|
Posted on 03.28.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 4:15 pm
President Obama thought outside the box and decided it was better to move the ticketing process online — and predictably, the system didn’t work as advertised. I know because I tried off and on all day to get free tickets for the event. Most of the time I couldn’t even access the system; the two times my wife and I did, we were booted from it right as we placed our orders. By 7:45 p.m. Thursday, we were rewarded for our efforts with this message: “Tickets are no longer available for the 2009 White House Easter Egg Roll.” Washington’s local NBC station reported on the problems during the day Thursday. And here’s a recap from The Washington Post the next day:
I know my wife wishes Obama’s high-tech minions had left the process alone. Technology doesn’t always make things better, and in this case, it definitely made matters worse.
All you had to do was click at the right time (without knowing what that time was) and hope that the system didn’t boot you before your order was processed. It’s as if the White House invited everyone to camp in D.C. and gave tickets to those who fought their way to the front of the line, not those who were there first. There’s another flaw in the online approach: With the egg roll more than two weeks from the date of the online ticket distribution, as opposed to at most three days in the past, the Obama administration has created a huge opening for the online scalping of free tickets. Behold the free market, and free speech, on display at the Washington Craigslist page:
Even if the technology had magically worked, the change wrought by Obama was unnecessary and unwanted. I’ve never once camped out to get tickets to anything, but lots of people love the experience — the camaraderie and the conversation. The first time we went to the egg roll, I was lucky enough to have a reporter with White House credentials who had no children and offered her special passes to my wife, our infant son and me. But every year since then, my wife has camped on a sidewalk near the White House to get them. Kimberly has taken friends with her and made new friends. One year, she met a family from North Carolina. They traded contact information and reconnected for future egg rolls.
I don’t know how she survived — and I felt guilty because Kimberly had asked me to get in line Friday night in order to get tickets Saturday morning while she was flying home. I didn’t want to camp all night and set the alarm for 3 a.m. instead. A few hours later, a National Park Service ranger was giving the bad news about who wasn’t in line early enough to get tickets. The cut-off point was two people ahead of me. I was heartbroken — and feared for my life when I had to tell a travel-wearied wife — but in that case, I didn’t deserve to get tickets. The process was fair, and I was in control. All I had to do was get in line earlier. It’s not anymore. This year, Kimberly was planning to take our two oldest children, ages 7 and 9, to camp in line with her if the weather wasn’t bad. She was bummed when I heard the word from a reporter friend this week that tickets would only be distributed online. Then came the heartbreaking news that she and the kids — including our 4-year-old, who might actually have remembered this year’s event — won’t get to go at all. We’re happy for the families who were lucky enough to snag tickets through a flawed system and who will get to enjoy the White House. But for the Glovers, it’s an Easter family tradition ruined. Thanks for the change, President Obama. UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit, RedState and others for the links. For more thoughts on the egg roll, go here and here. If you’re new to The Enlightened Redneck, click around to find the answers to deep, probing questions like “Who is the enlightened redneck?” and “What is an enlightened redneck?” And discover why rednecks rule. Filed under: Culture and Family and Friends and News & Politics and People Comments:
|
I’m happy you and your family enjoyed the White House egg roll for almost an entire decade, but doesn’t it seem like maybe it was time for someone else to get a chance?
First-come first-served isn’t “fair” — it favors people in the DC area who can afford to camp out in line. As flawed as the online process was, and it was pretty awful, the goal for an event like this should be a random distribution.
No matter what happens next year, the online system they used needs to be fixed. Ultimately, it should probably be a lottery system to give everyone a chance to have their name drawn.
But your comments here really just come off like
sour grapesrotten eggs.Comment by Mike — March 28, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
Mike: Spoken like someone who hasn’t camped all night on a hard sidewalk, in the cold rain, to get tickets to the egg roll.
First come, first serve is fair. Anyone can travel to the D.C. area to get in line for tickets, and many out-of-towners did just that. Did you miss the part about my wife making friends with people from North Carolina?
If parents are willing to pay their way to Washington for the egg roll itself to treat their kids, they should be willing to do it to get in line for tickets. It’s not like there aren’t other things to see here if they don’t get tickets. The annual Cherry Blossom Festival is at the same time of year.
