Obama Snubs Nation's Heroes, Becomes the First President to Skip Ball Honoring Medal of Honor Recipients in Over 50 Years
Barack Obama may have stumbled over his words briefly during his inauguration, but he made an even bigger blunder later Tuesday evening. The newly sworn-in President opted not to appear at what should have been one of the most important Balls on his agenda that evening - The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball.
The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball was begun in 1953 for President Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration. The event recognized recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award. There were 48 Medal of Honor recipients in attendance, who were undoubtedly disappointed by the Commander-in-Chief's failure to show. Over the past 56 years and 14 inaugurations, no President has skipped this event - until now.
The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball is sponsored by the American Legion, and co-sponsored by 13 other veteran's service organizations, including those such as the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Instead of attending this ball honoring our nation's heroes, Obama was busy making stops at 10 other official balls. Obama and his wife's first stop was at the Neighborhood Ball. From there they went to the Home State Ball for Illinois and Hawaii, the Commander-in-Chief Ball, the Youth Inaugural Ball, and the Home State Ball for Delaware and Pennsylvania. They finished off the night with brief appearances at the Mid-Atlantic, Western, Midwest, Eastern, and Southern regional Balls.
Celebrities were a plenty at the balls, with Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Mary. J. Blige, Faith Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, will.i.am, Sting, Mariah Carey, and Leonardo DiCaprio in attendance at the Neighborhood Ball. In addition, the other nine balls also featured a star-studded lineup including Kanye West and Kid Rock at the Youth Ball, Marc Anthony at the Western Ball, and Cheryl Crow at the Western Ball.
It was the party without all of the celebrities that Obama skipped. The very people who he sought to have support him during his candidacy and campaign, who have fought to protect this country, were snubbed in favor of publicity and the opportunity to rub shoulders - yet again - with the out-of-touch Hollywood elite.
Follow-up story: American Legion Acknowledges That Obama Failed to Attend the Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball
Comments
Obama
I did not vote this man into office and I am also a college student. This stunt that he pulled is what all of you liberals wanted I guess. It truely shows how much he cares about the men and women who are over there fighting to give his family freedom. But does old Obama care, nope all he wants is the camera in his face and the stupid liberals of this country following him.
Are you majoring in English?
Are you majoring in English?
Obama Snub........
Wow, I see everyone is upset that the good ole boys club could be coming to an end! Let's try living in the here and now. It's a new beginning. Try to be accepting
of change. If we would have made some changes long ago, maybe we wouldn't be so screwed up and hated by the rest of the world.
hated by the rest of the world?
really, all of you are the same, you care more about what Jay-Z and P diddy have to say than our soldiers that are fighting for our freedom. hated by the rest of the world, common, who hates us besides socialists and warlords? anybody that freedom shows a threat to a dictators power, or the power of the socialist state over its people (France) would have a reason to speak out against us. however, when we went in to the middle east and threw out the dictator that you liberals have forgotten committed genocide on hundreds of thousands of Kurds, these countries that "hate us" were right there to ask for assistance and hand outs for more power. furthermore, whenever there is a natural disaster somewhere else in the world we send aid in many forms that amounts to billions of dollars yearly, they dont hate us then.
right on!
right on!
Good ole boys??
This article and thread was about Obama and Medal of Honor recipients. Are those recipients good ole boys?? You aren't clear in who you are talking about, so assuming you mean the GOP, so the Chicago Daley political machine is not considered "good ole boys?" I guess they're just YOUR good ole boys, and that makes everything ok. Besides that, all I see are in your posts are political slogans which are devoid of any substance. You've clearly bought into everything you've heard and read.
Rubbing Elbows
I guess it is more important to rub elbows with the hollywood elite. No worry, There will be more CMH recipients to honor after more of our troops are killed and maimed trying to protect us from the terrorists that are gonna go free when the GITMO prison camp is closed.
what club are you referring to?
I am sorry, but I am confused about what "good ole boys' club" are you referring to?
