Um…really? Are you outraged cause I didn’t even know.
Outraged American taxpayers are demanding the former Australian prime minister book a hotel or stay at the Australian embassy.
The story is also a hot topic on US radio and TV talk shows.
I’ve been listening to talk radio all morning and I didn’t hear about it. Maybe they need to rewrite that sentence and this way: “The outraged American MSM are demanding…”
“Let the former prime minister John Howard stay at the Hay-Adams,” Jeffrey Toobin, the senior political analyst for US news TV network CNN, said in a discussion on the topic on Wednesday.
Poor Obama, forced to slum in the Hay-Adams! Sorry but I don’t think it’s worth the outrage and those who are miffed, might want to check out the link to get a look at where Obama is forced to stay.
And btw, how rude would it be kicking Howard to the curb? Wouldn’t Obama come off looking like a prima donna jerk for being a part of forcing the former head of state of an ally to lose his lodging after we invited him to our country?
posted January 8, 2009 at 4:36 pm
It is traditional for the President Elect and family to stay at Blair House. The incumbent knows this. Although the snub is minor, it is nonetheless a snub. It is not an overreaction to point out or decry the insult. Evidently, we want to pretend there is no insult.
posted January 8, 2009 at 5:12 pm
um.. u haven’t heard about it.. seriously? who cares YOU havent heard about it?? who are u anyway..?
Howard is booked to stay at the house on Jan 12th. he is not even IN the house yet. thus, considering the long-standing tradition, it is logical that Bush could have canceled and apologized. I’m sure he would have understood.
it is a very cheap move by Bush, but not that surprising
posted January 8, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Typical petty John Howard, you know Bush is just doing it to rile Obama or at the very least to inconvience him and his family. Howard is Bush’s lap dog and will be viewed in history alongside the most unpopular president in US history, surely the incoming president is more important than some has been who never really was anything bar a stodge of bush and a right wing reactionary.
Good riddance to them both!!!
posted January 8, 2009 at 7:02 pm
He’s the flipping PRIME MINISTER of an allied country. Obama is a Junior senator. Sorry, lefty attack hamsters, PM trumps junior senator.
posted January 8, 2009 at 7:55 pm
We need a fact check here: The president-elect moves into the Blair house on January 15. That is a long-standing protocol, easily found by those who care to check. I’m no Bush fan, but in this case he has done nothing wrong. Obama, by asking to move in early, however, did breach protocol.
posted January 8, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Is ZZ have a laugh at his own expense?
As far as I’m concerned, being a college student in Australia, the current Aussie PM is not John Howard but Kevin Rudd. Barack Obama is also not the junior Senator from Illinois, but President-elect.
So in terms of ranking, who trumps who? Even Blair didn’t want to upstage Barack Obama and decided to stay at the British embassy..as with President Uribe of Colombia.
So what’s up with your reasoning, anyway, ZZ?
posted January 9, 2009 at 1:52 am
RhodaGayle,
What long standing protocol are you talking about? I’ve done my fact checking: GW moved into Blair House on the 15th of Jan, true, but Clinton was using Blair house from Dec 7, HW Bush did not use Blair house at all (he had the VP residence), Reagan moved in Jan 1. Carter was also there in December (children starting school and all that).
posted January 9, 2009 at 8:52 am
So what’s up with your reasoning, anyway, ZZ?
What reasoning? The fact that he referred to Obama as the junior Senator from Illinois rather than the President-elect should tell you all you need to know. He still can’t admit that Obama won the election.
posted January 9, 2009 at 5:36 pm
This is pretty sick. Last I heard, Blair House has 119 rooms, 70,000 square feet and 35 bathrooms. To say that one Australian citizen with no entourage staying for one night “books” the place is a bald-faced lie.
The Obama family, meanwhile, has two little girls who probably don’t want to move twice. Pure, pointless meanness to tell them that they can’t start school from Blair House (which, by the way, is secure at no extra cost to the taxpayer, as opposed to the hotel, which costs us plenty).
posted January 12, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Where’s the religious angle to this latest swing-and-miss?
Isn’t this BeliefNet? Or is it LameRantNet?