Under the old system, if you got in line early enough, you were guaranteed free tickets. Under the new system, people are scalping tickets online for several hundred dollars. There’s nothing fair about that.
I’d be OK with a system that combined a lottery for out-of-towners and a first-come-first-serve system for locals. But in any case, the tickets should not be distributed with enough time for online scalping.
Comment by Danny Glover — March 28, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
[...] to pay hundreds of dollars for tickets they could have gotten for free had they been blessed by the luck of the online draw, let ‘em buy the [...]
Pingback by The Enlightened Redneck » Get Your Egg Roll Tickets Here! — March 28, 2009 @ 10:53 pm
From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need
Comment by dude1394 — March 28, 2009 @ 11:32 pm
[...] Glenn Reynolds) I’m going to sum up The Enlightened Redneck’s post here about what happened to the White House Easter Egg Roll ticketing system this year (not because [...]
Pingback by Moe Lane » The White House Lays An Easter Egg. — March 29, 2009 @ 12:43 am
[...] Glenn Reynolds) I’m going to sum up The Enlightened Redneck’s post here about what happened to the White House Easter Egg Roll ticketing system this year (not because [...]
Pingback by The White House Lays An Easter Egg. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState — March 29, 2009 @ 12:45 am
The problem with the online system is that it is a “black box.” And that means it will RESULT in exactly the opposite of the sort of egalitarian exercise it is supposed to be. In truth, and mark my words, the easter egg hunt tickets distributed online will turn out to be a small fraction of what was available to the public in the past. The bulk of the tickets will turn out to have been carefully distributed by the W.H. to politically connected aparatchiks to whom favors or recognition are owed. Its one of the unspoken downsides of the more group oriented organization and mobilization structure of leftist politics that we always have a lot of people who need recognition and repayment. With such a system, no event is immune from the temptation to sequester tickets or “slots” for the “faithful” from whom you have taken much and will expect much more. To heck with the unwashed masses. We’re politicking here.
Comment by Gonzo — March 29, 2009 @ 1:09 am
Count your blessings that there even is an Easter Egg event this year. Next year Obambi will figure out a way to cancel the whole thing. Same with Christmas and the tradition of lighting the tree. The only way we can restore America is to vote Obambi and his acolyes out of office.
Comment by kenny komodo — March 29, 2009 @ 1:27 am
I was thinking the same thoughts as Mike. Hard to work-up much sympathy when you’re family has gone 9 times in 9 years. Online and two weeks lead time is a positive change for those of us residing far, far away from DC. Many things to complain about with President Obama, but I don’t think this is one of them. (Or at least have the decency to keep it your 9-year-in-a-row-egg-rollin self!)
Comment by Suzanne — March 29, 2009 @ 1:54 am
From your blogroll and your recent posts, it would appear that you don’t much care for this President anyway. Sort of like a hard-core metalhead complaining that he couldn’t get tickets to a Barry Manilow concert.
Let me also guess: you whine loudly about “entitlements” when you get the chance?
(Maybe a little more honesty and a little less hypocrisy would make you more sympathetic a “victim”…?)
Comment by hart williams — March 29, 2009 @ 2:09 am
I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that some people who are scalping tickets had developed software to improve their chances of getting through the ‘random’ selection process. These techniques are commonplace for online sweepstakes.
Also the selection probably wasn’t actually random. They’d likely implemented an algorithm that only accepted the Nth submission for each block of X number of requests. So a program that simultaneously submitted X number of requests would be guaranteed at least one acceptance.
Comment by Jack — March 29, 2009 @ 2:54 am
I feel so sorry for this guy! For nine years in a row, he had an experience few other Americans have had - what, it’s gotta be like 0.00000000001 percent of the population - and he’s crying because he couldn’t do it for a 10th year and some other folks got a chance. What a pitiable guy. Obama should just stop trying to solve all the other problems that have built up during the past nine years and GET THIS GUY A TICKET! NOW!
Comment by Dean Calbreath — March 29, 2009 @ 3:23 am
Any redneck could have told them, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Sorry but it always seems to be the “enlightened” who think they know how to do everything better than anyone else. They have no respect for tradition nor do they understand the wisdom of tradition. “We’ve always done it this way” (and/because it works) is dismissed as backwards.
