It should have been Bill Clinton who brought more informality to the White House during his eight years, but credit here has to go to George W. Bush. Clinton seems to have moved everywhere with a coffee mug indoors and a to-go cup away from home. President Bush is shown increasingly without a necktie.<\/p>\n
Also, other world leaders are going around with open collars, except for the most formal sessions. Even Russia’s Vladimir Putin. There’s the two top dudes of the world Friday, according to Yahoo and Google, in sportcoats and open dress shirts.<\/p>\n
I am not persuaded that they take their jobs less seriously. Baring throats probably is good, psychologically. Still there is something to be said for the effect of these folks wearing what in essence is a uniform. Who is in charge? You are, sir, with the just-shined shoes, black socks, necktie and dark wool suit.<\/p>\n
It should have been Clinton, though, with his easy-going Southernness, to have dropped the tie, not the prep-school Texan Bush. Why did Clinton wear a tie essentially every day he conducted official business as the Chief Executive?<\/p>\n
So he’d have something to hang on the doorknob of the Oval Office? -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It should have been Bill Clinton who brought more informality to the White House during his eight years, but credit here has to go to George W. Bush. Clinton seems to have moved everywhere with a coffee mug indoors and a to-go cup away from home. President Bush is shown increasingly without a necktie. Also, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/11\/calculus-build-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":0},"title":"Calculus Build Up","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Where do \"they\" come up with these numbers. The following made headlines just over a month ago, but something over the weekend brought it back to mind. This time I thought about it. There is a fact here, but the percentage is bunkum. If I'm missing the point, please, someone,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/01\/we-all-scream\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":1},"title":"We all scream","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Jan. 23, 2004. I like Howard Dean. I didn't care one way or the other before the night of the Iowa caucuses and that speech of his, Jan. 20. Now I don't know if he should be elected president or even the Democratic nominee;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/an-endorsement-iowa\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":2},"title":"An Endorsement, Iowa","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Iowa: I know you a little. I've been visiting almost every year since 1991. You house my in-laws. A lot in common with Arkansas: Mainly rural. Your shape. A prominent capital city instead of a tucked-away one like Jeff City or Austin (that's a little joke). You held on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/11\/a-long-night-just-ended\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":3},"title":"A long night just ended","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004. It is, absurdly, nearly 3 in the morning. My newsroom did not bring in boxes and boxes of mediocre pizza but decent barbecue for the Election Night crew. Unfortunately, I don't eat meat, so the slaw and beans kept me going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":387,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/benazir-campaigns-in-fayetteville\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":4},"title":"Benazir Campaigns in Fayetteville","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The week of October 21, 2002, was extraordinary in Fayetteville. This is a vibrant college town so prominent lecturers shouldn't be that unusual but to have three in a week was special. Bill Clinton coming up was not unusual; he's probably here about once a year. On Monday the 21st,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/08\/kerrys-gonna-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":204,"position":5},"title":"Kerry’s gonna win","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Aug. 6, 2004: After conducting all the research that's necessary -- licked my right index finger and held it up -- I finally can make a prediction on the presidential race: Kerry will win in a landslide. I know the polls still show neck-and-neck,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}