Saturday, August 21, 2010

Comparing Bush to Obama's vacation time

According to Chip Reid of CBS:

"By the end of his trip, President Obama will have taken nine vacations and visited Camp David 14 times for a total of 80 vacation days since he took office. But at the same point in his first term, President George W. Bush had taken far more time away - 14 trips to his ranch in Midland, Texas, and 40 to Camp David, totaling 225 days."

So are people [or Republicans, if you prefer ; )] being unfair when they critizie the amount of vacations President Obama has taken?

I don't think so. Just because George W. Bush took a lot of vacation days (for which he received a lot of criticism) does not mean that President Obama can take just as many days.

In this place, at this time, the United States is going through the worst depression in 40 years, with no relief on the horizon. President Obama says he "feels our pain" - but has already taken 80 vacation days. Should he not "feel our pain" by saying, "I'm not going to take a vacation until every American can. More than that, I'm not going to take a vacation until everybody in the entire world can."

In addition, Obama has visited places which cost money - specifically Martha's Vineyard. Bush, on the other hand, always went to his own property - no extra strain on the country's purse.

No comments:

Post a Comment