This is my first visit to your site but I plan to return in an attempt to actually understand your enlightened/redneck dichotomy.
P.S. I’d ignore Mike. I’m sorry your family tradition was “unfairly” taken away.
Comment by bertie — March 29, 2009 @ 3:31 am
The author of this blog is just looking for one more excuse to dislike Obama. It’s really quite laughable, isn’t it?
The obvious solution here is a ticket lottery. Allow people to give a list of three or four names of people (i.e., friends, family, significant others) who could use a ticket, and make it non-transferrable beyond that list as a means of preventing scalping.
There is nothing inherently “fair” about making people camp out in a line.
Comment by Magic Dog — March 29, 2009 @ 4:39 am
Tickets are selling online to the highest bidder? Great, we can get one for our daughter, Veruca. She’s a bit of a frump.
Comment by Henry & Angina Salt — March 29, 2009 @ 5:26 am
Comment by Paul A'Barge — March 29, 2009 @ 5:56 am
[...] that can’t even send email by engaging in the expense of fixing the already working the ticketing system for the White House annual Easter Egg roll; once again proving the adage: “No problem is so bad that it can’t be made worse with [...]
Pingback by Mean Dean’s Semi-Definitive List of things Obama has done right | blogs4God — March 29, 2009 @ 6:14 am
What’s so wrong? Putting the Easter egg roll up for sale to the highest bidder just brings it into harmony with the way the White House and Congress do business.
Comment by Brian — March 29, 2009 @ 6:24 am
Looks like they did a bang-up job of ‘repairing’ the existing system for distributing tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll by making it less exclusive to actual parents and instead automating the workflow so that scalpers and insiders could globally and anonymously engage in the ticket consumption process.
Wow … good thing we have an administration in office that knows how to send email.
Of course this begs the question, if the previous system worked, why automate it? Stimulus I suppose.
Of course this all reminds me of a greeting card I once received - only then it was funny when it read:
“No problem is so bad that it can’t be made worse with automation”
Comment by Mean Dean — March 29, 2009 @ 7:03 am
Clearly there was a computer infrastructure malfunction here, and we all know how George Bush failed to maintain and upgrade the White House computer system. Soooo….
It’s George Bush’s fault!
Comment by itsbushsfault — March 29, 2009 @ 7:28 am
It’s a pleasure to know that our country is in good enough shape that people are whining about the White House Easter Egg Roll.
And yeah, you’ve gone for 9 years straight. Be gracious enough to give someone else a chance.
Comment by Alexandra — March 29, 2009 @ 7:44 am
Do some checking of the people who got tickets and I am willing to bet a substantial sum that most, if not all, will be past and present Obama supporters. What better way to control who gets the tickets than do it online? The rest, yeah, those went to the scalpers.
Comment by TRO — March 29, 2009 @ 8:23 am
Online distribution certainly isn’t fair either. Not everyone has an internet connection.
Comment by joated — March 29, 2009 @ 8:25 am
Mike, that sounds like someone who thinks they might like to go to the Easter Egg Roll but doesn’t want to go to all that work to make it happen. How many ways does that represent so much of the change the Obama White House is offering?
Comment by Nancy — March 29, 2009 @ 8:25 am
[...] Enlightened Redneck reports: Change has come to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, and our family is not happy [...]
Pingback by Obama brings change to White House Easter Egg Roll; families lose all hope of getting tickets « Danishova — March 29, 2009 @ 9:03 am
Hmmmm.
1. Well another day, another example of incompetence at the White House.
2. There sure are quite a few Obamabots around here.
3. I wonder how many of the ticket scalpers -work- in the White House or have friends there.
…
Frankly I’m amazed by it all. It hasn’t been 3 months since Obama was installed in the White House and the number of supremely idiotic examples of imcompetence has passed all of my expectations.
Is there one single adult in this White House?
Comment by memomachine — March 29, 2009 @ 10:17 am
Wait a minute…you have been to the WH Easter Egg roll NINE times and you are complaining that other people get a chance? Get real you spoiled brat!
Comment by Theresa — March 29, 2009 @ 10:43 am
I find it fascinating that we have two competing definitions of “fair” operating and no one has bothered to defend (or even elucidate) their own.
