Never Say Never
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but the one of the first pictures of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office brought about a lot more than that, after former Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card chided Obama for not wearing a jacket.
We caught up with Card Thursday at the National Press Club and couldn’t resist asking him about his appearance on “Inside Edition” where he stated, “There should be a dress code of respect. I wish he would wear a suit coat and tie.”
“I never said ‘never’,” Card told “Yeas & Nays” about wearing a jacket in the West Wing. “If you were going to see the Queen or a prime minister, there’s an expectation of the attire. It’s the same with the Supreme Court. … That’s what I was referring to.”
Is he trying to back-pedal a bit, especially since pictures of have been found of President Bush showing him sitting behind his desk lacking the extra outerwear?
“Yes, I know there are pictures, but there are only a few pictures,” said Card. “It was not a frequent thing.”
Card told us he believes that a coat is a “signal of formality” that all presidents should follow. Yet only minutes earlier, he stated something seemingly different.
Speaking on a panel at Georgetown’s “Transition 2009″ conference — which also included Obama Transition Team Chief John Podesta, former Clinton Chief of Staff Mack McClarty and former Bush aide Dina Powell — Card said, “There shouldn’t be any model the president should
follow. … Each president should have his own style.”
After we told him those statements seem contradictory, Card retorted, “I did not criticize [Obama].”
Before leaving, Card told us a story about when he was Deputy Chief of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, which served–we guess–to back him up.
“I was called in one Sunday to meet with President Bush, who had just arrived back from Camp David,” he said. “I was at the White House [dressed-down] so I told the president, yes I could meet him, but I did not have a sportcoat. His response: ‘I’ll bring you one.’ Even on a Sunday, I had to put on a coat and tie, with a shirt that didn’t fit and hung out from my jacket.”
