I don’t know about that. It seems to me that the “carbon footprint” of pizzas made in the White House kitchen by the White House chef using locally available ingredients is certainly lower than that of pizzas made by a guy flown in from halfway across the country (carrying sauce and dough, based on what I’ve read), irrespective of whether or not the guy flew on a commercial jet or Air Force One.

I think the real questions are (1) why, if the pizzas are for his staffers (which is what I’ve read), the pizza needed to be the special pizza that Obama loves so much and (2) what accomplishment the White House staff has achieved that warrants a staff party three months into the administration’s tenure. In my experience, well-run organizations save staff parties for times when the staff have accomplished something, particularly in tough economic times.

The fact of the matter is that if “pizza-gate” were about a unit at AIG, the media would be up in arms about conspicuous consumption.

“Oh my, not since Jackie O.”-blah, blah, blah.

Remember the outraged cries over the RNC wardrobing Sara Palin so that she could go out and campaign?

Freaking hypocrites.

Liberals are very big on symbolic gestures (see, e.g., an hour with lights off to fight “global warming,” and just about any demonstration), but curiously don’t seem to grasp that ostentatious displays of wealth by the President – especially in times of economic hardship for many – look bad symbolically.

It’s not as if Bill Gates were doing this; it’s the President. Not the same thing at all, even if the taxpayers weren’t on the hook for a dime.

Kudos also to SteveH, who succinctly summed up the syndrome, and with deadly accuracy.

I say:
This guy won’t be in business much longer if he’s wasting his business resources on carbon credits. This is like like buying indulgences to reduce time in purgatory. Oh wait, that didn’t turn out so well either!

Sometimes, I feel as if I’m in some kind of a weird, hallucinatory nightmare from which I cannot awaken; wondering if it’s being scripted by Monty Python or Stephen King.

Perhaps they collaborate.

–

And all that gives the appearance of double standards makes perfect sense.

Why? Well, lets take what the Big-O says himself about things like Nuclear weapons. We have to disarm ourselves first before we ask others too – that is only fair and without that moral authority we can not do it. Many of us say that this reduces our ability to defend ourselves too much, Obama agrees but says moral authority is required and our disarming will cause the rest to also. We also see that in carbon emissions, energy policy, health care policy, fiscal policy, and pretty much anything we can think of.

Ok, great – lets say we agree that moral authority is required (I do not, but he and many of his supporters obviously do too). Now, he is also asking us to forgoe things like personal utilities (both voluntary and through his proposed taxes), he is telling us to forgoe many things. And then what does he do? Not only drops that whole moral authority thing (when it personally affects him) but goes 100% whole hog into the Rich White Mans arena with personal gains. No moral authority there when it is *him* giving.

Had he not been so pretentious about groups he dislikes doing exactly that, had he not been so pretentious telling us we must make great sacrifices, had he not been so pretentious about moral authority when it helps his agenda but doesn’t hurt his I would accept that it is irrelevant (even had he actually flown the guy in – it’s not unkown for Presidents to do such a thing).

I also suspect that it wouldn’t bother him to go from said luncheon to give an address telling us to sacrifice and announcing a govt tax program forcing us too – indeed he is in the midst of doing said luncheon in the middle of trying to force several through congress.

Obviously he doesn’t really believe what he says he does as he violates it any time it would be personally rewarding too yet he tsks any of us who do the same. Some people seem to like that, others not so much. To some that type of dishonesty is preferred to Bush’s honesty even though in all the complaints about Bush the reality of Obama has been MUCH worse. I’ll take someone who talks and acts 50% of what I want over someone that talks 90% and acts 10% of what I want – but then that seems to be what makes me a conservative over a liberal/leftist.