Is it “fair” if “anyone who wants a shot has an equal chance of succeeding” (the “lotto system is fair” argument?)
Or, is it “fair” if “those who are willing to invest the highest levels of finite resources available to all (time, in this case) will succeed” (the “the old camping system was fair” argument?)
Personally I lean towards the “work and/or sacrifice entitles you to greater success” end of the spectrum, but I’m more interested in the fact that we appear to be having an argument here that is entirely unstated - everyone’s just acting like his or her definition is correct and accepted.
(I might have missed a few other latent fairness definitions, but it seems like everyone is taking at least one of these two positions and no one appears to be taking both of them.)
Comment by Sarah — March 29, 2009 @ 10:53 am
I can’t wait to get my healthcare from the same kind of system.
Comment by Locomotive Breath — March 29, 2009 @ 11:02 am
How much do you want to bet that like his news-conferences and other public appearances, Obama and his lady have apportioned out the tickets to campaign workers, liberals who made donations and ACORN people — so that there were none left over for Real People.
In any case, I think it serves you right for treating this aBOMination and his adminstration with the respect deserving a real president and trying to play nicely with them. You and your family should be shunning any future Obama events and attending tea parties instead, trying to figure out ways to peacefully pry this jerk out of the Oval Office before he does anything worse than bankrupt the country, join hands with the UN, accept Al-Queda terrorists as citizens, and give free tickets to everything only to Democratic donors.
Comment by Nancy Gee — March 29, 2009 @ 11:05 am
[...] The Enlightened Redneck has the 411 of how Obambi ruined the White House Easter Egg Hunt [...]
Pingback by Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup » Pirate’s Cove — March 29, 2009 @ 11:26 am
While I don’t care for the current President, or his policies, I fail to see how this is really a big deal. “Scalping” of tickets is the ultimate measure of the free market. Ticket prices are set by a seller and the market will determine whether someone thinks they are worth the price. Apparently, the writer of the blog wants the something-for-nothing part of the experience. Sorry that waiting on line didn’t work this year, really, but I’d bet that there was a market for the “scalped” tickets pretty much every year for tickets, if there was any scarcity at all.
Comment by Kay — March 29, 2009 @ 11:27 am
What pray tell, is there to like about this president? I really wish someone would make a comprehensive list of his achievements to date and post it.
Comment by Dave King — March 29, 2009 @ 11:51 am
I have the same thought as joated @23 — the internet distribution (especially on a system that was overloaded) left out folks without an internet connection or given the timeout errors reported — without a fast internet connection. Given the reported performance of the system it sounds like using the library would not have been an option. Personally I think adding an internet option to the wait in line approach would have been OK. Better yet would have been to do it like the ticket companies do — wait in line, internet or phone. Or as others suggested — a lottery with registration open various ways.
Comment by Purple Shoes — March 29, 2009 @ 11:56 am
I think there is a deeper lesson to the Easter Egg fiasco. Did it never occur to anyone in the loop at the White House that the tickets would be scalped? It is yet another indication of how far removed this administration is from concepts of Free Markets.
If you’ve ever been to a Grateful Dead show, it is considered the height of uncoolness to scalp extra tickets. Thus you have masses of people cruising wondering around outside with one or two fingers in the air waiting for someone to give them tickets. Unfortunately the real world does not operate like a Grateful Dead concert.
Comment by Richard Palmer — March 29, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
[...] to a link to here from Instapundit, plenty of bloggers are talking about how the Obama administration ruined the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Here’s a recap of what they are [...]
Pingback by The Enlightened Redneck » What Others Are Saying About The Egg Roll — March 29, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
[...] Redneck has a hilarious post up about how Obama ruined the White House Easter Egg Roll with his new lottery system. It seems that even on the most trivial of issues that Our Saviour, St. Urkel the X is too clever [...]
Pingback by Six Meat Buffet » Blog Archive » The Resurrection Has Been Cancelled — March 29, 2009 @ 1:58 pm
[...] post about how the Obama administration ruined the annual White House Easter Egg Roll made the politics page of Fark.com, where I’m identified as “some bitter [...]
