Yes, where he STAYED in his ranch house for at least a couple of days instead of burning up Air Force One fuel and Secret Service resources.
A White House spokesman, responding to the latest trip, said the President is never really on vacation. Funny how this was defunct before January 2009.
I talked with my friends down on the Vineyard last night and they said other than the numerous helicopters flying low over their house day and night, certain public roads blocked off to traffic, and the hoards of Secret Service personnel and news media, you'd never know Obama was there.
I recently awoke from a coma, and I'm terribly offended!
said...
For Mr. Brooks17: 14 of G.W.Bush's first 54 vacation trips were to his Crawford ranch (102 days). The other 40 were to Camp David (123 days).
Through August 19, 2010, Obama had spent 38 days in various locations and 32 days at Camp David. Take away all of Bush's Crawford days and it still isn't close.
Yes, where he STAYED in his ranch house for at least a couple of days instead of burning up Air Force One fuel and Secret Service resources.
Hooray for George W. Bush, the first green President. Let's forget the time they shut down a San Diego hospital for him, cancelling chemotherapy appointments for some cancer patients. Or when they cancelled air traffic during his Katrina visit, thus delaying relief efforts and physically halting helicopters bearing the injured. Or when they locked down a highway for a Bush appearance in California, or shut a highway AND an airport in the vicinity of a Cheney campaign speech. Or the many other examples...stupid liberal Google.
Why can't Obama ride his horse to where he's headed, like Presidents used to do?
A White House spokesman, responding to the latest trip, said the President is never really on vacation. Funny how this was defunct before January 2009.
Bush's flacks said the same thing, as did Clinton's, and Bush's, and Reagan's... and they're largely correct.
What's funnier (and phonier) is the right's Insta-Gro concern over the logistics of Presidential travel, or the evils of excess vacation time, or the primacy of the federal deficit, or the use of teleprompters, or the slow response to a Gulf disaster, or for not "speaking out fast enough" about an attempted plane bombing, or using procedural moves to "cram" legislation through, or block "up or down" votes, and so forth.
I recently awoke from a coma, and I'm terribly offended!
said...
No, not mine. By the accounting of Mark Knoller, the longtime White House reporter who has kept precise records of Presidential down time for decades, and who is universally considered the go-to source for their vacation statistics. Knoller's most recent article on the subject begins, "Every White House is a bit defensive about presidential vacations and President Obama's staff is no exception."
In total, Bush spent all or part of 977 days vacationing in Crawford and Camp David. Just to catch up to Bush's PACE by the end of this year, Never-There Barack would have to take off EVERY day from today through December 71st, 2010. Not a typo: the seventy-first.
The sudden obsession with Obama's purported absenteeism is two-faced nonsense.
I understand your point: quantity trumps quality. By that logic, Obama can (appropriately!) move into the Palace of Versailles but he'll never catch up to Dubya. Gotcha.
Should Obama be defensive about his vacation? Well you would think somebody in the White House would tell him that the "optics" of going to Martha's Vineyard when unemployment is 9.5% is not favorable. But then the White House is not America.
I recently awoke from a coma, and I'm terribly offended!
said...
Has Obama spent his time in Martha's Vineyard ignoring briefings and memos about Bin Laden's imminent attack plans? Has Obama presented an inspirational photograph of his Gulf swim as a perk to his top campaign donors? I do not think either performance or imagemaking are rhetorical roads you want to go down.
12 comments:
As of August 19, 2010, Obama has spent all or part of 70 days away from the White House, on 25 separate vacations or Camp David stays.
At the identical point of his first term, George W. Bush had taken 54 such trips, for a total of 225 days away.
Ah, phony rightwing affronts. Who says America doesn't manufacture things anymore?
Of course, Coma Boy fails to mention that many, if not most, of GWB's trips were to his place in Crawford.
Yes, where he STAYED in his ranch house for at least a couple of days instead of burning up Air Force One fuel and Secret Service resources.
A White House spokesman, responding to the latest trip, said the President is never really on vacation. Funny how this was defunct before January 2009.
I talked with my friends down on the Vineyard last night and they said other than the numerous helicopters flying low over their house day and night, certain public roads blocked off to traffic, and the hoards of Secret Service personnel and news media, you'd never know Obama was there.
I heard it was the same deal in Los Angeles.
For Mr. Brooks17: 14 of G.W.Bush's first 54 vacation trips were to his Crawford ranch (102 days). The other 40 were to Camp David (123 days).
Through August 19, 2010, Obama had spent 38 days in various locations and 32 days at Camp David. Take away all of Bush's Crawford days and it still isn't close.
Yes, where he STAYED in his ranch house for at least a couple of days instead of burning up Air Force One fuel and Secret Service resources.
Hooray for George W. Bush, the first green President. Let's forget the time they shut down a San Diego hospital for him, cancelling chemotherapy appointments for some cancer patients. Or when they cancelled air traffic during his Katrina visit, thus delaying relief efforts and physically halting helicopters bearing the injured. Or when they locked down a highway for a Bush appearance in California, or shut a highway AND an airport in the vicinity of a Cheney campaign speech. Or the many other examples...stupid liberal Google.
Why can't Obama ride his horse to where he's headed, like Presidents used to do?
A White House spokesman, responding to the latest trip, said the President is never really on vacation. Funny how this was defunct before January 2009.
Bush's flacks said the same thing, as did Clinton's, and Bush's, and Reagan's... and they're largely correct.
What's funnier (and phonier) is the right's Insta-Gro concern over the logistics of Presidential travel, or the evils of excess vacation time, or the primacy of the federal deficit, or the use of teleprompters, or the slow response to a Gulf disaster, or for not "speaking out fast enough" about an attempted plane bombing, or using procedural moves to "cram" legislation through, or block "up or down" votes, and so forth.
So by your own accounting, all of Bush's "vacation" days were to Crawford or Camp David.
Well, that puts all the trips to Spain and Martha's Vineyard in perspective. Oh, and Obama swam in the "Gulf." Cool.
No, not mine. By the accounting of Mark Knoller, the longtime White House reporter who has kept precise records of Presidential down time for decades, and who is universally considered the go-to source for their vacation statistics. Knoller's most recent article on the subject begins, "Every White House is a bit defensive about presidential vacations and President Obama's staff is no exception."
In total, Bush spent all or part of 977 days vacationing in Crawford and Camp David. Just to catch up to Bush's PACE by the end of this year, Never-There Barack would have to take off EVERY day from today through December 71st, 2010. Not a typo: the seventy-first.
The sudden obsession with Obama's purported absenteeism is two-faced nonsense.
I understand your point: quantity trumps quality. By that logic, Obama can (appropriately!) move into the Palace of Versailles but he'll never catch up to Dubya. Gotcha.
Should Obama be defensive about his vacation? Well you would think somebody in the White House would tell him that the "optics" of going to Martha's Vineyard when unemployment is 9.5% is not favorable. But then the White House is not America.
Has Obama spent his time in Martha's Vineyard ignoring briefings and memos about Bin Laden's imminent attack plans? Has Obama presented an inspirational photograph of his Gulf swim as a perk to his top campaign donors? I do not think either performance or imagemaking are rhetorical roads you want to go down.
Oh, I'm fine with it especially when performance and imagemaking combine:
"I'd like to give a shout out to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow" - Obama's address on the Fort Hood shootings.
Barack has another 2 1/2 years of "performance" if the country can stand it. Fist bump!
Turn your head and cough, and try not to think about where Obama's fist is going to go in '12.
6 and a half more years for sure. Save us, Mitt!
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