Watchin' the Shuttle launch in style…
By Peter Rojas 
posted Jul 28th 2005 1:40PM
posted Jul 28th 2005 1:40PM
Could someone please buy the man a plasma TV?
[Thanks, David]
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Nice patch job on the carpet there...
He is not eating pretzel!!!
and i thought i was poor
Makes me feel good to see the leader of the free world is rocking a TV smaller than the one i used for my PS2 in the dorms a couple of years ago. Like "You've got nukes, but at least i can see CNN's coverage if you use them."
WAIT WAIT A SEC, I THOUGHT EVERYONE COOL HAD A 19 inch VCR combo TV. GOSH I AM SUCH AND IDIOT!
Small tv for a small mind.
WAIT WAIT A SEC, I THOUGHT EVERYONE COOL HAD A 19 inch VCR combo TV. GOSH I AM SUCH AND IDIOT!
Come on George, come on. If I was President, of the White House dog? I would have plasmas, plasmas, plasmas, plasmas, plasmas!!!
Whats the problem? Do you think hes brain would be capable of processing images in a big TV?
suckers...this is the formal living room at his crawford ranch
It is pretty sad that the President had to watch the launch on what looks like a 13" TV. All of my TVs and computer monitors are over twice that size.
This is the United States the richest country in the world. Put our Tax dollars to good use and buy some big 65" Plasmas for the White House :)
hey, killing brown people to raise approval ratings and open up some oil fields for daddy's buddies isn't cheap.
gotta cut corners somewhere.
$30,000 for a 13in TV?
Do you forget where that plasma tv would come from? Your paychecks. So the smaller the tv the better for me.
being a member of the us government, he probably shouldn't be seen using fancy imported goods from japan or korea - thus he's stuck with the Zenith TV/VCR combo from 1992.
How many of you know somone the President's age that has a TV larger than that? Hell my grandma watches her B/W 13" TV more then the 27" in the living room.
"$30,000 for a 13in TV?"
Sounds like the government all right.
Look on the bright side people. At least the taxpayers money isn't being wasted on the TV or carpeting.
Small TVs for the small minded. Makes sense to me.
No, he must have a big dong I reckon. He obviously feels no need to get a plasma - he's got them missile systems and $200 bn in invested in Eye Rak.
It's all relative!
But hey didn't he have one when they atched the election win??
"He he he he, look at the funny pictures. that space man is funny. Look...look at the funny space man, he he he, spacey man spacey man, he he he."
He could have a plasma but all the money is in Iraq
"He he he he, look at the funny pictures. that space man is funny. Look...look at the funny space man, he he he, spacey man spacey man, he he he."
He could have a plasma but all the money is in Iraq
if you can't spell plasma, you shouldn't have one :)
this is the largest American made TV the white house can find...
I would rather be a japanese PM (SONY WEGA) or korean president (SAMSUNG LCD)
That is not a patch job on the carpet. That's his underground entrance to his personal theatre. He had to watch it on the 13" just for the press and then when they were done he dipped into his theatre with the 65" Plasma's.
Number 13 - you're dead right buddy, Haliburton delivered it!! NEW!!
Re: 12
Uh.. yea, Jordan, we're gonna need photo verification that all your computer monitors(27" TVs are nothing special anymore) are indeed 26.1 inches diagnal or larger.
My money is that the whole shot is staged for publicity. A huge plasma screen would probably turn off the average American. But now, I can really relate to him! I mean, I had the same size TV in college. I use a patch of carpet at my door, too.
Sorry I meant 14.
It also represents the age he lives in - Reagan era or Lenin era??
Why need plasma? It suck. Should get Projector or at least, hologram tv.
you're all nerds =p Just shows he's a modest man
i'm betting that "patch" of carpet is there for a reason.
i would only assume that it's the entrance to a secret tunnel that leads to the center of the universe.
It looks to me like that patch of carpet is just a door mat, for the doorway...
It'd relate to us more if he had a couple of xbox controllers laying tangled on the floor.
i'd rather he keep the crappy tv. no need for my tax dollars to pay for the white house's extravagance. We're paying enough for everything else.
guys, it's a freaking tv. Do you think the pres. really has enough time to sit down and watch it all that often?
Lets not read too much into it.
It's just a tv.
It's also not to say that he doesn't have some hugh tv in another room, it just happens to be the one he was watching.