Last I checked, the military was co-ed and non-exclusive .. .MEANING, in case you are not familar, that any person could join no matter sex, race, creed, etc....
As for changes, there will be many coming, mostly changes that MOST Americans are not going to like.
As a business owner and fomer employer of over 20, now employer of 8 ... I have seen hard and fast changes hitting our economy. I work in the transportation industry .. an industry that services ALL other industries in this country. And I promise you, the USA is in DEEP trouble and will not be getting out any time soon.
This crisis has been coming for over 2 years specifically (not addressing the mortgage industry which has been on the fast train for over 18 years) ... and it STARTS and ENDS with CONGRESS!
Obama was not my choice for President (neither was McCain).
But if you WANT things to change in this country, you MUST demand your Congress to WORK and stop focusing on being re-elected.
As taxpayers, we pay our representatives a GREAT deal with little in return.
If your work performance matched theirs, you would lost your job long ago.
Rally, folks and force them out or make them get to work!
They do NOT run this country with any fiscal responsiblity or conviction.
Until that happens, we are all at their mercy.
And God Help us ALL!
change blah blah blah
I love how everyone speaks about change...change is good, accept change, blah blah blah...Change is a pretty broad topic. Don't you think we should be a little skeptical of exactly what this chage will be?? Change can be good, but it can also be bad...Black and white to color? good change. Democracy to Socialism? bad change. Just throwing that out there
who cares is he skipped it?
who cares is he skipped it? i would have done the same. oh crap he didnt show up to my daughters birthday party neither..........! haha!
This is just the beginning
Hang on; it's gonna get worse.
there are only so many hours in a day
"We just announced this morning that President-elect Obama will host a Commander-in-Chief’s Ball on the night of January 20th in honor of our country’s brave men and women in uniform. Those invited will include wounded warriors (Purple Heart recipients), families of fallen heroes, and spouses of deployed military."
The man can not be everywhere at once!
Oh I see...
Yeah. I know. What a photo-op he'll have. I didn't realize he can only tolerate so many soldiers at a time and was saving up for a ball where their would be cameras. I apologize for thinking he didn't really care. Right...
WTF Is this all we have
WTF Is this all we have to bitc... about. We have a lot more problems than this. How about all the people without jobs. How about the homeless. How about all the kids that might not have a place to sleep or anything to eat tonight.
Was this ball even held?
Can't find this ball listed on any inauguration list for this year. Maybe they didn't hold it this year. it is not even mentioned on the American Legion site from what I understand.
Sounds like a fabricated story and poor journalism to me.
I'm guessing...
...that "Julie" picked this up from a blog on a site called "Stop ACLU" and can't prove the allegation.
Here are the facts!
Whomever wrote this article is a disgrace to journalism.
"The ball, which was to be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C., has been canceled and the promoter, Dante Hayes of the nonprofit Congressional Education Foundation for Public Policy, cannot be located for an explanation."
just because you put
just because you put something in quotation marks doesn't make it legitimate...site your source, otherwise you're just as guilty as the "disgrace to journalism"
here is my source
Where is yours that points out that this story is true:
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_vetsball_missingorganizer_011909w/
i'm actually not the one who
i'm actually not the one who pointed out the story to be true....but you're right, the ball was canceled and all this criticism is for nothing.
i didn't vote for Obama but it does seem like ppl are just looking to find somethng to nail him to...it was his first day in office, i'm not saying to cut him slack, but we'd all probably be better off if we went into this glasses half full.
I don't think the Veterans
I don't think the Veterans ball is the same thing as the Medal of Honor ball.
You are correct.
The Veterans' Ball and the Salute to Heroes (not MOH) Ball are two different animals. The former was cancelled; the latter was held in the Washington Renaissance.
Disbelievers can become believers by calling the hotel: 1-202-898-9000
Be polite - they've already had many calls but will confirm that YES they hosted the Salute to Heroes Ball and YES the Vice President showed up and NO the CINC did not make an appearance.