Pingback by The Enlightened Redneck » Proud To Be A ‘Bitter Egg-Clinger’ — March 29, 2009 @ 2:03 pm
[...] Obama used their high-tech savvy and uber-competence to ruin the ticket process for the Easter egg roll at the White House. Here’s a part to show how once again, they [...]
Pingback by Hoping For Change - Because it feels like 4 years already — March 29, 2009 @ 2:09 pm
You can’t go hunt eggs after 9 years? Poor baby. Boo Hoo.
Comment by Jack Reeves — March 29, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
Tickets were always scalped for the Easter Egg roll. Somebody needs to call a waaaahbulance for Danny G. I realize this new-fangled technology of the internets is probably confusing for him–which kind of explains why he has the free time to camp out on sidewalk like a Styx groupie.
Comment by 8 Kilo 1 — March 29, 2009 @ 7:27 pm
I don’t get it. Why not just shun the whole waste of time event, and have a family day instead. There are loads of community egg hunts, or have a huge block party and egg roll like we do, or even just a quiet family event that celebrates the real reason for this Christian Holy Day? I can’t imagine anything that creates such havoc would be worth attending. I just see it as another way to get money from taxpayers and to see how much they are willing to demean themselves to do something as stupid as chase after brightly colored eggs. What a time waster.
Comment by K — March 29, 2009 @ 7:55 pm
My family got tickets to go for the first time ever. We never would have been able to do that had the tickets not been offered online this year. We live 9 hours by car from Washington D.C.- do you really think I would have driven there to camp out in the sidewalk for 3 days the weekend before? No. I have a job and a life. We also have two young daughters, and I am THRILLED that we were lucky enough to get these tickets. We’re very excited about getting a chance to go. We had to try all day, this is true. A lottery would have been better. But I hardly think I got these tickets because I voted for Obama. Give me a break. Obama somehow has access to the internet IP addresses of all of his supporters? That’s just stupid. I’m sorry your family is disappointed, but seriously- you got to go for 9 years. Get over it! Try again next year. Furthermore, our tickets will have our names on them. I doubt people will really be able to scalp them. But I don’t know. And I don’t care. This event is for children. And my children are going to have a blast.
Comment by Lisa — March 30, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Lisa: Glad you got tickets. Hope you and your family enjoy the day.
Tickets are being scalped, and I’d be surprised if they and their children will be turned away for two reasons: 1) There are too many people at the event to check tickets with names against IDs. Tickets also are “timed,” meaning you can only enter the event at the time specified on your ticket, but the few people at the gates don’t even check that.
2) Turning away parents and children who travel from all over to D.C., even if they illegally scalped tickets, would be a public relations nightmare. That’s just huffing and puffing by the Obama administration because the changes they made to the ticketing process were a nightmare.
As for the camping, it’s one night. And it’s on a weekend. You don’t have to take time off work to camp out on Sunday. You do have to take a day off to go to the actual event on Monday, though, so that argument is lame. And parents who are willing to camp out for their children have just as much of a life than parents who will click on a computer all day to get tickets. Both are willing to do what is necessary to treat their children to a special event.
Comment by Danny Glover — March 30, 2009 @ 9:47 am
I didn’t even know this event existed until I read this blog, but… I just want to point out that I linked to this post from a link that said “Obama ruins Easter Egg Roll for Poor Kids” or something like that, yet there is an argument saying that anyone can afford to go to DC to camp out.
No, they can’t. It costs money to drive to DC if you live far away, and it costs money to take off time from work to make that drive. It costs money to buy a plane ticket there if you want to avoid taking off work.
Though the online system was obviously a disaster, the lottery system seems like the best bet to me.
To the person who said that working the hardest (i’m guessing they were talking about the parents that took off work and camped out on the sidewalk and what-not) should be rewarded… that idea is still flawed because again, it comes down to who can afford it.
I do think it’s kind of silly that parents are getting all riled up over this. When kids are young enough to still get a kick out of Easter egg games, they would probably enjoy a back yard event just as much as one at the white house.
Comment by Alycin — March 30, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
Hard work and sacrifice should be rewarded when they accomplish something other than misery for the performer. Camping out on the sidewalk is stupid: a complete waste of time and energy. Carry it to the logical extreme - award the tickets to those who wait the longest, and let them start in January - or November.