And it was intentional too. What are the poor saps stuck making 25K a year supposed to think when they see their pres watching a hugh, expensive tv that the taxpayers' hard earned money paid for.
There is a reason they are called politicians, they pay attention to politics.
you guys are all m0r0ns --- faked photo!!!
What will our President do when we all have to make the switch to digital? I guess we'll have to hope the next guy actually reads the paper.
George-"I can't wait to see all the reaction this photo creates." Cheney (in background)-"Yeah they're all suckers (laughs heartily)"
Bush-"(laughing heartily)"
you'd think a guy who didn't read too much would watch more tv.
All new meaning to the term "Idiot box"
"Hey Turd Blossom, why did they interrupt Teletubbies to put on this dummy space stuff?"
Rumsfeld-"So how did the terrorists Blow up the plasma again?" Cheney-"I don't know where are all the writers?" Bush-"Bunch of lazy hippies (laughs heartily)"
The only problem with the carpet is that it appears to be at a window, not a door.
I guess everything isn't bigger in Texas
I'd imagine that:
1) The TV was brought in from another room (I can't imagine Bushie has all that much time to watch TV, you know, with him taking all those vacation days in Crawford, and all...)
2) Bigger doesn't matter anyways, not like he could read any of the text on the screen, even if it was bigger.
3) "Golly, Dick, why is all that smoke comin' outta that there airplane?"
Dudes, that IS a 50" plasma display. He's just an enormous man.
Hey, if it aint broke, don't fix it. These are my tax dollars you are talking about.
If he wants to buy a new TV, he can buy his own :)
Notice how he doesn't reflect in the mirror...
You REALLY know it's bad when the president can't afford a better tv *shakes head*
"What's wrong with this microwave?"
People, the president of the US of A most certainly DOES have 65" plasma's at his disposal.
But they are not currently connected to anything so pedestrian as live TV. They were all impressed into service as teleprompters during his first administration...
if you lift up the patched carpet, Saddam is tied up under there.
I'm just wondering how much people know about what they are talking about here. It is most likely a random photo that was found and submited to engadget. We don't know if he bought it or the white house did. But keep in mind that the government pays him 400k a year for being the pres. So even if he didn't have any other income sources, he would still be able to afford a better TV on his own. Besides, it just looks like some random room of the WH. Just laugh and move on.
Some people will take any chance rag on bush, but then there were several that way with Clinton too. :-) Oh Well!
Bush likes his Bush TV!
http://www.cocoo.co.uk/images/big/bush%20widescreen%20tv.jpg
no time to make jokes
#31: And I'm sure the GOP will find a way to blame Clinton for that patch of carpet.
Someone probably budgeted $3k for a plasma, bought him a $99 POS, then pocketed the rest. So, our tax dollars really paid for a plasma.
Just for Malfoy: let's pretend that a TV screen is square, because I'm not good at math. 13" diagonal means that each side is (13/1.5)" (1.5 is a rough approximation of the square root of two--like I said, I'm not good at math), which we'll round to 8, meaning that a 13" TV is 64 square inches. Twice that size is 128 square inches, which we'll round to 144, meaning a nice round 12" on a side. And 12 times 1.5 is 18. All my monitors and teevees are at least 19", which, in this day and age isn't really anything to brag about.
If this was a picture of him watching the shuttle launch on a huge Plasma TV, you'd all be saying "that's what our tax dollars are going to? He has some nerve getting a huge TV when people in other countries are starving."
I watch better quality on my friggin crappy commute!
You girls would be bitching up a storm if he WAS watching it on a bigscreen, crying about White House extravagance and your tax dollars being wasted.
Perhaps if he had some cigars and an intern present you'd approve, huh?
#24 HAHAH
I'm at work and I had to laugh "quietly" which was difficult.
Sounds like we need to start a bill going through congress to get either the Fab 5 or Xibit in there to pimp the Oval Office, yo.
it isn't a fake!
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_374.html
Hey, with a 13" TV, you can't see the debris falling off the booster tank!
Contrast this with the 70 members of Congress who wasted $70,000 on a trip to Cape Kennedy to watch the launch in person (a launch that was subsequently cancelled), then went back down for the re-scheduled launch (wasting more money).
I think these guys have too much time and (our) money on there hands.
