August in Washington means time for vacation.
Congress has left on a five-week break. The Supreme Court reopens in October. Now it’s President Barack Obama’s turn.
On Saturday, Obama begins a nine-day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., where he spent summer vacation in each of the first three years of his presidency. He skipped his annual Vineyard vacation during last year’s re-election campaign.
Here’s a numerical look at vacation time taken by Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, according to CBS News White House reporter Mark Knoller, who tracks presidential travel. The numbers do not include visits to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
—14: Number of vacation trips taken by Obama since he took office in January 2009.
—92: Number of days, all or in part, Obama has spent on vacation.
—57: Number of vacation trips taken by Bush at this same point in his presidency.
—50: Number of visits Bush made to his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
—323: Number of days, all or in part, Bush spent at the ranch.
—7: Number of trips Bush made to his family’s compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
—26: Number of days, all or in part, Bush spent in Maine.
(AP)
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17 Responses
Who’s blind and doesn’t see the manipulation of these numbers?
– it lists the total number of days Obama was on vacation, but it won’t do that for Bush. Instead, it lists “Number of days Bush spent at the ranch” but they very well know that he would have extensive meetings there, even with foreign leaders…
Well, AP does it again.
And what was the cost?
MDshweks is the blind one. Obama wasn’t from a wealthy family like Bush; he lived in an ordinary house before he was elected President. He doesn’t have a ranch like the younger Bush, or Reagan, nor a “compound” in Maine like the elder Bush, or even a farm like Carter. So when he goes away, the Obamahaters call it “vacation” when it is no different from the Bushes going to their ranch or family compound.
Well going to his personal ranch or family compound doesn’t cost any $$$
Charliehall, yes it is different. Dont cry “underprivileged minority”. Aaaaw the rich white Presidents have vacation homes, not the poor African-American ones, aaaaaw. Anyways its all relative; the more work you do the more vacation you require to work at full capacity. So there you have it, even with these crum numbers Obama is taking way more deserved vacation than Bush.
*rather, undeserved vacation
Wake up charlie, obama is a multi millionaire he didnt live in an ordinary house, he lives in a huge mansion in Chicago, bush’s vacations didnt cost the tax payer money obama goes on lavish milti million dollars vacations ever 2 months obama likes to talk about being for the small middle class guy but his actions speak louder than his words
CharlieHall has drunk the Kool Aid.
And when Michelle Obama have to take a plane 2 hours earlier because she can’t wait that’s also OK right that’s also Obama haters right you are such an obvious lib it’s pathetic
charlie,
i would be surprised if Bush and his wife flew seperate planes (clearing throat)
CharlatanHall is playing the race card again. Oh poor bamster was a po’ boy and yada yada yada. The truth is Obama was born with a silver spoon in his mouth! He vacationed in the mainland every year (said so himself!). Poor dude gotta spend some bling to get from Hawaii to the mainland.
The house he bought in Chicago, you know the one that hois crook friend helped him with. cost a pretty penny. Was that the one that belonged to Skokie Yeshiva ??
Bottom line is despite the garbage you hear about Obama being a poor kid, that’s a crock of manure! Besides, even CharlatanHall would have to admit that dude has made SERIOUS bucks in the last 20 plus years, especially with that book of “his” and all.
So let’s not fall for Charlie’s continuous lie. If he wants to drink Kool AID, that’s fine but the rest of us don’t have to participate.
charliehall,
Do you really think what you wrote makes sense? – Let the rich man and the ‘not so rich’ man go both to their homes! are you saying that Obama can’t enjoy his own home because he isn’t as rich so that’s why he needs more vacations???
And of course, besides, we all know Obama isn’t a poor man.
Some vacation in the White House, some go away. Can we get the number of days Obama was on the golf course?
Did Bush spend 100 Million dollars to go on some african safari??! When the economy was doing badly, Bush had the common sense to realize now is not the best time to go spend that kind of money. Bummer is a big fat talker and a very small do-er.
I see they didn’t compare expenditures. Bush being on his ranch means mostly working in a changed atmosphere. It certainly isn’t a Martha’s Vineyard or Africa vacations.
Notice they didn’t mention the golf outings? Remember when the media attacked Bush for playing golf and never said a word about Obama, despite Obama playing many multiples of rounds as did Bush. Incidently, remember thar Bush stopped playing when the U.S. had soldiers in harms way? Obama couldn’t care less.
Why has this issue – presidential vacations and costs – drawn so much comment, nearly all of it baseless.
First of all, No. 4, when a president leaves the White House, the cost of his security detail and his communications systems is huge – whether he’s going to his own “ranch” or staying on Martha’s Vineyard, or down the street to make a speech to Congress. As I recall, the Nixon “Western White House” had benefitted from some major capital improvements to the HVAC systems for security reasons. I presume similar measures were taken for other presidential vacation homes. Your notion that when a president stays at his own vacation home, it costs us taxpayers nothing – that’s just laughable.
Presidents generally work hard for the money, and there are lots of costs associated with moving around and staying in touch with other government officials that we should not attribute to the particular individual. George W. Bush may have set a record for vacation days (or not, if you believe he spent all his time at the “ranch” working), but I did not like the work he did as president and figured every day he spent on vacation was one less day he could exercise bad judgment. You Obama-dislikers should adopt the same attitude.
Why is Obama still in office
He is out most of the time