Jenna Bush skips her graduation ceremony

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052204dntexjenna.1e9a3c2b6.html

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Jenna Bush skips her graduation ceremony

04:19 PM CDT on Saturday, May 22, 2004

Associated Press

AUSTIN - President Bush wasn't the only one who skipped the pomp and circumstance of his daughter's graduation from the University of Texas on Saturday. Jenna Bush did not participate either.



Despite her name being listed on the commencement program, Jenna Bush was not among the more than 150 English majors receiving degrees Saturday afternoon at the Austin campus. Attendance at the event is not required to graduate from the university.



Aides have said President Bush and first lady Laura Bush decided to skip their 22-year-old twin daughters' graduations because their presence and that of White House security would be disruptive.

<snip>

Not.

Probably too busy getting drunk with daddy. They don't get to spend much quality time together anymore.

I wouldn't kick either one of them out of bed, though. Would any guy here?

:puke:

Good loving knows no politics.

:smoke:

It's a light-hearted subject, and I've been appropriately light-hearted about it. But talk of boning the President's daughters belongs in some other discussion group. I know not which one, but I hope you go there soon, and get your kicks, and what-not.

He's just screwing around. I hate Bush as much as anyone here, but Jenna is hot.

They're younger than my own daughter.

BTW, nice progressive position you espoused there - NOT!!!!!

Let the flamefest begin......

I doubt I could eat in the same restaurant with either of them without losing my lunch. They're poster-children for dysfunctional parenting - without character, integrity, empathy, or even a sense of hygiene. When I went to school, we called these people "tramps" and "sluts" ... the kind of "good time" girls that can be found in seedy towns around any military base. They make Monica look good in comparison ... someone I'd not even be able to shake hands with for fear of getting some disease.

"Throw them out of bed"? Hell, I wouldn't even be able to use the bed-linens without thorough laundering. :puke:

I guessed that because you were replying to a message about Jenna and W getting drunk together, you were implying that you "wouldn't kick either one of them out of bed": I read that as boning Jenna and/or W.

Now: I'm all for gay rights, but pul-eeeze!!!!

Tut-tut

I like to think I have much higher standards in women.

No matter how pretty they are, you can never get past the lack depth and character.

David Allen
www.thoughtcrimes.org
Distrusting the Government Since 1984

with skipping a voluntary thing?

How does that not show class?

I'm sure she has a SS detail. By not being there, she saved the other students and families hassles with security.

Probably some incredibly rich progeny of a really right wing Republican family.

been with for four years. All the experiences you had together. The great feeling of stepping into a new life and watching everyone do it together.

This family is a little too strange for me. (To be in a leadership position.)

Talk about Family Values?

I skipped my graduation. All my friends graduated at different times. They didn't call each person's name get his/her diploma, I figured what was the point. I loved my college career, but when it was over it was over and I was ready to go.

I may or may not attend when I get my Master's.

I knew NOBODY sitting within 10 (at least) spaces of me.

I spent the commencement speech getting drunk around people I didn't know (we were arranged alphabetically, and I was the ONLY one smart enough or crazy enough to bring a cooler filled with chilled vodka, which I carried across the stage with me, half empty by then) and heckling the RW politico who was giving the commencement address.

All in all, I'd rather have been getting laid or getting my feet scraped.

everyone and everyone knew everyone and everyone was really happy for each other at our graduation. It's seems hard not to know everyone after being together for four years.

of being part of a class of 5,000+ graduating students.

I knew people in my department, but we weren't organized by department, they alphebetized everybody, and that's how we marched. It was pretty stupid.

I graduated in January, and the ceremony was in June. I was in England at the time.

I also only went to the school for 2 years, and most of my friends had already graduated. I've never been much into ceremonies, anyway.

pickles skipped her graduation, too.

speaker was! And to think recently it was reported that the speaker of her graduating class was....George Herbert Walker Bush! Oh, and I think she said that she was at the graduation ceremony. Man, these asses can't get any of their stories straight!

before or after Pickles killed her boyfriend?

...toward education.

"No way they'd start the commencement without you..."

don't you..............

Even after Smirky's daddy intervened. They wrote back and told him his grades sucked and it didn't matter who his daddy was.

As I recall, they sent Poppy a letter to the effect of "We are sure that your son has a future somewhere, but it is not at the University of Texas Law School..."

:evilgrin:

Of course, Harvard Biz School was more than happy to accommodate the little shit...

:mad:

Jenna's a lush, but she's no dummy. It's likely that she realized that her father is extremely unpopular in Austin and she might have been heckled by-proxy.

JB

she didn't want to feel the wrath against her father.

I never understood the attacks on Chelsea and attacking the Bush kids is no better.

Heckling by one can give way to massive booing my hundreds. Crowd psych, you know.

JB

How can they talk about valuing education when they don't value it themselves?

Can't remember if they even attended their own graduation. Who could possibly forget!

