So Much for Shared Sacrifice
Via Hot Air:
Last week, Barack Obama caused quite a stir when he allowed himself to be photographed in the Oval Office without wearing a suit jacket, ending the Bush tradition of coat-and-tie for the West Wing. The New York Times reports on how Obama made that possible during a colder-than-usual Washington winter. All Obama did was turn up the thermostat to Hawaii hothouse levels…
Of course, the comfort of Teh One is more important than his campaign rhetoric about conserving energy and lowering greenhouse gas levels. If Obama expects me not to keep my thermostat at 72 degrees year round, then he better put his damn jacket back on and lower his OWN thermostat.
PrivatePigg:
The One is not subject to the same restrictions as us mere mortals. We should just feel lucky and happy that he has agreed to lead us out of the wilderness.
30 January 2009, 12:11 pmDana Pico:
And there’s even more. To celebrate the passage of the porkulus package, President Obama had a par-tee!, complete with the most expensive steaks he could find.
Yeah, I know, he’s the president, and he gets what he wants. But as he’s telling us that he’s bailing out a woeful economy, and lamenting the big bonuses paid to some Wall Streeters, isn’t it a bit hypocritical to be doing this kind of thing?
You can be sure that had President Bush done this, our friends on the left would be up in arms.
30 January 2009, 12:33 pmJeff:
OK, OK, wait. I agree with you on the sentiment. But if that’s so objectionable, why did Republicans react to Carter’s sweater-wearing with such derision? If it’s a virtue to conserve energy, why lampoon those who conserve energy?
(my thermostat hasn’t been above 70 in months, for energy conservation but mainly because I can’t afford to keep it higher)
30 January 2009, 12:35 pmJeff:
Dana - they shoulda been pork chops.
30 January 2009, 12:35 pmSharon:
But if that’s so objectionable, why did Republicans react to Carter’s sweater-wearing with such derision? If it’s a virtue to conserve energy, why lampoon those who conserve energy?
What was lampooned was the idea that gas lines would go away if we just wore sweaters. Everybody was being hit hard by stagflation, and the president’s solution was for us to lower our thermostats.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to conserve energy. But when the POTUS acts as though your sweater is gonna mean the difference between dependence on foreign oil or not, that deserves mocking.
30 January 2009, 12:47 pmJeff:
I wasn’t alive then, but I doubt Carter thought that the entire energy crisis could be solved by turning down the thermostat. But it’s clearly a part of the solution. There’s not a whole lot you or I can do about boosting production or investigating new technologies, but everyone can conserve. Politicians should act on the first two, but we don’t have to wait for that to happen to start conserving. That’s the point, and I think that’s what goes missing when people make fun of Carter for wearing a sweater or Obama for brandishing a tire gauge. And that’s the message that, sadly, gets undermined when Pelosi or McConnell drives to a gas station a couple of blocks away, or when Obama cranks the thermostat in January.
30 January 2009, 3:12 pmPrivatePigg:
And Daschle and Geithner, two Cabinet nominations, didn’t bother paying taxes.
Everyone else must sacrifice, apparently.
30 January 2009, 10:29 pmDana Pico:
Our thermostat is set for about 66º F, but that’s because it’s an old house and if it’s 66º downstairs, it’s 76º upstairs!
I have no problem with President Obama setting the White House thermostat to 102º, as long as he’s not lecturing us to conserve, as long as he’s not going to impose carbon emission controls which will make things more expensive for us commoners.
31 January 2009, 6:15 amJohnC.:
Right on. The problem with todays conservationists is they are liberals not conservatives. They want to “impose” all kinds of rules on everyone else and as usual, seem to think they are exempt from said rules. That’s how Algore lost all credability. You just can’t live in a home which consumes more energy in a month than ten average homes do in a year, fly all over in a private jet and ride in ten car motorcades of SUV’s and preach conservation. It’s the glaring hypocracy that kills me.
31 January 2009, 8:20 amSharon:
Typically, my thermostat is 72 in winter, 78 in summer. We periodically try lowering it to 68 in winter, but everybody complains so much that within a month, we are back to 72. To be honest, I don’t worry too much about people’s use of heating in the winter because I use my AC in the summer and I’m not about to give that up.
Remember the thermostats California wanted to install in homes? They were tied to the power grid, so the government could decide how high or low your heat/AC could be. I don’t want govt telling me what lvl of comfort I get to have. Period.
31 January 2009, 8:24 am