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Tag: POTUS

  • Obama Latte Salute Outrages the Web [VIDEO]

    Obama Latte Salute Outrages the Web [VIDEO]

    President Barack Obama’s approval rating may take another dip after he committed a faux pas of epic proportions when he failed to put down his cup of coffee on Tuesday. The commander-in-chief was getting off the Marine One helicopter in New York when he saluted two Marines while holding a latte.

    Maybe suggesting that the Obama latte salute will hurt the POTUS’s approval rating seems to be a bit of a stretch, but not according to the fine folks on Facebook and Twitter. These people are pissed off and are letting the world know that what Obama did was completely disrespectful and that he isn’t worthy of his job.

    Okay, in all fairness, these same people offer up a different reason each day to explain why Obama isn’t fit to be the POTUS, but judging from the thousands and thousands of angry posts, the latte salute is apparently worse than Benghazi, Obamacare, and the IRS scandal combined.

    Without further ado, check out the video of the Obama latte salute that was posted to the White House’s Instagram account yesterday.

    Sorry if you were expecting something more dramatic. Obama was buttoning his jacket with one hand while holding a latte with the other when he greeted the Marines.

    Interestingly enough, Obama was criticized for failing to salute a soldier back in 2011. According to the Texas GOP site, Obama isn’t required to salute anyone at all:

    The answer is quite simple. The President of the United States is a civilian. He is not a member of the US Military and is therefore not entitled to salute. The military salute is a privilege earned by honorable service in the military. It is also a privilege that can be taken away. Military prisoners are stripped of the privilege of saluting. While the President is Constitutionally the CINC, he is not a member of the military.

    Basically, Obama is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. If he doesn’t salute, people are angry, and if he does salute, he’s criticized for how he did it. The POTUS has been called every name under the sun for the Obama latte salute. Check out a couple of the more outraged tweets below.

    Fortunately, some Twitter users weren’t too upset over the Obama latte salute and poked fun at the situation:

    So, what’s your take on the Obama latte salute? Are people making much ado about nothing, or did he seriously screw up? Add your comments below.

    Image via Instagram

  • Google Election & Politics Helps Informed Voters Stay Informed

    The U.S. presidential election cycle used to be like a regulated yet exhilarating amusement park ride that you could count on starting and stopping at certain times. Think of the Scrambler: dizzying in experience yet timed to end at a reliable time. Now, with the ubiquity of the 24-hour news cycle and the hordes of blogs and other commentators, the teeth have been stripped off the gears that regulate the speed of the news cycle to the point that not only can you never get off this ride but it just keeps going faster and faster. Barf bags not included.

    Due to the breakneck recycle speed of the political news cycle, trying to stay informed on what’s happening in the world of politics can be nauseating. You’re probably always going to be me missing something somewhere. However aggregating your own collection of news sources doesn’t have to be so stupefying since Google has made it a little easier for voters and otherwise interested parties to attempt to stay abreast of the latest news concerning topics, candidates, and election results. Google Politics & Elections, a new wing of the Google News service, collects articles covering breaking stories related to politics in the United States. With the service, readers can isolate topics to certain candidates (right now it’s a bunch of Republican primary candidates and the current POTUS, Barack Obama) as well as issues related to categories like the economy, social issues, and healthcare. From the post on Google’s official blog:

    The site enables voters, journalists and campaigns to quickly sort through election info by popularity, race or issues. People can also check out the Trends Dashboard to take the web’s real-time political pulse by comparing candidates’ YouTube video views, search traffic and Google News mentions. Campaign staffers, advocates and everyday citizens can utilize our tools and features to reach, engage and inspire voters.

    What might be most interesting for anyone who makes a hobby out of political speculation there is a function on the Politics & Elections homepage where you can track trends related to each specific candidate. For instance, given the latest surge of Rick Santorum out of the bowels of obscurity and into a legitimate third place (the fact that third place is now a consummation devoutly to be wished is kind of absurd, really), readers can actually see the rise in Google News Mentions of Santorum in the past week. It’s a fun tool as an observer, but given how tumultuous this primary cycle has been for all Republican candidates I wouldn’t recommend placing any bets on the reliability of any search trends as proof of sustainable electability.

    The Google Politics & Elections also employs the Hangouts tools for journalists who are personally covering the election, perhaps as an effort to promote sodality and collaboration but I anticipate it will most likely be used as an online watering hole where everybody commiserates and decompresses. You can add the Politics & Elections tool to your Google+ account, as well, if you’re interested in participating or watching any of the activity in the Hangouts. Additionally, you can follow news stories as they develop by adding this group to your Circles. The news service will also cover international politics as well as the home-grown brews but given that we are officially in the election year, expect most of the news to be dominated by the election of the next POTUS.

    Since today kicks off the election of the Republican primaries with the Iowa caucus, following these services might be a good idea if any of you are hoping to stay informed as the results start to come in about which candidate will claim victory in Iowa this evening.

  • Obama’s Twitter Town Hall Kicks Off Tomorrow

    Last week, The White House announced that President Obama would be participating in his first “Twitter Town Hall” meeting, allowing the world to ask questions directly to the Commander-In-Chief.

    That event kicks off at 2 p.m. EDT tomorrow, so you still have time to submit your questions for possible discussion. Interested participants are being asked to use the hashtag #AskObama when they tweet their questions. The focus, according to The White House and Twitter, will be on the economy and more specifically, jobs.

    There is an official blog post up about the Town Hall on the Twitter blog. On that post we learn that specific economy-themed questions will be both selected in advance from the thousands of tweets already sent as well as selected live, during the Town Hall.

    @jack
    Jack Dorsey    Setting up the @TownHall. Here’s the Twitter and @MassRelevance team. Have your question in? http://t.co/iX8ACtN http://t.co/ojO7pO9 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @BarackObama
    Barack Obama    Tomorrow, the President answers your questions live at the White House Twitter @townhall. Use #AskObama to ask yours: http://t.co/M9I1j2x 4 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @amac
    A Macgillivray    I wonder what jobs/economy question @VP will #askobama? How about @SpeakerBoehner? @NancyPelosi? @SenJohnMcCain? http://t.co/wIkjX3j 5 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    From the Twitter blog –

    • We’ve partnered with Mass Relevance to curate, visualize and integrate conversations for the event.
    • Algorithms behind Twitter search will identify the Tweets that are most engaged with via Retweets, Favorites and Replies.
    • A team of seasoned Twitter users with experience discussing the economy will help flag questions from their communities through retweets.

    Not only can you follow the questions and responses via @townhall, but you can also watch a live stream of the event at askobama.twitter.com.

    It looks like Twitter hopes this is just one of many future high-profile partnerships between the government and their service. I’m sure people from every place on the political spectrum can join in a collective “Hooray” for social media engagement.