The village idiot couldn't lead a girlscout cookie drive. Presidents are never really off the clock, even when they go on vacation. But President Obama's decision to skip the traditional Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington while on his second vacation since the BP oil spill began has some wondering what the schedule says about his priorities. On "vacation," Obama still holds staff meetings, occasionally attends local events and often gets his "relaxation" time swallowed up by pressing national and international business -- his vacation to Hawaii in December coincided with the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing. The retreat this weekend is marked by a side-trip to Louisiana to inspect the damages from the oil spill. But some conservatives, still smarting over the criticism George W. Bush fielded for his frequent trips to Crawford, Texas, say Obama's trip to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend is conspicuously poor in its timing. Obama, who was headed to Chicago Thursday night, will not be at Arlington National Cemetery for the Memorial Day ceremony -- which he attended last year. Instead, the president plans to be at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill., while Vice President Biden takes his place in Arlington for the wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Pete Hegseth, director of the conservative Vets for Freedom, said he doesn't want to "extrapolate too much," but questioned why a war-time president would not pencil in that ceremony. "It doesn't mean he doesn't care, but I think it is a reflection of priorities," he said. "We're still at war ... and he's not called out to the carpet on that." Dana Perino, former Bush White House press secretary, called the decision a "curious choice." "I do think that symbolically that probably was not a very good choice," she told Fox News. The Arlington visit is a fairly recent tradition. Former President Ronald Reagan attended four of them in his eight years in office, while former President George H.W. Bush sent Vice President Dan Quayle to every one. Former President Bill Clinton, though, attended every year and George W. Bush missed only one, in 2002, when he was in Normandy, France, visiting the American cemetery. Philip Molfese, a Chicago-based Democratic political consultant, said Obama will still be able to "pay tribute" at the Lincoln National Cemetery. And he dismissed the idea that Obama would somehow be stepping away from the oil spill crisis in the Gulf while in Chicago. The president plans to visit the Gulf coast Friday before returning to the Windy City. "He's never really out of touch with what's happening," said Molfese, president of the political firm Grainger Terry, Inc. "These guys are never off the clock. ... They're constantly surrounded by people, they're constantly getting updates. Whether they're operating in Chicago or they're operating in the White House, they're still going to be getting constant communication." The White House has tried to fend off suggestions that it has not acted forcefully enough to mitigate the damage from the oil spill -- Obama held a full-scale press conference Thursday afternoon where he spoke extensively about mitigation efforts. The Obamas have not made an extensive visit to Chicago in more than a year and in a sense are trying to make good on prior pledges to visit their home town more often. But critics point out that the trip is their second since the Gulf oil rig exploded April 20 -- the first family traveled to Asheville, N.C., that weekend. Print Email Share Comments (1220) Text Size
Did you ever one time complain about this, you know, the record vacation days of George Bush: George W. Bush is today making his final visit to Camp David as president. He will likely miss the place: According to CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller, today's trip marks Mr. Bush's 149th visit to the presidential retreat. The planned three-day stay, during which the president is being joined by family and former and current aides, will bring his total time spent at Camp David to all or part of 487 days. Yes, that's 487 days. And Camp David is not even where the president has spent the most time when not at the White House: Knoller reports that Mr. Bush has made 77 visits to his ranch in Crawford during his presidency, and spent all or part of 490 days there.
Personally i could care less about either one of them not actually being in the whitehouse or at ground zero, with the way business is conducted today, a fund manager could be in the middle of antarctica in the midst of a stock market crash and still get his business done, that may be a little extreme but you get the drift. The problem is that both sides feel the need to politicise everything, so if i was Obama i would surely see it coming after the criticism of Bush over the same thing. The thing is that it used to be that a journalist had to do some digging to expose someone for hypocrisy, in the age of the internet it has become quite obvious how hypocritical both sides are because it only takes 30 seconds to find every single thing a person has ever said on tape. I would be willing to make a bet for everything i own, that if one put in the effort you could pin a highly hypocritical position on every single person who has any kind of documented history of taking a stance as it pertains to politics. If some how the way in which we operate politically in this country doesnt change some time in the near future, the sides will just continue to move further and further apart, and the hatred of each side, including my own, will just continue to grow until it is completely unmanageable, and you see the breaking apart of the United States.
History often repeats itself.In the 1800's there was a racist hateful party and group of states that had that same idea and got their asses handed to them.It might happen again,but this time it wont be competitive
You sounded like a typical Republican making secession/civil war threats.When Republicans make those threats I simply point out to them that what they are threatening has happened before and it didn't work out well for them and it will only be worse if they try again
I dont want for that to happen, i was stating a realistic scenario as i see both sides seperating further and further, and becoming more and more rigid in their beliefs. I am not making a threat by any means, but at the same time i dont discount the fact that it is a major possibility, and it has nothing to do with racism as i dont seee it happening during obamas term, but i can see it happening as time goes on many years in the future, why do you think there are no landmasses controlled by democracies of our size with our level of freedom? Countries tend to get smaller and smaller for a reason, and it is because people tend to seperate themselves based on beliefs. Eventually when people divide them selves far enough within large countries along their own political lines, countries seperate, and break off. There are hundreds, if not thousands of examples of this happening in history, to think the U.S. will somehow permanently avoid this would be naive in my opinion. Look at ancient maps, of all the various superpowers.