![]() ![]() The Obamas cut back the ritual in part because it is demanding and time-consuming - each line lasts as long as 2 1/2 hours - and in part because they wanted to give as many people as possible an opportunity to visit the White House. ![]() Congress and the news media are among the groups that still stand in line for the presidential grip-and-grin. ![]() Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, worked a photo line at each of the 25 holiday parties he hosted in 2008, his last year in office, but the Obama White House has eliminated all but a handful. Obama, who barely tolerates the schmoozing that is presidential tradition, does far fewer receiving lines than his predecessors. “To staff the president and first lady at the holiday photo line is to observe humanity in its most awkward state,” said Bill Burton, a former top press official in Obama’s White House. Family members are introduced - and often star-struck. Jokes are told, interviews requested, and unsolicited advice given to the president along with handshakes, high fives and the not-infrequent deer-in-headlights stare from a speechless guest. PHOTOLINE MAKE BLACK AND WHITE FREEThe president told her it was not that simple, according to an account she later gave to The Washington Free Beacon. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told Obama last year in one such brief exchange, taking advantage of her last holiday soiree with the president before leaving Congress. “You need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities,” former Rep. PHOTOLINE MAKE BLACK AND WHITE PROFESSIONALEagerly anticipated, sometimes politically fraught and often agonizingly awkward, photo-line banter with the president has become a staple of the holiday season in Washington, where yuletide ritual meets professional opportunism - all in the course of about 6 seconds. It was one of hundreds of seconds-long interactions that the president and the first lady, Michelle Obama, are having with guests at some of the 20 holiday receptions that crowd their lives each December. “It’s hard to be the grown-up in the nation.” Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., told Obama as he stopped to have his picture taken with him in the photo line at the black-tie congressional ball last week. “That was a good speech you gave last night, Mr. WASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama faced public criticism over his Oval Office address on terrorism this month, one lawmaker took a private moment during a holiday party at the White House to reassure the commander in chief. ![]()
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