One might as well award the tickets to the parents who perform the most humiliating stunts, or jump up and down till their feet bleed.
Obama’s on-line system appears to be a mess, but I’ve seen similar messes for White Sox post-season tickets. There needs to be a lottery, with some window for entries. Or an auction, if that’s what it takes to limit demand.
Comment by Rich Rostrom — March 31, 2009 @ 2:26 am
My response to your response:
As for the camping, it’s one night. And it’s on a weekend. You don’t have to take time off work to camp out on Sunday.
Well, I might, actually. I work part-time, and some of that time is Saturdays and Sundays. Not everyone works Monday-Friday. And for us, living 9 hours away, I would have to take additional time off and so would my husband. We’re looking at this trip in 2 weeks as a special event mini-vacation. Our 6th wedding anniversary also happens to fall on Easter this year. This is a treat. Not something we would have spent time and money on if the tickets were not free and online.
And parents who are willing to camp out for their children have just as much of a life than parents who will click on a computer all day to get tickets. Both are willing to do what is necessary to treat their children to a special event.
True, perhaps. Except my husband works in an office as a website designer and spends his entire day on the computer. He wasn’t sleeping on the sidewalk in the freezing cold to get these tickets. What I meant by saying I have a life is that I couldn’t have taken time to drive to D.C. to pick up these tickets. I have a job that includes the occasional weekend, and I have church obligations and soccer games to take my kids to and play dates planned, etc. I didn’t mean to imply my time is more valuable than your time, just that I wouldn’t have been willing to rearrange my schedule and drive all that way to camp out for tickets.
Lastly, if people are crazy enough to pay for tickets that should have been free in this economy, that’s their problem. Had we not gotten the tickets, shrug, oh well. Again, this event is for the kiddos. I haven’t been to D.C. since I was like 7, so I am looking forward to it. We have friends in town to stay with and yeah, we support Obama and think it’s pretty cool we might get to wave to him.
I hope you get to go again next year. I’d love tips on what to take and what to expect if you feel like writing something nicer.
:D
Comment by Lisa — March 31, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
I LOVE YOU OBAMA.
Comment by Sherrice Frazier — April 6, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
The end result is that we won’t get to go for the first time in nine years.World Smallest Violin.
Comment by Cassysim — April 8, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
[...] days ago, after explaining how President Obama ruined the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, I sarcastically tweeted the following comment: I wonder if any gay families got tickets to the [...]
Pingback by The Enlightened Redneck » A Gay Old Time At The Egg Roll — April 8, 2009 @ 11:00 pm
But al least you can still buy an official White House Easter Egg.
And it’s green. The greenest it’s ever been.
Comment by David — April 10, 2009 @ 2:56 am
I am ECSTATIC abotu being able to go to the Easter Egg Roll for the first time with my 4 yr. old son, my co-worker and her 14 month old daughter. My co-worker is an Air Force Captain @ The DiLorenzo TriCare Clinic we work at The Pentagon so I am very happy MY wonderful husband was able to get online and get 4 tickets for us!!!! We tried and had others trying but it was MY husband that got through. I have been saying we were going to the Easter Egg Roll since President Obama was nominated. I actually had people laugh in my face when I said “We’ll get tickets somehow” even after it as announced they would be distributed on line, but we did get the tickets!!! You know why because we are good people with positive thoughts and what goes around comes around so we were blessed with tickets as many other good people were. Yes, President Obama represents CHANGE and this is one change I am glad he made. Would I have camped out for tickets? Yes but it would have been hard for me to do so due to other obligations we were sincere in our efforts and true supporters that’s why we got tickets. Good things happen to good people maybe you should check YOURSELF! My husband is a good guy with a great job that wanted this event for his son and as I repeat GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Kimberli — April 10, 2009 @ 11:40 am
So let me get this straight, Kimberli: You think the only “good people” in the world are those who think “positive thoughts” about President Obama? And that only those good people, presumably by some divine online intervention, got tickets to the egg roll? And that because the White House’s flawed system twice booted my wife and me out when we ordered tickets that we’re bad people?
You have a serious disconnect with reality.
