would probably think the Mt. Rushmore/Obama ornament a cute joke while secretly resenting it that her husband hadn’t yet been added to the illustrious four who make up the granite sculpture.

    Dana (f64b7d)

  22. Laura Bush was a wonderful, and much underappreciated, First Lady.

    Beldar (ed59c2)

  23. Just another thing that needs to be asked of White House social secretary Desiree Rogers.

    AD - RtR/OS! (a9bf4b)

  24. Laura Bush was a wonderful, and much underappreciated, First Lady.

    Comment by Beldar — 12/23/2009 @ 10:19 am

    +1000

    no one you know (196ed7)

  25. why have the pictures of the ornaments hit the internet??

    chris (473b90)


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