In 1889, Benjamin Harrison planted a scarlet oak tree on the north lawn of the White House. In 2007, it was split in half by a storm and fell. Last year, President Bush tried to plant a new scarlet oak, but it didn’t take and tree experts recommended planting a sturdier tree. So, President Obama decided to plant a tilden tree. But, leave it to our macho-man president to only do the work necessary to capture a photo op… and to be afraid of getting his shoes dirty.

The 25-foot Tilden Tree, hailing from New Jersey, was already in the ground near from the northeast side of the White House gate on the North Lawn when the President walked down the driveway in a full suit, and onto a small carpet to shield his shoes from the mud.

White House Usher Admiral Stephen Rochon and Dale Haney, superintendent of grounds, helped the President shift dirt with small gold shovels from a small pile sitting next to the tree to the hole around the tree which had not been filled in yet.

“That’s my tree, that’s a nice looking tree,” the President said noting that his grounds superintendent told him it would be grow to be a good-sized tree, “that’s a nice looking tree, don’t you think?”

Using a gold shovel used at two prior tree plantings during the Bush administration, Mr. Obama only shoveled nine shovels full of dirt, barely making a dent in the hole that needed to be filled, and noted that the photo-opt wasn’t really a proper demonstration of the work that really needed to be done to plant a tree.

“This is a little easier than it should be,” Obama said to press, “although I probably could not lift this on my own.”

Um, what kind of man is afraid to get his freakin’ shoes dirty? What kind of man can’t shovel a few piles a dirt?