Bush doesn't read. Proud that he was a "C" student. He mentioned it with so much pride at the college graduation the other day.

Don't encourage their children to attend graduation either.

Can't believe it!

I never went to my university convocation, nor did my wife go to hers. Neither of us like formal ceremonies and pomp, that's all. We even kept our wedding as low key as possible. We are both Canadian, though, and it could be that Americans have a different attitude about expectations for ceremonial occasions.

In this case, I don't think it is fair to attack the Bush girls, although the case could be made that as public figures they really should go, for the symbolic impact.

The POTUS's daughter is supposed to be an example to other kids her age in this country. She lives the life of privilege and she is more than happy to take all the perks. If the kid had gone out on her own and made her own way, I'd say do whatever the hell you please. But if you want to go fancy schools and live the high life on the tax payers dime, you can at least learn how to act like a lady. She does represent the United States of America, whether she likes it or not.

And I did mention something to the effect at the end of my post. I am not trying to be argumentative here, but honestly, if Chelsea Clinton would have passed on her convocation ceremony, would you have felt the same way.

I say this, because I think there can be a certain undercurrent of classism about these types of ceremonies. For example, these occasions can be used for ostentatious status displays. I would guess it is people from working class backgrounds that mostly skip these rite of passage ceremonies. At any rate, I think that applied in my case.

I know that doesn't apply to the Bush daughters, though. As offspring of political leaders, their behavior is bound to be scrutinized, and anything they do that is non-normative will be noticed and commented on. If they choose not to go, they should probably explain themselves. In their case, I very much doubt they were sending a message of opposition to bourgeois morality or anything like that. Probably just afraid of being booed, or doing a payback to daddy and mommy for not attending her convocation.

I guess I just didn't like the implication in most posts, that choosing to not attend convocation was somehow indicative of not valuing education.

I skipped my college graduation ceremony. I was a non-trad, I worked hard to get my BA but I didn't think spending $200-$300 on gown, invites, etc was going change anything. Kept my money in my pocket and put on a hell of a party for family and friends at my house instead. The last thing you could say about me is that I don't value education merely because I didn't force my family to sit through a very boring 3+ hour graduation ceremony.

But I also agree that Ms. Bush likely doesn't take her education seriously. I just dislike the appearance that that conclusion is based only upon her not attending graduation.

Yeah, attending graduation has nothing whatsoever to do with valuing education. People get too hung up on these displays as somehow indicative of actual substance.

>> I would guess it is people from working class backgrounds that mostly skip these rite of passage ceremonies. At any rate, I think that applied in my case.<<

And mine, too, come to think of it. I'm a graduate of the University of Texas, as it happens, and I also skipped my graduation ceremony. I couldn't see the point, really -- UT has a huge student body and I had never felt any emotional connection to students within my major, barely knew the names of more than a few of them.

Plus, there was no tradition of attending graduations in my family. My father didn't care whether I went to college or not, he was just relieved that my mother's family paid for my education. Perhaps my mother would have enjoyed attending the ceremony, but she didn't object to my skipping the formalities, so I'll never know if she was disappointed by my decision.

But I do have to admit that I'm surprised that the Bush family -- who are entrenched in the ranks of the ruling elite -- would skip the formalities. A hallmark of the upper classes is keeping up appearances at all costs. After all, nobody missed me or my working-class family at graduation, but the Bush absence has raised eyebrows.

--Boomer

Welcome to DU from a fellow Texas-Ex :hi: But you have to do something about that screen name. Boomer? You know what I thought of.:)

What the he** is a UT grad doing with the screen name "Boomer?" :P

Greetings from another Texas Ex.

Hook 'em!

RV

I thought she didn't want her dad to run...

The family of the President isn't royalty.

But I went through it FOUR times. B.A., M.Div., M.B.A., and J.D. I wouldn't have missed a single one of them for anything. I look at it as a rite of passage, and those are important to me. Not passing judgment on you, of course; like I said, different strokes.

Bake

They are representing the United States and education is there big push.

I know people that miss their graduation but they are not the first family.

n/t

:wtf:

I'm not commenting on what she & her family did or didn't do about their (the wins) graudations; I meant that if Chelsea skipped her graduation and her parents didn't go, the GOP media would have been all over it for another reason to bash the Clintons.

but we're better than that.

they showed video of the daughter and their mother like they're in the audience at graduation.? http://www.TheFirstTwins.com ?2 gaduations?Thought they went to same school.Anyway CBS didn't mention the 3 no-shows. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/22/eveningnews/main619077.shtml

Lots of students skip the day events.The individual colleges have ceremonies during the day/ The real ceremony is at 8:00 tonight outdoors in front of the Tower. The Tower is bathed in burnt orange and the ceremony climaxes with the singing of The Eyes of Texas.

