It is being called “Semper Latte” and, if this is the biggest scandal that President Barack Obama has to worry about, his Administration is safe. Various people are denouncing the President for saluting his Marine guard while holding a cup of tea or coffee. From CNN to the Daily Mail to ABC to the New York Daily News to the Washington Post to the New York Post to NBC to CBS to countless others, the salute is generating heated comments across the country. YouTube clips show the salute over and over along with multiple postings expressing outrage. My reaction is a bit different. The President has launched another declared war that his aides say could last “years.” However, there seem more debate over this tempest in a tea [cup] than the fact that we are bombing another nation.
The President did not put his styrofoam cup in his other hand while stepping out of Marine One — a breach of military regulations and decorum. He appears to have forgotten the salute as he multitasked with his cup while buttoning his jacket.
What truly amazes me is that the White House released the photo. No one saw the problem and actually viewed the picture as worthy of sending out on the web.
However, it is the relative attention given the issue that is mystifying. Many irate people over the salute are less aggrieved by the war just commenced on the sole authority of this President. Just as there is an appropriate way to salute a Marine, there is an appropriate way to send a Marine to war. The Constitution is quite clear about starting wars and there is far more at stake. We should be at least as aggrieved when our Constitution is being disrespected or ignored as we are the Marine guard this week. Just a thought.
Pete.
Absolutely correct. It was Reagan who started the tradition of Presidents returning salutes. Before Reagan, it was not done.
There was an incident (trying to recall from memory), where the Secretary of the Navy was touring a base. If memory serves correctly, it was John Lehman, a former Naval aviator himself. He was wearing his old G-1 goatskin flight jacket when he visited the base. He was informed by a sentry that leather flight jackets were forbidden wear except on the flight line. The guard informed the Secretary he would have to take it off.
Somebody in the chain of command had apparently decided it was bad for morale, that aviators were wearing their leather flight jackets away from the flight line, and non-aviators didn’t have the nice leather jackets.
Guess what rule was changed in short order?
pete9999: “Commander in chief can salute any damn well he pleases.”
No, he can’t. With his rank, the President’s salute can be perfunctory and loose, maybe even sloppy, but it at least has to conform to the minimum form. It would have been better if he had not saluted at all.
pete9999: “E-4’s in dress blues in the same building as flag officers in desert camo is a hoot though.”
Different units.
Heading to AF1 after a visit to U.S. cannon fodder in S. Vietnam, LBJ was told he was walking towards the wrong plane. “That’s not your plane, Mr. President”. LBJ turned to the young soldier and said: “They’re ALL my planes, son”.
Commander in chief can salute any damn well he pleases.
E-4’s in dress blues in the same building as flag officers in desert camo is a hoot though.
Washington Gripped by Madness: When War Is Not War, Combat Is Not Combat, and Boots Are Never on the Ground
“If it bleeds, it leads” is no longer what guides media companies. They are in the business of selling eyeballs. They do lots of market research to understand what people want to watch/read, so they can sell those eyeballs to advertisers. They’ve decided mostly irrelevant frivolous triviality is what we want.
I watched the movie “Network” for the first time on TCM a few nights ago. Made in 1976. How prescient.
It’s no wonder, and probably no accident, that only 36% of the population can name the three branches of government. The dumber and less informed we are, the easier it is to pacify us with “bread and circuses”.
So now we are to excuse the Commander-in-Chief’s disrespect for the troops he has just signaled will soon be in combat. This man’s arrogance is beyond contemptible.
“Various people are denouncing the President for saluting his Marine guard while holding a cup of tea or coffee. From CNN to the Daily Mail to ABC to the New York Daily News to the Washington Post to the New York Post to NBC to CBS to countless others”
And now you can add J.T. to the list. I always find it humorous when someone complains about the attention something gets by giving that very thing attention. Bill O’Reilly does this all the time. J.T. if you really felt that the story was not worth telling, why tell it?
But if you’re pandering to the Faux news… You’re doing your job….
Oh yeah, really big news… I am SMH….. The things you pick to attack Obama is usually good, this is ridiculous. I usually come out for the underdog…. And I am not an Obama supporter but there is Better use of the blog space…
And perhaps many of those yelling the loudest about the sippy cup salute are also the ones that want the most bomb dropped.
Dropping bombs on a foreign country is an act of war. It boggles the mind that anyone can think otherwise.
Militarism is the state religion of the U.S. and only apostates question war. Semper Latte is blasphemy.
http://Www.theintercept.org
The press has vast First Amendment privileges to protect us from tyranny. This is their focus, not the CONTINUAL lawlessness and incompetence of this WH. Feeling safe w/ these idiots as our Guardians. Drudge, Enquirer and TMZ break hard news and the august MSM obsesses on this.
If Congress did it’s job then maybe Obama wouldn’t have so much power? Ya think? You have a GOP House, after all, that goes on another 7 week vacation after just returning from a 6 week stint at the beach. They will have worked a total of eight days in the span of 102. There is nothing more important to GOP House and Speaker Boehner (who had the gall to call the unemployed lazy) than fear mongering to get reelected. GOP House ignores Ebola crisis, Syrian bombings, stagnant economy (except for those at the top, of where Congress resides), immigration reform and a multitude of other important issues and focuses its screeching on ‘Obama is a socialist dictator!!!’ While the democrats may have their dysfunction in the senate, it is nothing compared to the complete legislative breakdown in the do-nothing, ineffectual GOP House.
While that photo of Obama indicates either clueless or clumsy behavior, I think it’s trivial compared to the the big picture. Yet the right will grab on to any branch to call Obama disrespectful and un-American while abdicating their own responsibilities. I don’t think the right can focus on anything more than a simple picture that they can interpret in the most simplistic and disparaging way possible.
Ross,
Honest question since I wasn’t alive during the Vietnam War… how many Americans knew the difference between North Vietnam soldiers and the Viet Cong guerrillas?
How many Americans these days can tell the difference between branches of Christianity in this country?
The US is not bombing another country against its will. Assad is quite happy to let the US kill off those who are trying to kill him, and Assad and his party are STILL the legally recognized government of Syria. Until that changes, you have no leg to stand on in objecting to the current bombing campaign. Think that Wilson acted unconstitutionally when he sent Gen. Pershing after Pancho Villa? The list of the application of military force in our history without a formal declaration of war are too numerous to list here and thus your objections are basically moot.
The flap about the cup is just as silly.
Bring back the military draft and Americans will pay better attention. If they had to send their own loved ones into harm’s way they wouldn’t be so gung-ho to start wars without approval from Congress.
If you polled most Americans they probably couldn’t tell you the difference between a Sunni, Shiite or Alawhite – after the longest wars in American history. If it were their child, spouse or neighbor serving they would pay attention.
The Vietnam War would have continued for many more years and likely thousands of additional casualties without the draft.
It’s a fitting metaphor for a President who has shown little concern for day to day operations of the Government, or for engaging on topics that don’t have immediate political gain.
As far as a chief executive officer of the Federal Government, he’s been on a coffee break for his entire term in office.
The extermination of the rottenest atrocity committing gang of thugs in the world requires getting it done rather than fiddling with the congressional obstruction symphony.