I'm about the opposite of a Bush supporter but... if he'd had some fancy schmancy plasma screen he'd get scoffs for being a waster of public funds.
Then again the Feds are so deep in debt (and deficit) maybe they sold all the plasmas in favor of some 'pre-owned' cheapies.
He uses an IPOD in a picture so he can look tech savy with the latest music craze.
He watches the shuttle on an old fashion bulb TV to look good ole fashion for those 1960s sentimentalists.
He uses a twang accent to appeal to Texans, southerners.
Is it all staged? Absolutely! Does it work? Absolutely!
We Got Wagged From Yesterday till Tomorrow ... we have short memories and like to get taken advantage of. It's the way human beings are ... herd like mentality ... all the way to the slaughterhouse.
You didn't think they actually spent $10,000 for a hammer and $30,000 for a 13-inch TV/VCR, did you?
Yeah Pete, thanks indeed for enabling comments on this post. Good to know Engadget attracts the literati...
#34: It's not "just a tv" -- it's a VCR, too.
Maybe I notice too much but...
Is that a mirror on the far wall?
If it is shouldn't we be seeing a reflection of the camera/cameraman/device that took this photo?
Eh; no biggie. It's probably some akward angle or whatever that hides it but still. Conspiracy Theorists are examining this photo now.
Hmmmm...
Clinton's TV had Barely Legal Fat Chicks on it.
Kerry's TV served in the manner of Jenjiss Khan.
Obviously television sets are a direct reflection of everything that makes a person what they are. Bush's far inferior television shows the world just how inept he is on even the most basic level of human existence. I'm surprised photos like this made it into the general public. I would expect dozens of hard-faced government officials to have taken action to kill anyone who knew about these pictures and eradicated all evidence of them ever having been taken...
Honestly, people, have we degraded to such low ambition that we can't even find valid criticisms of a blatantly incompetent politician? This kind of latent thinking is what led to Bush's ability to rig the election in 2000 and then become re-elected again in 2004. The people who can recognize the corruption, lies and conspiracies do nothing. They succumb to the power of other people's opinion. They are unwilling to fight... to challenge the ignorant and conservative. Stop nit-picking at superficial details and start taking political action yourself if you feel so strongly opposed to the president. Maybe forget your dreams of designing video game software and go into politics... Otherwise quench your petty cynicism... no one cares about the incredible contrast between your infinitely wonderful electronic equipment versus the unnervingly obsolete 13-inch television Bush sat down and watched for what was probably something like three minutes...
Feel really strongly about debating this with me? E-mail me: TheKGE@hotmail.com
Take a closer look if you wish:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/123587main_bush_launch_full.jpg
You guys are all d-bags. I am embarrassed that I even read to the bottom of the comments. I am ashamed for 90% of you.
Re 54
Joe, thats just the easy way out. If he had said twice the area of that, then your reasoning would work. But to make it a point to say 13" and then toss out 2x. Well, one is just setting themselves up. :)
oh Snyder. Please pray for us all,*makes sign of the cross motion* bush is...
"hey, killing brown people to raise approval ratings and open up some oil fields for daddy's buddies isn't cheap.
gotta cut corners somewhere."
Exactly, that is why I define liberals as these people:
"You blame America's over-reliance on foreign oil as the prime source of money for terrorism, but if a solar-powered car were invented tomorrow (reducing our dependence on foreign oil to zero), you would then say that it's America's fault that the Arab world is poor (and would start making excuses for future terrorist attacks based upon that premise)."
and
"3) You're unable to grasp the global war on terrorism unless Michael Moore boils it down and spoon feeds it to you as "America is killing brown people," after which you conclude that America is evil."
As everyone knows, Bush is Hitler:
go here if you don't believe me:
http://blamebush.typepad.com
Ha! That's not even an American unit, it's a Panasonic. Check out the hi-res photo from Nasa's website. Thanks #70.
i was wondering how long it would take before this thread went political. it actually took longer then i thought.
Plasma TV's suck. Screen burnin is like the 1960's all over again. And for the money ought to last longer
Blue Carpet...?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/images/20030508-1_p29612-02a-1-515h.html
To Joseph and all the bush haters:
I must admit I voted for Him so I am slightly bias. But... many are saying out of touch! All you left wing liberal tree huggers still dont understand why you lost? "Ideas" you have none! Hype, anger, blame, conspiracy theories wont help you get elected!
