Lies, and damn lies. Who does Jarrett think she's kidding? It scary that someone
this delusional (or blatantly untruthful) is a senior Presidential advisor.
On "Meet the Press" December 26, top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said President Obama's "biggest regret" is that the severity of the economic crisis forced him to "spend almost every waking hour in Washington focusing very hard on solving that crisis" and thus kept him from traveling the country to connect with the American people. According to Jarrett, Obama recently told aides, "I really want to figure out a way where I can spend more time outside of Washington listening and learning and engaging the American people." Jarrett says that in 2011 the president's schedule will "reflect that priority" -- that is, include more time outside the nation's capital.
But it turns out Obama has already spent nearly half his presidency outside Washington. As of January 2, Obama has been president for 712 days. According to figures compiled by CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, who serves as a sort of unofficial White House record-keeper, Obama has spent 339 of those days -- nearly 48 percent -- outside Washington.
According to Knoller, Obama has spent 176 days on domestic trips, 70 days on foreign travel, 58 days on vacation, and 35 days at Camp David. (You can add a couple more vacation days to the total before the president returns from his break in Hawaii.) Nevertheless, Jarrett claimed that Obama has had to spend "almost every waking hour in Washington" since taking office. The truth is more like half of that.
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| Obama working very hard on the economic crisis. |
All I can say is Thank God there is not a world-class golf course near this area, so I have no chance of ever having to see the schmuck.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I must admit that the more time he spends trying to achieve birdies on the links is less time he will have to be flipping birdies at the Constitution.
You have a point, DWT. Maybe we should encourage him to take more vacations. LOTS more.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll mail him a golf ball. It would be funny if millions of us did just that. :p
One of the friends I had from high school and I had a conversation several years ago about being a military family, and she was just in awe about my husband getting a month of leave per year. She was aghast that I would ever complain about not seeing my husband enough with *THAT MUCH* time off.
ReplyDeleteWhat she didn't get is that my husband had no time off, really, the rest of the year. Things that she took for granted, like being able to drive to Las Vegas for a weekend if the bug hit her butt were things we needed permission to do, because even when off duty my husband had to be able to be called in within a certain time window. And, of course she didn't factor in deployments. Yay! Two weeks off in a row in the middle of the year he'll be gone! Woo hoo!
The reason I mention this is because I'm actually inclined to cut a president - any president - some slack when it comes to "time off". I get that he's got to be on duty most of the time. I get that he's never really allowed to relax even on a vacation. I get all this.
But.
I also remember the shit-storm over President Bush's vacations to his ranch, which cost the taxpayers a hell of a lot less than President Obama's beach side retreats. And at a time when the President and his wife are calling for Americans to be more frugal and more blah blah blah - one would think that they would follow their own advice.
It's the hypocrisy of it all that drives me insane. The hypocrisy and the arrogant belief that just because they say it means that we'll believe it.
Fat effing chance. I have teenagers - I already know that trick. Take it to a Twilight Convention and put on your grown-up pants when addressing me.
People complained about Bush, but Bush never complained about the time he had to spend "on the job." He knew that going in. IIRC, someone pointed out that Obama had more "time off" in his first two years than Bush did in his entire eight.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama hates it so much, he can always refuse to run for reelection. Or maybe he can even resign.
I have a bigger beef with Jarrett than Obama on this one. She's a bald faced liar and needs to be called out on it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a golfer - I used to play with my father, even though it wasn't my thing - he liked it, and I wanted to spend time with him, so that's what I did.
Now it's definitely the case that a President has to spend some face time with people, and my understanding is that it's pretty traditional that a bunch of this happens on a golf course. Because you can't have any substantive discussions riding a mountain bike, or playing hoops.
But that said:
I like lady red's idea... I think a few million golf balls imprinted with HIT THE LINKS, BARRY! showing up as UPS delivery to the White House would be a great idea.
Oh, and I agree with airforcewife. And Carthagia so delenda est.
Focused....like a laser!
ReplyDeleteGawd. At least when he's on vacation I don't have to hear him droning on and on, January 2013 can't come fast enough.
ReplyDeleteSorta related...I was skimming some Drudge articles and read this comment about the months-long wait at the CA DMV to renew licenses. I thought it was great.
fantum
Corrupt Government Morons:
The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You corrupt morons have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
Social Security was established in 1935. You corrupt morons have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You corrupt morons have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
The War on Poverty started in 1964. You corrupt morons have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You corrupt morons have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You corrupt morons have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You corrupt morons had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
You corrupt morons have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.
AND NOW YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM?
Remember how our "media" castigated Bush for always being on vacation? The silence now is deafening.
ReplyDeleteKinda like the silence now about our war dead that not long ago was tallied daily on the news reports, protested about by Code Pink at GWB's TX home, montaged into GWB's face by fat slob Michael Moore.
Guess the liberals don't give a real crap about our military personnel giving their lives when the CiC is a lefty.
Sorry for the rant but this particular omission by the left makes me so angry.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for Bill Maher to let BO know how cowardly it is using drones against the freedom fighters.