I seriously doubt his contract would force him to participate in a political event.
:rolleyes: You must be a hoot around Christmas time explaining Santa to kids.
Actually, the team was well within its rights to punish him for not participating in a team activity. They chose not to.
It wasn’t a political event. No one asked Thomas to hold up a “Douche Bags for Obama” sign.
It was a step above a ribbon cutting, ferchrissakes.
In fact it was a “You guys are really great, particularly Tim Thomas” event.
put on by a politician. Why not just baptize him while you’re at it.
I’m of the opinion that it was really put on more by the “office of the president”, since these events are now pretty standard, and are done no matter who is in the office. I’m pretty confident that this event was not a unique one for sports teams, driven entirely by Obama’s personal request. It was not a political event, put on by a politician. It was a symbolic event, put on by the Office of the President of the United States.
So Mr. Tim (Douchbag) Thomas was really crapping on the office of the President, not the man in the office.
I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. I don’t object to Thomas not going (although it sounds like he was bullshitting about his reasons). But it’s a nonpartisan event. His presence wouldn’t wins any votes for Obama nor would it constitute an endorsement. I’m not sure it even reaches the ribbon-cutting level. Ribbon cuttings are usually about politicians trying to get credit and publicity in the hope they’ll be rewarded with votes; this is an honor for a team that won a sports championship without any involvement from Obama.
It means religion and politics are not something you could compel an employee to participate in.
You can’t compel someone to be political camera fodder for a politician.
Your argument only works if it’s a function of the office of the president to preside over photo-ops of winning sports teams. Douchbag works just as well for a President who uses other people to garner positive camera time.
I guess Thomas is going to put a dent in Obama’s support in Boston.
Douchebag fails to be a particularly useful descriptor when every president within recent memory has invited every winning US-based NHL, MLB, NFL and NBA team (among others I’m certain) to the White House for congratulations. It’s like dinging him for throwing out the first pitch at the Nationals’ home-opener. Every President does it (when there’s been a Washington team).
Well… it seems like all modern presidents do it. I understand that a tinfoil hat can serve as a subliminal message to the masses that you don’t support the particular president you’re being photographed with.
Also, dooshbagg. Just for funsies, since we can’t seem to agree on a spelling.
Yes, it describes every baby-kissing publicity suck-up politician who ever walked the earth. Your point is?
That sweater is gift *from *the Bruins *to *the President. Tim Thomas’s team was gracious enough to offer that. Tim Thomas wasn’t compelled to do shit.
Well duh.
That the term douchebag is losing its valuable power to insult real douchebags if we use it for petty stuff like this!
Well, duh back at you. How can you lay blame for Obama manufacturing a photo-op, when the friggin’ thing wasn’t his idea in the first place?
I suspect the answer to that is also “Well, duh.” 
Gee, you seem to have (conveniently?) overlooked posting the rest of your cite:
"Epstein did not attend the ’08 ceremony, citing “family reasons,” and his absence barely registered. It was overshadowed by the no-show by Manny Ramirez, whose absence from the stage was noted by Bush himself. "
There was no flood of negative invective over Manny’s snub. No doubt it was cavalierly excused as ‘Manny being Manny’
As for Epstein, sitting in the audience, with an explanation of deferring to the real stars, is an oh-so convenient thinly veiled excuse to avoid being on stage in a visible interaction with Bush and having to shake his hand. Funny how Theo didn’t defer interviews in the post championship celebratory locker room, or appearing with the team on the Duckboat parade through the city of Boston, given the ‘noble’ commitment he stated at this ONE AND ONLY event to stay out of the spotlight. Skipping the subsequent ceremony entirely for generic ‘personal reasons’ is a transparent snub w/o even having to suffer the indignity of being in the audience. A point was made of how this absence ‘barely registered,’ apparently citing the lack of media attention as confirmation that it was ok – which supports my point: Theo was given a free pass on his snub by media and talking heads on the Left because he was a liberal and it was, after all, George Bush, who in their opinion deserved every slight visited upon him by libs and Dems! To paraphrase another poster on this board, “When the pres invites you to the Whitehouse, you go, make polite noises and shake his hand.” That would supersede ‘personal’ excuses, as well - unless Theo had a death in the family!
People were already clubbing Tim Thomas over the head for his absence and concluding it was politically based BEFORE he finally released a statement. The notion that he missed it for ‘personal reasons’ was suggested by some on the various boards and immediately blasted by hoards of Obama supporters. I wonder if Thomas was given the option of joining his teammates on the visit while sitting out the onstage ceremony. AND I further wonder if that would have mollified the bitter partisan bashers. I find it doubtful. There were even a substantial portion of posters on some blogs that libelously attributed Tim’s motivation to RACISM - b/c he had deep ideological issues with a pres who HAPPENS to be black. Such vulgar slanders as repeatedly playing the inflammatory and inappropriate race card when anyone disagrees with the extreme agenda of this pres is indicative of the divisive climate his rhetoric and actions on the topic have stirred.
Retraction and apology? I don’t think so.
I WILL, however, apologize to anyone offended by the aggressive language of my initial post. Responding to the moderator: no, I was not aware of the general tone and decorum of this board. I happened to stumble upon it during a search and was used to the vitriolic and bombastic nature of the Boston-based sports chatboard I had previously been at. Sadly, I’m not used to finding any outlets or posters who wish to, or are capable of, intelligent and civil debate on topics of dissent.
I don’t recall mentioning anything about the shirt. Did you think they were going to bring a bottle of wine with them? The shirt is irrelevant to the fact that it’s a photo-op.
So putting the obvious aside, this isn’t some candid shot of the President picking his nose on vacation, this is a deliberate professional photograph of him surrounded by a winning sports team.