In a Sunday Washington Times column, editor Joseph Curl
takes a look at the difference between how the last two White House occupants,
President Bush and President Obama, approached vacationing as president. Curl
reveals that unlike Obama, Bush was concerned with public perception
(especially during the war in Iraq) and made an effort to schedule holiday
vacations in a way that would not take others away from their families -- even a
media that despised him:
“I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong
signal,” [President George W. Bush] said years later. “I don’t want some mom
whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I
feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.”
That’s also why Mr. Bush did two other things, without
fanfare or praise. First, he never headed home to his Texas ranch until after
Christmas, instead going to Camp David for a few days. That way, the hundreds
of people revolving around him at all times — White House staff, Secret Service
agents, reporters, photographers, etc. — could spend the holiday with
their families in and around Washington, D.C. No one ever reported that — until
this Washington Times column.
Second, he rarely attended sporting events, although he once
owned a baseball team, and is a sports fan. His thinking there was the same: If
he went to a baseball game (right down the street from the White House), his
mere presence would mean hours and hours of extra security for fans. He once
stopped off at the Daytona 500 and the metal detectors that were added and
through which every fan had to pass left thousands outside in line when the
green flag fell; he didn’t attend many sporting events after that.
Conversely, Obama, who never has to worry about the media
turning against him (including lying for weeks about a terror attack in Libya),
doesn't give a damn about public perception -- not during a recession; not even
during a time when sequester cuts are being blamed for the closing of White
House tours and airport control towers.
How else do you explain the nonstop vacations the pair keep
taking during what Mr. Obama calls the “worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression”? In 2013, the First Family has already enjoyed three vacations —
that’s one a month. (Sorry, Joe America, you might have to forget your week at
the beach again this year, but make sure you get those taxes in on time!)
Curl closes the piece (which you will want to read in full)
by making the point about how much this juxtaposition tells you about Obama.
And indeed it does. But I would add that it also reveals just as much about our
media.
$16 Trillion in Debt
– Borrowing $1 out of every $3-4 we spend & Obama’s takes 3 luxury vacations
in three consecutive months.
Obama
Kids Enjoy 3rd Luxury Vacations - America is going bankrupt. Obama says he has
no money for White house tours. But he doesn't mind spending a great deal of our
money to send his children to the Bahamas.
Now confirmed this week that
Sasha and Malia are spending the 2013 sequester season in the Bahamas.
This is will be the third luxury
vacation for the Obama offspring since January 1. Over Presidents weekend,
Michelle took the daughters to Aspen.
The first week of March, Malia
was hanging out at a "hip" restaurant in Chelsea with 8 of her
friends. (Most references to this
vacation were sent down the memory hole, the Daily Mail and the NY Post have
disappeared the story.)
Resources & Links
No comments:
Post a Comment