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Obama's turkey pardon: Traditional fest
by Mark Silva and updated with the pardons
President Barack Obama hasn't pardoned any people yet -- demonstrating a definitely deliberative tendency in the exercise of his constitutional clemency power -- but today he let a couple of turkeys go.
The White House pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey, a high tradition that dates to President Harry Truman's time, played out on the North Portico today, where two turkeys -- one a stand-in for good measure -- were spared the holiday butcher's knives with a presidential sendoff to the ceremenonial task of riding in Disney's Thanksgiving Day parade.
The president pardoned a 48-pound bird named Courage, but not without noting that he'd just as soon eat "this sucker.''
The last president, who already was a lame duck when he pardoned his last birds, may have seemed a more natural fit for this fowl-excuse of an event, Bush of the brush-clearing Texas ranch persuasion. (See the photo of Bush below, by the 's Gerald Herbert.) The citified Chicagoan who has moved into the White House may seem less suited for a hands-on experience with a wary turkey. But wait, Obama was a constitutional law professor, and there is an emerging legal field of animal rights.
Obama had daughters Malia and Sasha by his side, the two girls smiling wide as the president saluted the National Turkey Federation for donating this year's turkey, named Courage, from Goldsboro, N.C., and the alternate, named Carolina.
"Gobble, gobble,'' said Courage, interrupting Obama, who noted that Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson ate their turkeys.
"Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sashabecause I was planning to eat this suckerCourage also will be spared this terrible and delicious fate,'' Obama said.
"There are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office,'' Obama said, "and then there are moments like this, when I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland.''
He went on to pardon Courage, before the first dog, Bo, got involved and "screwed up'' the pardon. -- "Is there an official gesture?''asked Obama, holding a hand up like a Star Wars warrior. "Courage, you are hereby pardoned, you will live in Disneyland.'' .
"He's like a large chicken,'' a daughter noted.
"He is like a large chicken,'' the father said. "I don't know about the haircut, though.''
(The ordinarily Rose Garden-picture-perfect ceremonywas moved to the cover of the portico on a mistiy morning on the eve of Thanksgiving, and is viewable, at White House's live-streaming Web-site.)
"I am humbled by the privilege that it is to serve, and I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to every service member at home or in harm's way,'' the president said, on a more serious note today. Tomorrow, he said, he and his family will "remember... this is a time when so many members of our American families are hurting... There is a long way to go and a lot of work to do.
"In more tranquil times, it's easierr to notice our many blessing... In times like this, they resonate more powerful,'' he said. "This is an era of new hardships and perils.. We are Americans, and for all this, we give our humble thanks... On this quintessential American holiday.''
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In the actual constitutional pardon department, during two and a quarter centuries, only three presidents have proven slower than Obama in exercising their authority of executive clemencygranting either pardons or commutations of sentences to the convicted -- with thousands of applications pending at the Justice Department.
Our expert on this is P.S. Ruckman Jr, associate professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., who has noted that Obama recently passed Nixon with his reluctance to initial the first pardon -- Nixon, of course, got a pardon of his own later. The other four pardon ponderers were George Washington, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who created quite a stir with his final day's pardons.
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