Four out of twelve NASCAR drivers who were receive to gather President Obama at the White House this evening have declined to attend , citing scheduling conflict — and spark a nationwide gossip - fest . reject an invitation to visit the most powerful humanity in the macrocosm at his giant white residence in the middle of the commonwealth ’s capital is , after all , not the same thing as , you get laid , leave out your second cousin ’s garden party . Saying “ no ” to the President is wide considered a major snub , a political rebuff and , depending on who you are , an insult of international proportion .
The affair is , it ’s happened way more often than you ’d think .
It’s a Political Protest
Some honored invitees , like Pulitzer Prize - winning poetRobert Lowell , have resist to visit the White House as a motion of political protest . In Lowell ’s instance , he indite a varsity letter to then - President Lyndon Johnson excuse that he profoundly differ with the prexy ’s Cold War foreign insurance : “ We are in danger of imperceptibly becoming an volatile and short chauvinistic commonwealth , and we may even be drifting on our room to the last atomic ruination , ” he write .
winner of the National Design Awards — the Oscars of the figure world — pluck a similar stunt in 2006 , refusing an invitation to serve an awards breakfast at the White House on the dry land that “ the administration of George W. Bush has used the masses communications of words and images in ways that have seriously harm the political discourse in America , ” allot to a public letter .
It’s Just Too Far
Other renowned would - be Edgar Albert Guest have refused to bring down the United States President ’s home for somewhat hazier intellect . Take for illustration Nobel Prize - acquire authorWilliam Faulkner , who reject a dinner party invitation at the Kennedy White House saying , “ Why that ’s a hundred miles aside , ” according to an audience inLIFEmagazine . “ That ’s a long way to go just to eat . ”
Decades in the first place , President Calvin Coolidge ’s fatherrefused a direct invitation to amount to the White House , but not for any scandalous reason . In 1923 , after the untimely death of President Warren Harding , the older Coolridge swore - in President Coolidge at his Vermont farmhouse , and then send his son packing to D.C. When the president asked his founder to come with him , he reject : “ There ’ll be a funeral down there , ” he said , according to theNew York Times . “ I think that my place is here to take charge of the farm . ”
Hollywood luminaryAngelia Jolieand operatic reality tv set starSusan Boyleboth reportedly refused invitations to Obama ’s White House this year for unspecified reasons . According to gabfest rags , Jolie was save herself for “ more of import ” things , while Boyle was “ too queasy ” to meet the chairman .
It’s Just Politics
The most popular reason for cut a White House invitation is , of course , a thing of true politics . In 1982,Franklin Delano Roosevelt ’s Logos — no friend of Reagan ’s policy — refused to assist a White House role in award of his male parent , saying he was “ tied up ” all 24-hour interval .
A few years later on , Senator Jesse Helmsalso snubbed Reagan ’s White House , enounce he did n’t want to attend a dinner that would require him to “ socialize ” with Mikhail Gorbachev .
More recently , Republican Speaker of the HouseJohn Boehnerhas set the New bar for White House snub . In the last yr , Boehner has refuse to attend three unlike functions at Obama ’s launchpad , include a two-party service for Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a fancy state dinner party for Taiwanese President of the United States Hu Jintao .
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But perhaps that ’s nothing compared toformer - President Herbert Hoover ’s no - show at President John F. Kennedy ’s 1961 inauguration . accord to news story , Hoover ’s sheet circled D.C. a few meter and then gave up , abduce weather issue , and fly to Miami instead . The former chair strap off a note to Kennedy—“I made a surd attempt to give ear your inauguration”—and then winged off on an offhand fishing vacation in the Florida Keys .
If Kennedy was diss by Hoover ’s snub , he could have looked for advice to Abraham Lincoln , who was an expert in the issue . A hundred year earlier , during the Civil War , Union General George McClellandidn’t exactly refuse to advert a White House function ( Lincoln did n’t survive at the White House for much of the Civil War ) , but did one worse : he refused to meet the President himself , who had been expect in the superior general ’s parlor for more than an hour . According to the story , McClellan drive home , go directly upstairs without greeting Lincoln , and assure his servant to narrate the President of the United States he ’d proceed to bed . Lincoln , who McClellan later called a “ well - signify baboon , ” shrugged off the affront , enounce “ better at this clock time not to be making point of etiquette and personal dignity . ”
It’s Gotten Ugly
As for those NASCAR driver , their choice to decline a White House part tonight in their honor has precedent . Well , kind of . Nearly two decades ago , a group of linksman representing the U.S. in the outside Ryder Cupthreatened to boycott an event in their award at Clinton ’s White House . The medium , which experience itself into a tizzy over the threatened snub , quoted the golfers say all mode of nasty thing about the Democratic schedule , include one famed actor in particular who reportedly visit the president a “ draft - dodging baby - orca . ”
Unlike the NASCAR machine driver , all the golfers eventually agreed to show up at the White House , at which item everyone smile , sipped drinks and talk about anything but politics .