Comment by Danny Glover — April 10, 2009 @ 11:50 am
WHOA Danny…. Why are you putting words into my words. READ IT again I didn’t say anything about good people are only those with positive thoughts about President Obama I DID NOT SAY THAT ANYWHERE IN MY COMMENT where did you get that from? I said we have positive thoughts, positive thoughts about ALL situations okay it goes like this.. If you wake up cursing the morning you just might have a bad day. Get it? Have you ever heard about how your attitude can influence your actions? So there were alot of people that had so much negativity about the online idea that they spoke negative comments about it. “Oh it will never work”, “It’s stupid” etc, and guess what? For them it did exactly what they said it would do NOT WORK! For me, I was somewhat leary but I approached it with optimism and for me it worked! I tell my children to have a positive attitude about things in life and positive things will happen. Where did you get “divine online intervention?” Oh because I used the word blessed got it, seems to me Danny you have a “disconnect” and one reality I am connected with is the reality that my son and I will be at the easter egg roll. I never said anything about you and your wife being bad people I don’t know you but i do know this if you spoke negatively about the online distribution then you should have expected what happened to you
Comment by Kimberli — April 10, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
Like many of the respondents, I was deeply saddened that I could not get tickets to the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. I have supported the Obama’s and tried tirelessly to obtained the tickets online to no avail. I do agree that the White House should have not changed the policy in obtaining these tickets.
Monica, proud mommy of two beautiful and well deserving girls
Comment by Monica — April 12, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
Leave it to the selfish to insist that only certain people should be able to get tickets to attend the 2009 Easter Egg Roll at the White House… That’s really screwed up - ye people of the South! But typical… very typical!
Comment by Pamela in Tampa — April 12, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
I doubt you’d be complaining about the new ticket distribution system if you had gotten tickets. That really is the bottom line, isn’t it? Each time I think that the whining from the Obamas’ detractors has gone beyond ridiculous, something even more petty comes along. It is especially sad that the “whiners” are teaching their children that playing “poor pitiful me” is acceptable when one doesn’t get one’s way. It is likely that the on-line kinks will be worked out before next year. If not, I would suggest that anyone who believes they are somehow entitled to attend can do what countless others do when failing to secure tickets for an event: Buy tickets from a scalper (otherwise known as a free-enterprise, independent capitalist) and continue to enjoy a family “tradition.” God forbid the Obama administration insult those who feel themselves entitled to attend, by instituting a system it obviously thinks is more fair, not to mention more safe.
Comment by Lauria — April 13, 2009 @ 12:06 am
Those complaining they finally “had a chance” would have had a better chance and a better time and not lost a whole day trying to get tickets if they would have kept the camp out for tickets option. There were many tix distributed to groups that were not “everyone”. Active military I understand but schools and gay/lesbian are regular people so exceptions should not have been made. The actual even was a disappointment as well. There were more people on the lawn in your two hour time period than most years during the whole day in past. We never waited an hour to roll the egg. The entertainment was not very kid friendly either, stick with disney or nickelodeon front liners. Some things shouldn’t be improved on…this was the most unorganized, croweded and unenjoyabel experience we’ve ever had . The years it rained during the egg roll were better than this years.
Comment by Laurrel — April 13, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
I admit it. I do not understand all of the fus. You got to go for ten years. It sounds like you had a good run. Let someone else do it for awhile.
Comment by Paul M. Peterson — May 12, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
[...] wasn’t too happy with the White House in the spring for ruining the annual Easter Egg Roll, but I’m on the White House staff’s side this time. While I feel bad for the kids, the [...]
Pingback by The Enlightened Redneck » A Heart-Breaking Lesson In Tardiness — May 22, 2009 @ 11:28 pm
[...] tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, which is just weeks away. Alas, President Obama killed that family tradition last [...]
Pingback by The Enlightened Redneck » Camp Ice Cream — March 11, 2010 @ 12:11 pm
Just curious, why say you are a redneck? Is this suppose to be comical? If it is linked to a racist attribute and you are Christian, it doesn’t make sense to link this way. I’d rather focus on issues around this president and any based on the ridculous idea of continuous economic expansion and intrusion into our freedoms, such as politicizing religion, something Jesus was completely against!!! I’m tired of Politics from both Red an Blue playing our great love for GOD.
Comment by MgMT — April 29, 2010 @ 11:04 am