Animal Farm

Finally, a mainstream media type who recognized all the time away from the White House The Messiah has maintained...........

Barack Obama has been in office seven months, and he's off to Martha's Vineyard? Some 70 millions Americans voted for President Obama, and I bet 60 million of them condemned his predecessor for taking too much down time at his ranch in Texas. George W. Bush set a record for presidential vacationing; he was the laziest commander-in-chief ever.

But here's the new man, supposedly with a wholly different work ethic and intellectual rigor, off to a similar start - and in the midst of a recession, with millions of Americans out of work and many millions more so stressed about money, they decided to either stay home or pass vacation up altogether.

I acknowledge the following:

1. Vacation is a good thing; everyone needs it. But Americans do not get enough; we have annually far less vacation than our peers in Europe and Canada. And few Americans get any vacation at all before they've worked on a new job for at least a year.

2. Being president of the United States is the toughest job in the whole wide world.

3. Barack Obama was handed a mountain of problems when he took office, and he's taken on the immense challenge of reforming health care.

But that doesn't mean he gets to take 10 days off after seven months on the job.

snip

But let me point out a couple of things to those who think Barack Obama has worked up a sweat during his first seven months: He pretty much passed the buck on health care to Congress and allowed his administration's message on the need for reform - specifically, the need for a public option in health insurance plans - to become muddled. He allowed the right wing to steal the show and infest the debate with "death panel" myths and other lies. The discipline of message that helped Mr. Obama win election has been sorely lacking in the campaign to resolve the nation's costly health care crisis.

Plus, there's the escalating war in Afghanistan, and the Obama administration still does not have an Army secretary. Also missing, according to the Times: the top civilian in charge of military readiness at the Pentagon.

Sorry, but you don't get to put in for vacation with that much work unfinished, and a major national issue to settle, and two wars, and a recession with long-term unemployment. Not if, from the start, you want people to believe you really represent change.

First, I don't believe that any president gets a vacation; including Obama. Being president is truly a 24/7 job and it doesn't matter if you are in Crawford, Hawaii and Belgium.

I thought the criticisms of Bush were unwarranted but if you look at the Obama itinerary you have to wonder what in the hell is going on; trips to Europe, Using AF-1 for date nights in NY and Chicago, golf every weekend. This guy is on a taxpayer travel junket.

Second, where the liberal criticism of all this time off?

Nevermind.

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