The article is correct and I've provided the mechanism for you to verify for yourselves.
Right here ...
Dial: 1-202-898-9000
The Renaissance Washington Hotel will tell you that YES they hosted the Salute to Heroes Ball; YES the Vice President attended with his wife; NO the President did not attend.
Obama
Obama is a disgrace!
Wrong
the disgrace is not Obama, but the awful journalism presented on this site who uses a blog as a source and not the actual facts. The fact is this ball was canceled. How could Obama attend a ball that was canceled?
Learn the facts before you spew your hate.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_vetsball_missingorganizer_011909w/
Actually ... you are wrong
The Veterans' Ball was cancelled. The Salute to Heroes Ball was held in the Washington Renaissance Hotel. Vice President Biden and wife Jill attended. The President did not. You may not like that ... but them's the facts. I called the hotel and confirmed instead of ranting about things I knew nothing about.
Stupidity defined
I'm not name-calling here but I think this is simply stupidity defined. Someone posts an article link that counters yours but you keep posting it, even though the thread has clearly addressed that the article linked in your post is referring to a different ball. Sounds like a kid fighting with a teacher that 2 + 2 = 5 because their uncle told them it did, even after the teacher clearly demonstrated the truth.
http://www.navytimes.com/news
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_vetsball_missingorganizer_011909w/
Hasn't this lie been debunked already like 3 times... libtard grasp for any straw...
It happened and he choose to miss it on purpose. He had lots of time to make it just like the last 9 presidents...
There's no evidence this
There's no evidence this ball went on at all; it's not the canceled Veterans ball. There was a Medal of Honor luncheon on the 19th with Robert Gates. That's all I've found.
And I'd like to know exactly why this ball is so much more important than the Commander-in-Chief's ball. If so, why were Medal of Honor recipients at the CiC's ball, and not at the "Salute to Heroes" ball? And where is the evidence that every President has been to this ball since it was begun?
just to add more debunking links about how "it didn't happen"
http://talkmania.trenzter.com/2009/01/salute-to-heroes-inaugural-ball.html
http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20090121/NEWS01/901210334
“After the inauguration, Williamson attended the Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball at the Renaissance Hotel.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/inauguration_balls
“and a separate Heroes Red White & Blue Ball.”
http://www.navytimes.com/news
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_vetsball_missingorganizer_011909w/
while I have no idea if this ball was cancelled or not, it does not pertain to this article because it is talking about a different ball.
The Heroes Red White and
The Heroes Red White and Blue Ball isn't the "Salute to Heroes" Ball. Bush didn't attend it in 2005.
There was no ball, there was
There was no ball, there was a Medal of Honor recipient luncheon on the 19th.
Bush made the Salute to Heroes Ball his FIRST stop
After the 2005 inauguration, President Bush and Laura made the Salute to Heroes Ball their FIRST stop -- and the Cheney's showed up later as well:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=24307.
They made it their FIRST priority to attend...they wouldn't think of blowing them off. I think this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as demonstrating his feelings for our military. Next he'll be cutting the military and we'll end up in the same mess we were in under President Carter, another Democrat, before President Reagan took office and built it back up.
CMSgt (Retired), USAF
MOH Ball
I'm still looking to verify that this ball actually took place. I'm not and O fan but he is the elected P. If this is more BS from the blogsosphere, it's doing none of us any good except perpetuating a myth.
Obama
If you want to see Obama's true character, watch him move around the room in some of the news clips. He is all smiles and grace to the big shots, but the waiters, staff, and "little people" around him get not a glance of acknowledgement. It was particularly evident at the inauguration lunch. The common man is invisible to this elitist. He was once there himself and he "ain't going back"!! Bush was loved by these people. Wonder why?
Sure the ball was held ... Biden attended it
For those in doubt over whether the Salute to Heroes Ball existed and was held ...
Call the Washington Renaissance Hotel - 1-202-898-9000
The booking staff will confirm that:
a) The ball was held
b) The VP attended
c) The CinC did not attend
Have a nice day.
