08-23-2014, 08:35 PM
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/58328...t.html.csp
Since becoming president, Obama has taken 20 vacations lasting two to 15 days. As of Friday, he has spent all or part of 138 days on "vacation."
By the same point in his second term, President George W. Bush spent 381 partial or complete days at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and another 26 at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, according to CBS News reporter Mark Knoller’s widely respected record keeping on the presidency. Other recent American leaders also spent more time away.
But images of Obama playing leisurely rounds of golf as the U.S. strikes Islamist militants in northern Iraq have been jarring to some, particularly his fiercest national security critics.
***
Other presidents have vacationed during foreign policy flare-ups.
President George H.W. Bush took a three-week break in Maine in 1990 after ordering the U.S. military to turn back Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces in Kuwait. He swatted away questions about Persian Gulf action while on the golf course, later saying "I just don’t like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation. ... I hope you’ll understand when I’m recreating, I will recreate. And when we’re working, which I’m trying up here, I’ll work hard."
In 2002, President George W. Bush also was on the golf course when he reacted to terrorist bombings in Israel, saying: "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive."
There... now can we all move along...
Since becoming president, Obama has taken 20 vacations lasting two to 15 days. As of Friday, he has spent all or part of 138 days on "vacation."
By the same point in his second term, President George W. Bush spent 381 partial or complete days at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and another 26 at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, according to CBS News reporter Mark Knoller’s widely respected record keeping on the presidency. Other recent American leaders also spent more time away.
But images of Obama playing leisurely rounds of golf as the U.S. strikes Islamist militants in northern Iraq have been jarring to some, particularly his fiercest national security critics.
***
Other presidents have vacationed during foreign policy flare-ups.
President George H.W. Bush took a three-week break in Maine in 1990 after ordering the U.S. military to turn back Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces in Kuwait. He swatted away questions about Persian Gulf action while on the golf course, later saying "I just don’t like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation. ... I hope you’ll understand when I’m recreating, I will recreate. And when we’re working, which I’m trying up here, I’ll work hard."
In 2002, President George W. Bush also was on the golf course when he reacted to terrorist bombings in Israel, saying: "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive."
There... now can we all move along...
miley-laughing001: