Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
A few friends of mine are fighting over this story from SBNation:
President Barack Obama will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday – but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won't be there.
NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers – Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart – will not be attending the White House visit due to "schedule conflicts."
They must be very busy people. Regardless of one's political views, the president is still the president – and an opportunity to speak with the leader of the free world is a rare and special one.
Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth will attend.
One of my friends says that you drop everything when the president calls. You make time for him. Another says this is still a free country. It's not like the king has summoned a subject.
All else being equal, I think it would be nice if Americans could go to a Bush or Obama White House without making political statements about it. As far as I know, they really do have scheduling conflicts. It's not like they released an angry statement to the Huffington Post in the same way every leftist being honored by the previous White House occupant or his wife did.
But what do you think? I would definitely accept any and all invites to the White House. When else would I get to tell the President exactly what I think of his policies?
- Comment (48)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
For guys who make left turns all day, this is surprising.
Thank you! I'll be here all week, try the veal.
Jul '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
It depends on how much lead time he gave them. If this was announced on short notice, they may have contractual obligations keeping them away. If it were me, I wouldn't go, but would politely decline without making a stink about it. I'd be tempted to call him a name that violates the Ricochet Code of Conduct.
Jan '11
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
The POTUS invites you to the White House to congratulate you in your area of expertise - you either except or you don't. It is your choice. I don't care.
I love football - I don't care which of Steelers went to the White House or not. Sports is sports. If the POTUS decides he has enough time to recognize athletes for their accomplishments, I think we should focus on the POTUS, and not on the athelets - I think they can judge how much time their time is worth by themselves.
Aug '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
Let's see...what could they possibly be doing?
Working on the balance of the car before a major race. Stewart, Biffle, and Kurt Busch are not guaranteed Chase spots and might need the extra time to prepare the cars.
Meeting with Sponsors who fund them.
Testing a new aero package? Doing laps to examine tire wear?
NASCAR schedules, like Formula 1 schedules, are insane. They have very little real time off from the sport.
Jun '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
Did you see how awkward B.O. was with the Packers and esp. Aaron Rodgers?...
Can you imagine how awkward he would be with a bunch of NASCAR drivers!?
Although, my respect for Carl Edwards continues to rise. Is it possible for Ricochet to sponsor a car next year? That R> would look great on a hood in the winner's circle.
Jan '11
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
I'm not a big fan of Obama, that's obvious. I'm also not a president-worshiper, no matter who the president is.
But unless there was something really big going on at the same time, I'd accept the invitation. The head of state, speaking for the country as a whole, is trying to recognize achievement. That's a high compliment, and an honor. I'd go, out of respect for the country if nothing else.
While there, I wouldn't take the chance to offer my ideas to the president about jobs. I wouldn't stage a protest about my favorite cause. I'd say thank you, smile, get a picture, and go home.
If the drivers want to go or not go, that's up to them. I'd go.
Jun '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
An invitation comes along with an R.S.V.P. and no is one of two acceptable R's. What I find distressing is the advance of ill-breeding and bad manners as demonstrated in the very public rejections on the Huffington Post. You can politically disagree, you can even vehemently disagree in public with the President over political issues, but when the president extends his hospitality and you do not want to accept it for political reasons, at least have the good grace to deny that hospitality without showing your own ill-manners. It all started when we stopped saying please and thank you.
Jun '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
What you are saying is you would prostitute an honour. If I were advising you, KC, I would advise against such promiscuous attempts at influence peddling, if for no other reason than they almost never work.
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
Nathaniel Wright: Let's see...what could they possibly be doing?
Working on the balance of the car before a major race. Stewart, Biffle, and Kurt Busch are not guaranteed Chase spots and might need the extra time to prepare the cars.
Meeting with Sponsors who fund them.
Testing a new aero package? Doing laps to examine tire wear?
NASCAR schedules, like Formula 1 schedules, are insane. They have very little real time off from the sport. · Sep 1 at 9:15pm
I'd also read that these guys had accepted previous invites to the WH, lending credence to their claims of scheduling conflicts.
I do remember wondering if John Elway wasn't saying something by not going to the White House when the Broncos won the Superbowl during the Clinton era.
Oct '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
As one hails from some distant past when such an invite was a command performance, simply accept and pay respect to the office.
If one has an ear at the event, then express some polite solutions.
That was the Rule of Thumb at some time.
