Monday, October 20, 2008

Ref question of the day

From one of our frequent callers:

"Does the President pay rent at the White House?"

Follow-up questions from the patron included

"What salary does the President get?"
"Does the Vice President Pay rent?"
"How many children does Sarah Palin have?"


As best as I could tell, he was trying to compare incomes and costs of living for these different stations to see how much worse off financially Sarah Palin is than those currently holding the post of President and Vice President. (There was some confusion on his part as to whether Sarah Palin was currently living at the Vice President's residence at Number One Observatory Circle. He seemed to believe that she is, despite my repeated efforts to clarify with him that Cheney is current VP, not Sarah Palin.)



Some of these answers were located thanks to a wonderful page at the Internet Public Library. And the lovely "Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Presidency" explains, "One of the luxuries that presidents and their families enjoy is the rent-free White House mansion...almost every imaginable convenience is available to the president within the White House complex...including a theater, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, tennis courts, a bowling alley, a putting green, a jogging track, and a library regularly supplied by the publishing industry." Which would explain what Bush has been doing for the past eight years, except for the part about the library.



The patron explained to me in great detail his theory that Sarah Palin is more in tune with the average American, thanks to her paltry $125,000 salary and the fact that she has five kids to feed. (Because I'm sure that the average American has appeared in Vogue and is worth 1.2 million dollars. )



Bah.

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