Reply #131: Look, it may not be a world-shaking event

[geniph]

but we are talking about members of the First Family, representing our nation on international television, sitting there displaying a total lack of concern for normally accepted etiquette and manners. The whole point of manners and etiquette is social lubricant. One does not perform grooming activities at formal occasions. This isn't a frat party where it's cool to whip out a hairbrush or the warpaint. This is a FORMAL, STATE occasion. As a member of the family, you are looked at - fairly or unfairly - as a role model. Role models are caught sometimes by photographers in candid shots, unposed moments, doing things none of us would like to be photographed doing, but there is no way anyone on that stand did not understand that, literally, the whole world was watching.

Is it too much to ask that one conform to normal standards of good manners for half a fucking hour? To me, it shows the utter self-absorption so endemic in this group of buffoons.