Obama Signs Budget Bill; White House a Lonely Place

…Or, maybe I should I have titled this: Obama Finally Does Eat His Peas.

Working through the White House Debt and Deficit Negotiations Flickr set, here’s what we find last, and yes, least (#20 out of 20). It’s bad enough Obama had to sign that dog all by his lonesome (save for Souza, not necessarily to record it for posterity but to pretend they were proud of getting any deal done), but the the indignity of having to stoop through the ritual (here’s one pen for Boehner … another one for Cantor … another one for McConnell) 22 times?!

(No surprise, by the way, that Obama winds up commemorating alone when the odyssey — #1 in the Flickr set — kicks off with this. And for real contrast,  — morally as well as tonally — check out the last WH Flickr shot before the grim Deficit series begins.)

(photo 1 & 2: Pete Souza/White House. caption: President Barack Obama signs the Budget Control Act of 2011 in the Oval Office, Aug. 2, 2011. caption 2: President Barack Obama meets with Speaker of the House John Boehner on the patio near the Oval Office, Sunday, July 3, 2011.)