Really, politics has gotten so low down and dirty that we pick on the President’s children. Leave the kids out of it. The president’s daughters didn’t want to be there anymore than any other teen, but they did their civic duty and appeared with him to pardon a turkey. So what if they gave each other the stinky-eye look. How ridiculous is this woman Elizabeth Lauten to even comment on what they wore or the expressions on their faces. If you are going to pick on somebody for something, pick on the President for all that he hasn’t done and all his broken promises, but for Pete’s sake leave the girls out of it.
Obviously, Ms. Lauten does not have teens of her own. If she did she would have recognized the look immediately. Sasha and Malia didn’t want to be there and who can blame them. I wouldn’t want to be there either.
Let’s talk turkey. It isn’t like Kim Kardashian or Kanye West were showing up, it was a big bird, your regular run-of-the-mill Tom that was going to gobble another day. Whoop-de-fricken-doo.
Can we climb out of the coop here?
Complain about the clothes? Really? The girls were appropriately dressed for a turkey pardon. It wasn’t a state dinner for foreign dignitaries. Believe you me I’ve seen today’s youths in a lot worse attire. Just think Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber.
No, Elizabeth Lauten was way out of line, in fact John Avlon, CNN political analyst said it best “way out of order.”
She did apologize, though, and that should count for something. So I really don’t see the need for her to resign. Nah. I don’t think it was that offensive. After all we have forgiven politicians for a lot more questionable actions. Charlie Rangel for instance . He is a tax cheat and the people reelected him. The extent of his punishment — Nancy Pelosi gave him a stern warning in front of the House and a virtual smack on the hand. So give it up and I say in this season of pardons and holiday cheer let us give Lauten the benefit of the doubt and pardon her for the faux pax. Lets chalk it up to a bad case of “running off at the mouth disease,” which, strangely enough, is usually a disease of the very young.
Not for Nuthin™ the punishment should fit this crime. I say Elizabeth should be banned from Twitter and Facebook for six months. No social tweeting, Facetiming, networking, or texting and she should have to take a workshop on how to deal with teenagers. Maybe try fostering one or two for six months too. As a parent of a former teen, nope, I wouldn’t wish that on her. Heck, I wouldn’t wish that on Charlie Rangel.
Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.
