Barack Obama no-show at top journalist society Gridiron Club event

Source: Daily Telegraph

The new president became the first since Grover Cleveland in 1885 to say no in his first year to the Gridiron Club in, an exclusive gathering of editors, columnists, and TV and newspaper executives.

Mr Obama attended in 2006 as a senator and made a speech that brought the house down. Last year President Bush regaled the audience with a ham version of “The Green, Green Grass of Home”.

The White House did not give a reason for Mr Obama’s decision, but it appears that his family holds more appeal. The event’s date is March 21, the start of the US spring break holiday, which he is due to spend with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland a mere 20 minutes away by helicopter.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5004006/Barack-Obama-no-show-at-top-journalist-society-Gridiron-Club-event.html

Do you like the way they put that, as if he could have taken "20 minutes" away from his family to spend time with at a the club event.

Paint everything negative.

they'd be screaming about how he's wasting taxpayer money by taking a helicopter ... and isn't he supposed to be working hard on trying to rescue this country???

the preening mincing rightwing kneepad media get's too much attention anyways.

Sorry, I was under the impression the profession vanished a decade ago.

longer than that. Maybe I just miss them so much that it seems longer.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20036.html

it`s really no big deal to the majority of the members...

“It’s a tradition of massaging the cooperating aspects of the relationship between the president and the press,” said presidential historian and political scientist Martha Joynt Kumar. “They are in a relationship in which each is tied to the other; neither can do its job without the other.”

Damn Politico has POPUPS every page!

I've been to a couple of the Gridiron March events. Quite the heavy-duty attendance.
It always opens with "Women are always present. Reporters are never present. And the
Gridiron may singe but it never burns."

I'm frankly amazed that Obama is passing on Gridiron his first year in office, but it's
his call--it's always the President's call.

"I think it would be helpful for him and his relations with the Washington establishment to come to the club."

This actually is hopeful. Questioning why people do things that have always been done simply because they have always been done is a good thing.

who still have the nasty smell of bush**/cheney ass on their lips.

story.

Example 1: Obama Chooses Daughters Over Gridiron Club

Example 2: Obama's Snub Stings Gridiroon Club.

It simply amazes me how, in the 21st century the government allows Rightwing Pravda press to keep on printing.

n/t

They would be blasting him for using a helo for a 20 minute run and wasting the tax payers dollars.

only slightly :sarcasm:

We are sick of washington insiders and the washington establishment. Sasha and Malia are way more important.

They have to hire somebody to write those funny lines and then play the comedian to a bunch of power-drunk flacks. Great decision.

It's all about the internet and late night talk shows. Newspapers are definitely a thing of the past--radio is the new newspaper.