CLUELESS. Arrogant. Over matched. Yet, there he is for all the world to see, going about things without a care of how it shows utter arrogance to take his family to a luxury estate on MARTHA's VINEYARD on our dime while people are losing their homes, jobs and lifetime savings. No, he must make sure that his family gets the full ride at the taxpayer's expense as he " needs down time to recharge his batteries for the battles ahead... "
Well LA DEE DA !! How about the average American who has taken it in the neck and can't go on even the most minor vacation because you've screwed things up so royally over the last 2 1/2 years. You and your minions used to rail against President Bush because he was " in the pocket of Big Oil" with gas costing $1.86 a gallon in JAN 2009. NOW, it is up in the range of $3.80 a gallon (double the cost).
Stay home in WASHINGTON DC and do the work we pay you for. IF & WHEN you are able to prove you DESERVE a Vacation, then you can take one. In the mean time, get back to work. Also, tell your wife that goes double for her. She has already wasted enough of our money for her selfish needs.
Economic woes offer awkward backdrop for Obama's vacation
By Richard Wolf and David Jackson, USA TODAY - 11AUG2011
WASHINGTON — Fourteen million people are out of work. Millions more are losing fortunes in the stock market. America's AAA bond rating has slipped.
President Barack Obama will vacation with his family in Martha's Vineyard at the end of this month.
So should President Obama be vacationing next week in Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, where the average home costs $650,000?
Yes, says White House press secretary Jay Carney. Obama, like most Americans, needs down time to recharge his batteries for the battles ahead. And besides, he says, "The presidency travels with you."
Maybe not, say some academics, authors and political pundits. While Obama deserves a break, they say, this might not be the time, and Martha's Vineyard might not be the place.
"You can do a vacation, but I think you ought to do it in a way that serves your political needs," says Steven Schier, a presidential historian at Carleton College in Minnesota. "His political needs are large."
Obama is scheduled to take his family to the secluded island next Thursday for a 10-day trip that will mark his third consecutive summer vacation there. It's the same island frequented by Bill Clinton when he was in the White House, offering a relaxing mix of ocean beaches, golf courses and restaurants.
The trip comes after the unprecedented downgrading of U.S. credit by Standard & Poor's and a nearly 1,500-point dive in the Dow Jones industrial average this month.
Even before those latest developments, the inability of many other Americans to afford a summer vacation had raised doubts about Obama's plans. Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, last month slammed the trip as "politically tone-deaf."
Former White House officials and experts on the presidency note that the job and responsibilities — plus the staff, Secret Service and press corps — go along for the ride.
"The White House goes with the president," says presidential analyst Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution. If needed, he notes, "they can turn around and come back on a dime."
True, says Dana Perino, George W. Bush's last White House press secretary. But "perception is reality, and they've got some bad reality," she says. "A trip to the Vineyard isn't going to help them right now."
Presidents are accustomed to vacation interruptions:
•Already this year, Obama has canceled trips to Montana and Williamsburg, Va., to stick with budget negotiations.
•In 2005, Hurricane Katrina prompted Bush to return early from his Texas ranch, though it didn't quell criticism that his reaction was slow.
•In 1994, Bill Clinton delayed his own Martha's Vineyard trip to monitor Senate deliberations over his signature health-care overhaul. The Senate killed the bill a month later.
•In 1992, George H.W. Bush canceled a trip to his Kennebunkport, Maine, compound to monitor a standoff over weapons of mass destruction inspections in Iraq.
•In 1985, Ronald Reagan canceled a trip to his California ranch during a hostage crisis in which 39 Americans were being held in Beirut, Lebanon.
"They really cannot escape the job," says Kenneth Walsh, author of From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and .Their Retreats Of Obama, he says, "It will obviously have to be a working vacation."
Americans usually don't mind presidents taking vacations, Walsh says, but it can be tricky in tough economic times — "exactly the situation Obama finds himself facing."
So what's a president to do?
One option is to couple the retreat with something a bit more all-American, as Obama did last August when he brought his family to Pensacola, Fla., to highlight the Gulf Coast's recovery from the BP oil spill — then flew to Martha's Vineyard.
This time, the golf-and-beach trip is being preceded by a bus tour of the Midwest that will take the president to Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois for economic events.
A better solution, Schier says, would be to go somewhere else. "I don't think Martha's Vineyard is the ideal venue," he says. "It's not what you would call the vacation of the average American."
So should President Obama be vacationing next week in Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, where the average home costs $650,000?
Yes, says White House press secretary Jay Carney. Obama, like most Americans, needs down time to recharge his batteries for the battles ahead. And besides, he says, "The presidency travels with you."
Maybe not, say some academics, authors and political pundits. While Obama deserves a break, they say, this might not be the time, and Martha's Vineyard might not be the place.
"You can do a vacation, but I think you ought to do it in a way that serves your political needs," says Steven Schier, a presidential historian at Carleton College in Minnesota. "His political needs are large."
Obama is scheduled to take his family to the secluded island next Thursday for a 10-day trip that will mark his third consecutive summer vacation there. It's the same island frequented by Bill Clinton when he was in the White House, offering a relaxing mix of ocean beaches, golf courses and restaurants.
The trip comes after the unprecedented downgrading of U.S. credit by Standard & Poor's and a nearly 1,500-point dive in the Dow Jones industrial average this month.
Even before those latest developments, the inability of many other Americans to afford a summer vacation had raised doubts about Obama's plans. Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, last month slammed the trip as "politically tone-deaf."
Former White House officials and experts on the presidency note that the job and responsibilities — plus the staff, Secret Service and press corps — go along for the ride.
"The White House goes with the president," says presidential analyst Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution. If needed, he notes, "they can turn around and come back on a dime."
True, says Dana Perino, George W. Bush's last White House press secretary. But "perception is reality, and they've got some bad reality," she says. "A trip to the Vineyard isn't going to help them right now."
Presidents are accustomed to vacation interruptions:
•Already this year, Obama has canceled trips to Montana and Williamsburg, Va., to stick with budget negotiations.
•In 2005, Hurricane Katrina prompted Bush to return early from his Texas ranch, though it didn't quell criticism that his reaction was slow.
•In 1994, Bill Clinton delayed his own Martha's Vineyard trip to monitor Senate deliberations over his signature health-care overhaul. The Senate killed the bill a month later.
•In 1992, George H.W. Bush canceled a trip to his Kennebunkport, Maine, compound to monitor a standoff over weapons of mass destruction inspections in Iraq.
•In 1985, Ronald Reagan canceled a trip to his California ranch during a hostage crisis in which 39 Americans were being held in Beirut, Lebanon.
"They really cannot escape the job," says Kenneth Walsh, author of From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and .Their Retreats Of Obama, he says, "It will obviously have to be a working vacation."
Americans usually don't mind presidents taking vacations, Walsh says, but it can be tricky in tough economic times — "exactly the situation Obama finds himself facing."
So what's a president to do?
One option is to couple the retreat with something a bit more all-American, as Obama did last August when he brought his family to Pensacola, Fla., to highlight the Gulf Coast's recovery from the BP oil spill — then flew to Martha's Vineyard.
This time, the golf-and-beach trip is being preceded by a bus tour of the Midwest that will take the president to Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois for economic events.
A better solution, Schier says, would be to go somewhere else. "I don't think Martha's Vineyard is the ideal venue," he says. "It's not what you would call the vacation of the average American."
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