Opinion: It's A Nice Day For a White House Wedding

By Edward McClelland

| Friday, Jun 15, 2012 | Updated 11:12 AM CDT

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Opinion: It's A Nice Day For a White House Wedding

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WASHINGTON - Overcast skies blanket the White House early on Nov. 5, 2008. The nation's capitol awoke this morning along with the rest of the country to news that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) had been elected president.

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I’m sure it’s too late to rewrite the invitations, but wouldn’t it be nice if Valerie Jarrett’s daughter got married at the White House, instead of in Kenwood? That way, the Chicago Police Department wouldn’t have to pull 100 officers off the street to protect the president and other A-list guests during what could turn out to be one of the hottest, most violent weekend yet of a hot, violent year.

The White House already is already surrounded by an iron fence, and is protected full time by the Secret Service and the Park Police. It wouldn’t require more cops.

Every bride has the right to get married in her hometown, but if it’s such a big deal for Jarrett to have Barack at her daughter’s wedding (and you know it is), she should do it in Washington, out of respect for the safety of the common folks in her hometown. Plus, the event would make history. There has not been a White House wedding since 1971, when Tricia Nixon married Edward Cox.

Some other famous White House weddings:

Lynda Bird Johnson marries Charles Robb, 1967 (After marrying into the First Family, Robb became a Virginia governor and senator.)

Eleanor Wilson marries Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo, 1914 (McAdoo, a widower, was old enough to be the bride’s father. He eventually divorced the First Daughter and took up with a 26-year-old nurse.)

Alice Roosevelt marries Rep. Nicholas Longworth, 1906 (Longworth later became Speaker of the House; on the other hand, the couple’s only child was result of Alice’s affair with a senator.)

Frances Folsom marries President Grover Cleveland, 1886 (Cleveland was the only president to be married in the White House. The 49-year-old Beast of Buffalo lived up to his nickname by taking a 21-year-old bride he had known since she was a child.)

Maria Monroe marries Samuel Gouvernour, 1820 (In the first White House wedding, President Monroe’s 17-year-old daughter married her first cousin.)

Buy this book! Ward Room blogger Edward McClelland's book, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President , is available Amazon. Young Mr. Obama includes reporting on President Obama's earliest days in the Windy City, covering how a presumptuous young man transformed himself into presidential material. Buy it now!

Related Topics Opinion, White House, Rahm Emanuel

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