Obama, Biden Take Executive Selfie
Last night, the @WhiteHouse Twitter account posted this smiley selfie of Joe Biden and Barack Obama. It was to kick off Biden’s Instagram account, but was also posted as a tweet.
Pals. pic.twitter.com/yt5MjtLYPi
— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) April 17, 2014
Obviously, this elicited a number of reactions, such as:
- PennLive.com: “But is it presidential?”
- Jezebel: “Joe Biden Posts the Best Selfie of All Time with Barack Obama
- TIME: “Joe Biden’s First Selfie Is Just Awesome“
- Times of London: “Is this the selfie to end all selfies? The craze appeared to reach its nadir today when Barack Obama and Joe Biden released an image of themselves in the back of a US presidential limo.”
I have not found any articles (yet!) claiming this selfie to be worthy of impeachment, but I did find this incredible column by a Canadian from late last month that claims kids can’t look up to Obama because he takes selfies. Selfies! That’s probably what the kids like about Obama most. (This column also says “at least half of America does not want to… goose-step along with his Marxist march,” proving this author has a fair grasp of history.)
Anyway, let’s talk for a little bit about the above, on-topic articles.
1. Let’s play along and claim a selfie is an un-presidential act. Considering presidential acts are things like starting wars, cheating on your wife and getting stuck in the bathtub, perhaps our chief executive needs to do more unpresidential things.
2. Jezebel is wrong. This is not the greatest selfie of all time. It is not even the best selfie this week.
Also, I have this photo booth photo from a few years ago where an old girlfriend is kissing my face and we both look amazing. Does that count as a selfie?
3. TIME, however, is more on track. (Trust TIME for all their opinions on selfies!) The selfie is pretty great. As I noticed last night, though, it was missing something.
I upgraded that White House photo. pic.twitter.com/3hTKbt84xf
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) April 17, 2014
Much better.
4. Finally, every time there is a selfie in the news people trip over themselves to declare selfies dead and gone. They are wrong. Selfies are amazing, and they will never go away. Every selfie, from the time Robert Cornelius took the first self portrait in Market East to Joe Biden’s teeth, is special in its own way.
Selfies forever!