-By Warner Todd Huston
During an availability in the Oval Office on August 1, a White House reporter interrupted questions being asked of President Obama and Yemeni President Rabbuh Mansur Hadi with wishes for a happy birthday. Not too sycophantic, eh?
President Obama turns 52 on August 4.
The Weekly Standard reported the press pool blurb saying:
Pool was ushered into Oval Office at 5pm, where POTUS was seated with President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi of Yemen.
Will send full transcript of their remarks after this. Here’s a quick overview.
POTUS and Hadi both spoke for about five minutes apiece, through translators. Both appeared pretty relaxed, listened intently as the other spoke. Topics included the partnership between the US and Yemen, our joint counterterrorism efforts, the growing push for change and democracy among Yemeni youth.
POTUS ignored a handful of questions tossed out by poolers at the end, about Russia and Snowden, and about Guantanamo.
Your pooler also heard someone say, “Happy birthday.” POTUS’ birthday is Aug. 4.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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