Presidential Pen

1:32 am EST January 25th, 2009 | News | 13 Comments

Wait, the president gets his own unique pen with his freaking signature on it? No wonder they try so hard for the job.

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13 Responses to “Presidential Pen”

  1. durablend says:
    January 25, 2009 at 7:38 am

    Damn elitist!

  2. ed says:
    January 25, 2009 at 9:19 am

    Don’t like. The fetishization of the office of the President is an unfortunate trend. This isn’t as bad a Commander Bunnypants’s presidential sox or faux military garb, but I still don’t like it. If the office of really needs a fancy pen to convey importance (and I guess it might), so be it, but spare me the emblems and signatures and what have you.

  3. Luv says:
    January 25, 2009 at 9:31 am

    Are you kidding me? It’s just a pen. If the damned President can’t have a personalized pen, noone should. This is a pen used to sign executive orders and laws into existence. Things that affect BILLIONS of people.

    Get over yourself, ed.

  4. ed says:
    January 25, 2009 at 10:58 am

    Get over yourself, ed.

    Um, I’m not the one with a George Bush, Junior-esque pen. It’s like Momma used to say, shitty fetishization is as shitty fetishization does.

    Anything to avoid the appearance of monarchy and what have you.

  5. Parthenon says:
    January 25, 2009 at 11:53 am

    We monarchize the president a little bit in this country precisely because we DON’T have a titular royal head of state, a face of the nation, as it were. British MPs can scream at and boo the PM all they like; we’d never see that kind of thing in the US.

    It’s a bad habit, but a pen’s relatively harmless. Barack strikes me as a pretty down-to-earth cat.

  6. Carol says:
    January 25, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    The Presidential Pens are also used as mementoes at a signing. Everybody gets a replica pen. Think of it as the equivalent of calling cards or business cards, or those freebies people get when visiting an office.

  7. Crusty Dem says:
    January 25, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    Of course, if this were a George W Bush pen, we’d all joke about how the signature is on the pen so he can remember how to sign his name. I miss the easy jokes, if not the source of them…

  8. fafaroo says:
    January 25, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    We monarchize the president a little bit in this country precisely because we DON’T have a titular royal head of state, a face of the nation, as it were.

    Aren’t you forgetting Tom Hanks or Scarlett Johansen?

  9. Parthenon says:
    January 25, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    Fair point. It’s probably more accurate to say celebrities and the president split monarchical ‘duties’ in the US.

  10. ed says:
    January 25, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    It’s a bad habit, but a pen’s relatively harmless.

    Which is essentially what I said.

    The Presidential Pens are also used as mementoes at a signing.

    I get that. It’s still stupid.

  11. fafaroo says:
    January 25, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    I get that. It’s still stupid.

    And I’m a sure a Bic appear just as significant 80 years from now in the Smithsonian.

  12. Duros 62 says:
    January 26, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    All in all, after seeing those 3 photographers in the NYT, I’m glad to see what they were shooting at.
    And hey, Presidential mementos are a cottage industry. Somebody’s got a job because of them. What’s the big deal?

  13. Felisa says:
    February 1, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    It is a tradition for the President to have his own specially engraved pen. Google it if you are not in the know. Former President Bush used one similar to President Obama’s, except the color (an of course signature) are different.

    BTW they are not actually replicas. There are so many of these pens manufactured for the President. Who knows who has the “original” or not…