In Fairness To Speaker Boehner

Yesterday we took John Boehner to task for declining to attend last night’s State Dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao.  We noted that given his stature as arguably the second most powerful politician in our country and the leader of the opposition party, his absence from this important event was inappropriate.

In fairness to Speaker Boehner; last night we learned that Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also had better things to do than to join the President in welcoming Hu.  While their absence is not as important as Speaker Boehner’s we feel that they should have been there as well. 

This was an event hosted by our government in which we welcomed the country that will be our foremost partner, competitor and adversary in the twenty first century.  While this event may have been merely a show of pomp and circumstance, optics are in fact important.  And given the importance the Chinese place on protocol and stature the snub by three of our most important political leaders was certainly felt.