I dont know if there is a city called futurama in the US but most citizens dont have a plasma and when they see the President act and live like a everyday folk, its impressive. A humble and modest president in my books is better then lets say "the inventor of the internet" al bore!
Learn it now or you will repeat your results. There is no Pearl Jam concert, MTV hack, P Diddy event thats gonna win you elections, PERIOD! I'll give you an example of who learned this. Ms. Clinton.. who has begun shifting more conservative.. she full of BS but still got to admire her intuition.. as Mr. Dean would say..YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
WTF?
You'd think that with all his big money corporate doners that one could've at least given him a crappy Chinese made 20" TV..
first of on the patch job, if you look at it you see that the pattern on the patch is the same as the carpet, so that means that it was put there on purpose and made to look nice. maybe it was for his dirty boots. secondly the tv is on a table that doesnt match or fit in. so that means that it was put there just for that moment. he probably brought it in himself. so leave the man alone, i dont think everyone with money HAS to have a expensive tv!!
These are some LAME putdowns.
You know damn well where that carpet patch came from! Slick Willey left a little something on the carptet. Evidently Monica didn't swallow. That stuff doesn't come out with RESOLVE, you know.
#12:
sorry to disapoint you, but USA is not the richest country in the world. It would be if it were the only country but it's not.
Umm, excuse me, but is this a gadget site or not? The only people likely to read this are ones unnaturally drawn to gadgets, whatever the political persuasion. As an audio gadget buff, it always mystified me that presidents of the US since LBJ have used the same model $60 microphone (Shure SM-57). I always assumed that they just didn't care for some reason. Looking at this and reading these comments, I have to say it is part of an image carefully calculated to seem "down home." There must be dozens of people around the president, planning exactly how he should come off to the public. This is their best shot.
...And so the continued degeneration of Engadget finally reaches its nadir.
Pre-birth consciousness would have to be possible for any furtherance of immaturity to be occur.
#83:
That TV has obviously been there for ages:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/images/20030508-1_p29612-02a-1-515h.html
When I went on a class trip to the whitehouse, some of the security was telling us that Ol' George has a bunch of plasma screens, as well as a personal theatre. This photo was obiviously taken so the American public will not be angry about George watching a better TV then their own.
#13 You crack me up. The GDP per capita of the U.S.A. is not the highest in the world. Luxembourg beats you :) So before you spout on about the US being the richest country in the world, check your facts.
Oh and if I'm not mistaken China may well be able to beat you on the "richest in the world" claim. Sure it's GDP per capita isn't the highest, but as of a few weeks ago the government changed the value of Chinese currency, which in essence puts the 2004 estimates of the CIA out of wack. ie, China is gonna be the richest country in the world pretty soon (or at least the most powerful). Why else do you think your government is doing a "threat analysis" as we speak?
Oh and the photo is cool :B Judging from the TV and the brand, I'd say they don't replace it very often.
G.W. got his first color teevee! What a great posterchild for moving to all-digital broadcasts by 2009.
Say, is that a box of CUBAN cigars on the table?
G.W. got his first color teevee! What a great posterchild for moving to all-digital broadcasts by 2009.
Say, is that a box of CUBAN cigars on the table?
Quote:
Posted Jul 28, 2005, 12:11 PM ET by Peter Rojas
P.S. - Don't make me regret leaving the comments on for this post, ok?
end Quote.
I bet you regret it now..
#90 Kevin T. - Just to keep you up to speed, the White House has a theater room so Presidents can screen films without leaving the 'House'. Its no more Bush's than it was Clinton's.
As for the TV I'm glad its not one of those 100"+ Plasmas we saw blogged here a few months ago, because then I'd have just another thing to complain about.
Has it escaped everyone that everything else in the room (tables, drapes, mirror, suit & tie, haircut, carpet, etc.) is all probably inordinately expensive? A plasma tv would barely be a drop in the proverbial bucket (and a big bucket at that!).
Funny how people who claim the President isn't a very bright man most likely supported "the other candidate" in the past election who earned worse grades than Bush in college, and didn't even have the excuse that he was partying hard at the time to explain the academic deficiencies. John Belushi's character in "Animal House" was based upon the current President during his days at college. You couldn't make a movie out of Kerry or Gore unless it had to do with watching the paint dry on a wall.
i guess this is the price justification for those solid gold toilet seats