Am I the only person in America that blinked when I read, "President Obama toasted a growing U.S. friendship with India at the first state dinner of his administration Tuesday, an evening of regal pageantry and symbolic politics in a tent on the White House South Lawn."
A tent? Really? The Obama family set up a tent on the White House lawn and had 'em a shindig? Frantic googling soon provided me with this:
which was only somewhat reassuring. I mean, it's really not a tent, is it? It's really more of a barn.
I want to know - did they put porta-potties on the South Lawn too?
That tent might be big, but apparently not quite big enough. Hillary Clinton was invited, but her husband wasn't. John Kerry's wife was also omitted from the list. Come on! If you've got your wife walking around baring arms, it's pretty easy to understand leaving Bill out in the cold might be a wise choice. But seriously - how can you have a good party without Teresa Heinz Kerry in attendance?
I wondered if the menu would include beef, (ok - I HOPED the menu would include beef) but it didn't. In fact, other than prawns, it included no protein. It did include a multitude of typographical errors though, proving that making the world feel good is more important than appearing educated for this administration.
One of the items listed was a "Pumpkin pie tart." So, which was it? A pie or a tart?
It also included "White House Arugula with Onion Seed Vinaigrette." Fresh arugula in November? Really? Uh - how long does fancy lettuce keep? And they grew enough to create 300 - 400 salads? Exactly how big is that White House garden? Are they creating jobs by paying people $50 an hour to pick lettuce there?
(What I didn't see were media criticisms of such extravagance in the midst of a recession. Something they didn't hesitate to attack when President Bush held his first state dinner in 2001. Imagine that.)
ETA: From the comments: On
the politically incorrect side, perhaps the problem was that the
President wanted to pretend he was re-enacting the first
Thanksgiving--you know, sitting down to dinner with the Indians, and
all....
