Several Presidents Took Lumps For Their Vacations By Robert Siegel | NPR | August 17, 2011 Excerpts: Well, actually, just about every summer, a president goes on vacation and the opposition always has something bad to say about it. It doesn't matter if it's a Democrat or a Republican. It's the same dynamic. GW Bush and Hurricane Katrina... There's also the risk, and we've seen this before, of a president being away on vacation and detached during a disaster. We saw this, of course, with President Bush after Hurricane Katrina. There was that image of him looking down from above as he flew over New Orleans. And, of course, that was really a turning point in President Bush's time in office because his advisors said then and say now that he never really recovered the confidence of the country because he did seem to be not really focused on it and that's a big problem during a crisis time. And there's a history we have in our country of presidents going on vacation and having a crisis hit. There's Hurricane Katrina. HW Bush: President Bush, the father, went to Kennebunkport, Maine. We were having a recession and he was peppered with questions about how he could be riding around on his speed boat and playing golf while the country was living through hard times. He was very stubborn about it. He sort of came back at the media, the press, and said, look, this is where I relax. I work hard, I need some rest and relaxation and I'm going to continue to do what I always do when I'm here. And of course, he didn't win reelection. Now, it wasn't just because of that, but it was part of a whole subtext that President Bush sort of was not as in tune with the problems of the country as he should be. Criticism of presidents taking vacations goes back almost to the very beginning of the Republic. It was really John Adams, our second President, who took a lot of criticism. He went to his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, as often as he could and in 1799, going way back, he went to Quincy for eight months of that year. It was a number of reasons why John Adams was gone so long. One is that he needed a break from his official duties. Another, that his wife was very sick and he wanted to care for her. Another reason was that, at that time, Washington came down with outbreaks of yellow fever and other diseases in the summer and so a lot of people wanted to get away in the summer because Washington is essentially built on a swamp. Read full article: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/17/139721272/through-history-presidents-took-lumps-for-their-vacations IMO: Presidents need to take vacations just as average Americans do, and possibly more so as their jobs are more strenuous, more taxing, and require more momentous decisions than an average American does, so they need to get away and unwind more often. That anyone can criticize a presidents vacation is shameful, unless he shows a willful incapacity to deal with a crisis ie: GW Bush (9/11, Hurricane Katrina) and father HW Bush (severe recession) in their inability to care enough about the people who elected them to office to head back to the White House and attend to their duties. John Adams in his extreme length of time away from his work as president had members of his cabinet almost engage America into a war with France during the time he was gone.
..... What are you saying...that you don't personally take vacations? (If lack of funds is the reason, I would be happy to loan you the money at 35% interest from day of loan for 10 days. Then the interest goes up to 50% after day 10) Or that your president a)doesn't take enough vacations b) takes too many vacations c) takes just enough vacations....reminder: this is a PICK ONE !!
I believe what prof meant to say, but was typing quickly is that he doesn't think Obama takes enough vacations. I agree with that. In fact, I think he should stay on vacation until Xmas. Next year, Good Americans will sympathize at how hard he has worked to ruin this great nation and send him on a permanent vacation.
I personally think the entire government should take a vacation for like next year or so. Okay maybe longer at least we should knock them down to parttime like the idiot OP posted it is such a hard job, yea right. I sent the black republican congressmen a email today, he was on FOX stating how congress should come back now! Yea right, no they should stay away, I mention they are the problem not the solution!
