January 21st, 2009
08:18 PM ET
9 years ago
A major Bush rule gets scrapped by Obama
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/01/21/art.ovaloffice.cnn.jpg caption="What’s missing in this picture?"] (CNN) - It's the same Oval Office. The same desk. Even the same curtains. But President Obama has already made one major change: Go through eight years of White House photos, and you won't find one of former President Bush in the Oval Office without his jacket on.
It wasn't just a personal preference. In the Bush administration, it was a rule: Jackets in the Oval Office - and now, it seems, one of the first Bush-era regulations to get scrapped in the Obama White House.
- CNN's John King contributed to this report
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Maybe that's because the Obama White House plans to do more than look pretty in photo-ops. Maybe they plan to roll up their collective shirt sleeves and get some real work done!!!
Let's get to work!
how ironic, the empty suit gets replaced by a man who doesn't need one
It only took one day for the racist epithets and slurs to be hurled at our new President (KFC chicken buckets, Bling, sweats & baseball caps, etc). For those like Dick C, Jeanne, and Aussievick who are content to call for "respect for the Oval Office" in Obama's dress, while HYPOCRITICALLY deriding the new occupant of said office, TSK TSK TSK. Let this intelligent, articulate, educated, thirty-something black female encourage you to pick up a dictionary & expand your minds rather than belittle those who have already done so.
President Obama can wear a Barney the Dinosaur suit & still exhibit a level of professionalism and personal respect for his job as Commander in Chief than our former President Bush did on his best-dressed day. History will bear me out on this one.
How can the President get anything done if he cannot even "ROLL UP HIS SLEEVES", hello America he is ready to work.
Bill Comeau
South Chatham, MA
"Barack is no Ronald Reagan"
Thank God!
People who keep bashing him on what he wears need to stop it. It's silly really. What do you guys want for him to put on a coattail jacket, a Lincoln top hat, and grow a bear so he looks more presidential? We all knew he thinks different than those in politics in America and that is the reason why we elected him. Judge him not by what he wears but rather by the actions he takes in office.
I don't care if the man shows up to his office wearing his favorite sweats. If he does the job, does it with integrity and with the nations interests as a whole at heart, then what he wears in the office is moot.
Now if he shows up like that at a dinner with diplomats and heads of state and national leaders – that's a foul.
Maybe he didn't even think about it...... Took the coat off and went to work. I do it every morning.
Wearing a jacket sure didn't help Bush do anything! Finally there is a President where you can see that he is obviously thinking, that his grey matter is working!
Its amazing how some people are offended by a man not wearing a jacket, and that others would take it so far as to INSULT our pres...Some of you really need to realize what happened and where we are going. Put those confederate flags away and pick up a book.
Is this the only newsworthy thing the Media has to report on? It's the man's first day on the job!! I wouldn't care if he went to work in HIS office in his Pj's and slippers. As long as he can do the job we elected him to do.
Thank God for term limits or who knows we might have been stuck with Bush for another 4 years.. Good riddance.
GO OBAMA!!
Hey Dick c – YOU ARE A RACIST AND IT SHOWS!!
Get a life little boy. All you other idiots, if the President doesn't want to not wearing a coat is – well NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. This is a man you should be thankful was willing to run for this office. After what Bush has done to this Country who in their right mind but someone VERY VERY INTELLIGENT would be smart enough to run and get elected. Time to give it up all you GOP losers
Bush always wore a jacket because he never broke a sweat looking out for real Americans...just let Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Gonzalez do all the dirty work....
Is "CNN" taking "TMZ's" gigs now, John King you should be ashame of yourself, you should go work for Paris Hilton....
What he needs is an ear piece!
This has been the problem with the right wing nutters for years, form over function … make it look good and you can convince the lemmings to follow. Reminds me of their supply side economics experiment; looks good on paper, they easily sold it to the mindless, but neglected to include the impacts of the greedy and corrupt.
Sorry, It’s time to get things done. On word Mr. President!!!!
Bush had to wear a jacket to cover up the radio receiver he wore, that Cheney used to tell Bush what to say.
Some of the comments here really amaze me. While the issue of jacket/no jacket is of absolutely no consequence (I agree with someone who commented that you men do not wear your jackets while working in your offices), some of you are just down right mean. Comments like "Here we go, oversized sweatpants and bling bling and a baseball cap" (boy, that wasn't racist at all, was it???), and "No surpise here. Like the Clintons, Obama has no respect for the office. Or its traditions. I just hope the country survives the next 4 years" are just ridiculous! Talk about no respect – the man's first day on the job, and you guys are already bashing him like there's no tomorrow.
What a bunch of small-minded dolts.
Abraham Lincoln used to upset Mary greatly by parading around the house and office in his shirtsleeves. She would get very upset when he received visitors without his jacket on.
Wearing a jacket in the Oval Office certainly didn't make Bush Jr any smarter, more honest or pragmatic. It didn't do anything about the spiralling deficit he created, it didn't change the tragedy of Katrina, it didn't stop the hundreds of thousands of job losses this country is suffering. The only thing it did is serve as a symbol of his presidency–create a perception of tidiness that hides the true nasty, corrupt machine that he and Cheney built.
I can feel my problems being solved with every article I read like this one.
Bush had his way and Obama has his! Some of you on here worry me with the fact that so-called "traditions" are more important than the work being accomplished.
But it takes ALL kinds in America, you all are evident of that!
The difference here is, Obama is actually working. Not setting up tee time in Texas. When you are actually WORKING the jacket gets in the way. Way to go Obama! Thanks for closing Guantanamo Bay on your first day! Good job.
Well, since formner President Bush proved that wearing a jacket had nothing to do with your ability to perform, bravo to President Obama...lose the jacket and run the country as it should be.
Dick
I can bet that if someone asked if you loved God, you will not hesitate to say yes. But the irony is.....you have not seen God before. Do not make disparaging statements that you will live to regret someday could be in on earth or a different dimension when before you creator.