President Barack Obama turns 52 today, marking his fifth birthday since ascending to the presidency and the first of his second term.
He kicked of his birthday weekend yesterday at Joint Base Andrews where he bisected two national security briefings with 18 holes of golf, along with 11 his of good friends and at least one well-stocked cooler. After their round and after President Obama received the latest counter-terrorism updates, the group headed to Camp David for an intimate birthday party where they are celebrating until later this evening, when the president must return to the White House.
Invitees of the elite gathering include some of Obama’s closest friends from school, Chicago, and work. There are, however, 5 particular people who the president definitely did not invite to ring in the big 5-2 with him.
1. John Boehner
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
There are few people in this world who have more adverse contrasting interests than Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama. Boehner’'s speakership and Obama’'s presidency have each been dominated by negotiations — more often than not failed — with each other and, as the most powerful men in their respective parties, mutual victories are indeed a rarity.
Few things encompass their rivalry more wholly than the interminable fight over the Affordable Care Act, which is President Obama's trademark achievement and the utter antagonist of the Republican party platform.
2. Dr. Benjamin Carson
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
Prominent neurosurgeon and staunch conservative Dr. Benjamin Carson made President Obama sit through the longest 27 minutes of his presidency during his keynote speech at the 61st Annual National Prayor Breakfast. So it is no surprise that he, too, was not invited to the party.
At the breakfast, Dr. Carson delved into everything from the debt and deficit to polarity in Washington to the entitlement generation to moral decay, all the while effectively undermining President Obama's policies and ideology. The address encompassed the platform that Mitt Romney and other Republicans failed to convincingly articulate in the 2012 election, and President Obama was forced to politely and silently sit a mere two seats from the podium for the speech's entirety.
3. Tagg Romney
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
Not surprisingly, no members of the Romney clan were invited to the president's birthday celebration, nor were any of them likely interested in attending. One Romney in particular, however, was probably blacklisted from the begining: Tagg.
Describing his emotions when President Obama attacked his father in a debate, Tagg noted that he desperately wanted "to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him." Of course, Tagg apologized for the comment and made clear he never had any actual intention of punching the president, but there undoubtedly remains post-election hostility between the two families, hostility that will not be rectified at the president's party.
4. Sheldon Adelson
Image Credit: Bectrigger
There are few more overt means of demonstrating dislike towards a person's job performance than donating at least $98 million of one's personal wealth to get them fired. Billionare casino owner Sheldon Adelson did just that, donating millions to pro-Romney, pro-Republican super PACs throughout the 2012 election cycle.
His monetary donations are the most generous in American history, exhibiting the true gravity of his commitment to unseat President Obama. It is thus not the least bit surprising that Adelson wasn't first on the president's short list of ideal people to celebrate his birth with.
5. Jeremiah Wright
Image Credit: Don Henry Photos
Another ommission from President Obama's 52nd birthday party is his former pastor and publicity nightmare Reverand Jeremiah Wright.
During the 2008 election, excerpts of some of Wright's sermons, which were inflammatory to say the least, surfaced and the Obama campaign took conspicuous steps to distance itself from him. It is indeed too soon for Wright and the president to resurrect their friendship — Wright's statements were too anti-American for him to be remotely associated with the president, not to mention invited to his birthday party.
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