A peek inside last night's White House christmas reception

I went to the WhiteHouse Christmas reception last night. It was a truly bizarre experience. Everyone seemed to be from Texas. You'd expect some people to be from Texas. But, I mean, everyone was from Texas. Midway through I realised this was meant to be reception for donors, meaning there is presumably another one later in the month for normal people. Anyway, it showed. Republican donors seemed a bit like those famous Japanese soldiers, still fighting the war, ten years after the armistice. One guy, while trying to chat me up, tried a charming line about how "the gay marriage issue" was just a "weapon to bludgeon people of faith." After a while, I just walked away. You just can't have a rational conversation with these people.

The event was extraordinarily male. I was also annoyed at the functions assigned to military personnel. It seemed like most of the hosting responsibilities—everything from ushering people through the photo line to pointing the way to the restrooms—were covered by men and women in uniform, acting as little more than demeaned flunkies. There was a good-looking young guy with a military haircut wheeling himself around in a wheelchair with no legs. Painful to watch.

It was also perhaps the most racially homogeneous setting I've ever witnessed. People talked about the Republican convention as being white. But this crowd was literally 99 percent white. There were a few random Asians, presumably rich donors. But no African Americans beyond the help. This is America. Obscene is the only word I could assign to it.

And the president? The icing on the cake of a truly bad evening. I watched with some horror as he joked around in the photo line, like a teenage boy. He looked terrible; about as unpresidential as possible. Overall, I did my very best to give off an air of complete indifference. It surprisingly easy to do. It just hurts thinking about the fact that this man was president of the US for eight years and I voted for him. Twice.