HOOK 'EM Horns
Texas-Ex 1970

We spend thousand upon thousands of dollars on their education, even though it means that Mom and Dad must work their asses off even though they are over seventy five years old, and we get this shit from the first family, the first extraordinarily rich and settled first family, and the spoiled, rather slutful looking, brats that are the progeny of the spoiled, rather slutful looking parents?

I mean the first dysfunctional family is now determining the norm for college graduates who want to shove it up their parent's ass?

We do not need the example of a dysfuntional family or a dysfunctonal little brat, slut looking child, to serve up to our children as an example. They are NOT an example.

We can spawn better children than that, I am certain.

that her dad would be falling drunk....whoop there it is.

these 2 do.

and that they were saying they weren't just to throw the hecklers off. I thought they might attend undercover or something, but I guess doing what the masses do is too menial for this crowd.

Shit, I went to my graduation ceremony because it meant alot to both my parents and me; friendships didn't even factor into the equation. It was an important rite of passage.

These people didn't go because they think they are too good for it. Of course the media would never portray the SOB as the snob he is.

BTW, I hope Jenna gets banned from DU (if she was ever the visitor she was rumored to be). IF she's going to work for her stinking father's campaign, I don't think she has any business here.

The daytime ceremony IS NOT GRADUATION. The night ceremony IS GRADUATION. To say that she did not attend graduation is simply not accurate.

HOOK 'EM Horns
TEXAS-EX 1970

He he went he would get slagged for making it a security nightmare and not going gets him the raspberry as a deadbeat dad. When you hate someone bad enough you can justify any and all attacks and insults hurled their way.

So no one could go.

I don't plan on going to my graduation either. Not a big deal.

It's a 50/50 call. And it's better for the other grads.

I went to mine, but don't see why anyone should have to. It was probably better for the other students that she didn't. No secret service, she wasn't taking all the attention, etc.

Good point. There is so much significant stuff to criticze George W. Bush about, that we don't need to make too much of a graduation ceremony.

Who cares if they went to their graduation. A degree is just a piece of paper until you do something with it and if history repeats itself....the twins will make an attempt to hold down a position....setup by grandpa and daddy .....until they can find someone to breed with and carry on the genes.

Maybe they will surprise everyone and do something that benefits humanity ....that would be a first for a Bush.

I just heard of TV that Jenna wants to go into Education(that will leave a lot of children behind) and Barbara wants to help Aids Victims.

Let's pray they make grand contributions to our world because of their efforts.

Most likely she skipped it out of frustration that the Bushes refused to attend. I mean.. he can go SPEAK at someone else's graduation, but doesn't go to hers for security reasons.. and she doesn't attend? It's pretty obvious they don't get along with their father.. they've been absent for most of the holidays... I think she did it as a screw-you. IMHO

There was a story a few months back, about Laura and Jenna's European trip, and how the Euro Press gave Jenna crap about walking off of Air Force One in sandals, jeans and mussed-up-hair, or what-not.

I'm not one to pick on Presidential children, but one would expect... more, you know? Put the bong down, and attend graduation. Do it for your damned parents, if you have to. Who needs the political tongue-wagging?

Do these children not possess one God-given political bone in their bodies?

"Do these children not possess one God-given political bone in their bodies?"

I CERTAINLY FUCKING HOPE NOT!!!!!!

Imagine: Bush Daughter, 48th President of the United States...

Jaysus!!! I'm sorry I even brought it up!! :D I'm looking out for Jeb Bush's spawn, George, first, at any rate.

It is, however, difficult for me to believe that Jenna hasn't figured out the family business yet. Don't sweat the small stuff (underage drinking... we'll pretty much cut you a break until you're legal). Big stuff?? You'd best tend to the crop, no matter how distracting, foolish, irritating or boring it may seem at the time.

It's like anyone's family, really. You can skip the distant cousin's First Communion, but you'd never dream of skipping your sister's Baby Shower... ya know?

Amplify that by 10, and you've got Jenna's situation. Just go to the graduation already. Suffer the pomp, the heat, the circumstance, the cutesy-masking-tape-on-mortar-board statements. Just GO. Two hours out of your life, for your Pops, in an election year. Hold your head high. Look smart!!

It just blows my mind. My own, sweet, wonderful, non-First-Lady mother would have flat-out guilted me into doing this in 30 seconds or less.

be any more blindly loyal to him than we are?

Shoot, we've only had to deal with him nationally for 4 years. She's had to deal with him her entire life.

:beer:

I think we should lay off bashing them. It's really not their fault that they have a moron for a father.

Actually I had two, the big one for the whole campus and a smaller one for my college within the university. I skipped the big one in favor of the small one.

Three years later I had another graduation. My mother made me go to that one. I brought a book. Everyone was jealous.

Who wants to sit there and listen to some blowhard for an hour? I don't.

Spending the time it takes to get ready and then attending a graduation is much better spent getting drunk. I am serious about that.

them...all of the BUSHIES.....Live in palaces as their accustomed, breed many Arabs and raise in Saudi religion. That ought to do it!