I didn't vote for him, but
I didn't vote for him, but he is now our President. Instead of trying to bring him down, we should hold him up, IN OUR PRAYERS. That said, we don't have to agree with all of his choices, but if we are going to remain true to America and the loved ones whom have fought for us and our freedom, we must remain strong in faith,prayer, and deeds.
God Bless America...United We Stand, Divided we Fall!
Amen! I agree whole
Amen! I agree whole heartedly but I bet few will reply to this comment.
Obama missing MOH ball
Let me get this straight. He supposedly missed a ball for MOH recipients, and this somehow is indicative of the end of the world and "just the beginning" of what we will see while Obama is in office? If this is the worst thing he does, I'll be thrilled. Given the alternative (Maverick and the Moron) I'll take my chances with Obama. People don't seem to undertand that no one is perfect and stuff is going to go wrong. I would prefer to have someone in the White House who wants to try to make things better for people and fix America's problems than somebody concerned about which party he goes to. I'm sure there was a schedule and it was organized by people who knew what they were doing. Relax, people. He's been in office for three whole days. The world hasn't come to an end, and I doubt it will. Maybe we could try to work together to fix saome things instead of whining about stuff that, in the long run, really isn't that important. God Bless the MOH recipients. I'm sure your president will do his best for you, despite all this.
Well now ...
IMHO, all it is indicative of is poor staff work on the part of someone on his inaugural staff. There is little doubt in my froggy little mind that President Obama, if told what the ball was about and that he would be breaking a tradition dating back to Eisenhower (14 inaugurals) would have pogo-sticked to the Salute to Heroes Ball if necessary, particularly since it was located only a couple hundred yards from other balls at which he put in an appearance.
Hip-hop trumps heroes
There is no excuse that can possibly be given for this one. The living recepients that are amongst the bravest of the brave getting blown off by the new CinC while palling about with celebs is a bit too much. oh well, that's what happens when you elect a person who cares more about what the "popular people" say than about the country as a whole. Blagovich and O'bama are all cut from the same cloth in my opinion.
Change "We the People" expected!
The Messiah Obama's snubbing of MOH recipients, Salute to Heroes Ball, is no surprise. His contempt for all institutions that serve this nation and made it great, will be obvious to all. Please recall the Messiah's comments about our "Founding Documents." This is the change "We the People" were not hoping for, but the change that "you the sheeple" are going to get. I hope you're getting the change you expected. The death knell of the Republic is now being sounded.
He went to the CinC ball,
He went to the CinC ball, people.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52743
Get over yourselves and the faux outrage. It's not like he waited 3 days to help a flooded city, or something.
re:He went to the CinC ball
It's not like he waited 3 days to help a flooded city? Gee did you ever ask DEMOCRAT Ray Nagin and the DEMOCRAT Governor why they waited? Or is that confusing the issue with too many facts for your feeble mind?
He misses the MOH ball...
He misses the MOH ball...
but was able to make the BET Television Ball, and others...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/14/obama-inauguration-schedu_0_n_157859.html
What a prick
Who are the heroes, again?
Honor is a lie. Military drones are killers. Good for Obama.
Honor is a lie?? Drones are killers?
What drugs are you on???? Are they legal??? Do you see lots of pretty colors?? Are the walls melting?
He doesn't need an dang Invitation
I am a Marine, and I feel disrespected to all hell by this man. No respect for the people he is in charge of. He can go to hell, I lost so many friends in Iraq that their bodies were layed to rest with the medal of honor. So he just disrespected the military.
HE DOES NOT NEED A DAMN INVITE.. this should of been Muscle Memory!!!!!! Hello....... president he isn't asked to do anything he is expected to do everything.
And do not pull the race card, we would be saying the same about Pres. Bush too if he did it. BUT guess what HE WENT!!!
no balls
we need to collectively spread our legs,bend over/insert our heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye for now.
former combat marine