Something about using honey rather than vinegar seems lost when making a gesture. Must be getting too old for this foolishness seen today.
Jul '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
No. I was honored to be a guest of the Nixon White House, warts and all. This Regime has crossed a line.
May '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
KC Mulville:
The head of state, speaking for the country as a whole, is trying to recognize achievement.
Nonsense. This is about electoral politics. The President is trying to appeal to voters who are as foreign to him as Mongolians. There's no honor in being used as a political pawn.
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
One of my friends says that you drop everything when the president calls. You make time for him. Another says this is still a free country. It's not like the king has summoned a subject.
There's some truth in both positions.
On the one hand, none of us should eagerly spurn the political leader of our nation, no matter how vile or pathetic the person in office might be. On the other hand, this is a nation in which every man is "king of his own castle." The President is properly understood as a public servant.
Honestly, I'm having trouble reconciling the two positions.
In this particular situation, however, I believe President Obama is demeaning the office and, as a free citizen, would confidently reject his invitation.
Dec '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
I've raced with Carl, and though he is amiable enough when there's nothing in it for him, he can be a real jackass when things get tight.
Maybe the intervening years have tempered that part of his personality, but I wouldn't count on it.
Even at that, he's still twice the man that Jugears will ever be.
Dec '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
I have the utmost respect for the office of president, but nothing but contempt for the current occupant of that office. I would not go. I would not want to be one of his tools.
If I were a soldier, I would go, as he is my Commander-in-Chief, but I would not go gladly. Not with this phony. He is the only president whose invitation I would turn down.
Oct '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
So the invitation is to accept the congratulations of (a) the President; OR (b) the 'Office of the President'; OR (c) the nation by way of the President.
Certainly it is entirely consistent with a healthy republic to consider (a) no different from the congratulations of any other citizen.
I'm not really sure what (b) might mean, as distinct from (c) - some sort of respect owed to the combined wisdom and goodness of those who have and who might in future hold the same position? Respect for an item in a constitutional mosaic?
I have to say (c), while consistent with the ideology of a republican form of government, leaves me a bit queasy. I probably have to read more Locke. But this seems the case the honoree should take most seriously. But in a sane world, it is up to the honoree whether they wish to receive an honor. Either the congratulations of the nation is an awesome thing, in which case a modest person is quite entitled to decline; or it has become a cheap stunt (is it National Left-Handed Twins of Polish Descent Day yet?), in which case a tasteful person should decline.
Apr '11
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
When I lived in Chicago I read columnist Mike Royko. Royko
was a liberal but an old school, son-of-immigrants, Korean
war vet, up-by-your-bootstraps, work hard, make something of
yourself liberal. He'd probably be appalled to be called a
conservative but as a practical matter, in a lot of ways
he was quite conservative. He was cynical about the motives
of politicians (in Chicago it's difficult to not to be).
He thought that government should help poor people
but had little patience for people who weren't willing to
work hard. He savaged government officials that abused their
power.
He once wrote about some Chicago sports star
who politely declined to meet or take a phone call with some
politician, as I recall, Reagan or Bush-1, and the press
implied that this was disrespectful: "When the President calls
you have to answer."
Royko's take was that any time a politician appears with a
citizen he does it for his own benefit to improve his image
and the citizen is under no obligation to play along and be
used as a prop for the politician. Cynical? Yes. Wrong? Not really.
May '11
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
Seems to me that the visit is a bestowal of honor on the invitee. It has little to do with the President.
If the President were to invite them and then use that visit to claim that they supported him on his agenda or his communist philosophy, then they should decline the visit if they do not agree. But I don't think even this President has gone so far as to do that, and people should not take it as such. Were he to do so, then it would be proper, and quite easy, to denounce him and that would be far worse for the President than a race car driver.
To refuse the invitation from the President is rude unless there is truly something that cannot be avoided. You cancel plans for such an honor. There's no law against being rude, but we don't have to respect rude people, either.
Jun '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
I wouldn't feel compelled to go. He works for me. I don't work for him.
Oct '10
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
To go or not to go? It depends... And Aaron Miller has put his finger on the dilemma.
In this case, I would not accept, for BHO is so obviously using the NASCAR attendees as props.
Mar '11
Re: Should You Drop Everything When The President Calls?
No requirement to be a prop in some politician's photo-op; even if that politician happens to be the president of the United States.