However, one must remember, Obama desperately needed a break from his onerous duties (other than raising taxes, bowing and scraping to every dictator he could find and sucking up to Iran) didn't he? In case you missed them, those tough duties included included playing golf, chilling with Bono, hanging with the New York Yankees, playing golf, talking basketball with Marvelous Marv Albert, hanging with the University of Connecticut Women's basketball team, playing golf, attending and singing in (let no duty be forgotten!) a concert with Ex-beetle Paul McCartney, watching a Washington Nationals baseball game, playing golf, listening to Kelly Clarkson sing . . . I cannot continue. Well, yes I have to give my favorite. The Washington Correspondents dinner is the hands down winner. Obama ate rubber chicken, mingled with the glitterati and cracked jokes written by some of the Hollywood's finest, though his best lines were mocking poor Jay Leno. Without Bush around, I guess Leno had to be the sacrifice for this event. Oh, I almost forgot and he said "Our prayers go out to those folks in the Gulf." I guess they should be happy they were even mentioned. But then again Obama needs his time off because it "does us all good as American citizens."
You can bet our perpetually vacationing President won't be bringing the family down to the Gulf of Mexico this summer. That would be too close to an actual crisis site i.e. work. Remember, the President needs "a little time off." Why should he bother with thousands of people who lost their jobs, careers, or businesses? Why bother directly ordering the federal government to waive the Jones Act to get as many boats to the Gulf to skim the oil? Why should Obama be pestered by the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. History? Why bother to ask the Coast Guard suspend safety regulations because this emergency is a desperate race against time? Why bother to respond to the countries offering help and equipment? Why bother taking skimmers from other parts of the country to help clean up the mess? This one would be my favorite if I should even use the word at this point. The Coast Guard doesn't want to shift skimmers from other parts of the country because they might be needed for an emergency oil spill in other areas of the country. Nothing like putting hypothetical needs above real ones. Their solution: we'll just build new ones. Gee, that won't take long will it? Who drilled the brains out of these people? This is where a real president comes in and asserts himself. However, I forgot again this president needs some time off "for himself."
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
What, one article complaining about going golfing once a week wasn't enough? Do you think I'd let another one get by without pointing out once more that your boy Dubya spent NEARLY THREE YEARS on vacation? And each time he went on vacation, he needed either Air Force One or Marine One to get there.
But Dubya spending NEARLY THREE YEARS on vacation during a presidency that contained two wars and two recessions and the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor, well, THAT's okay with you, I guess.
Such incredible hypocrisy.
As with so many other things, I can't think of a single fault the Democrats have where the Republicans haven't done the same thing...but WORSE.
2 - Dan(Miller)
The less Gulf and the more golf he plays the better.
Dan(Miller)
3 - mrdockellis
Back playing golf last weekend, according the The Hill. Two wars, a Depression, and a nuclear Iran in the offing a he's still wasting time strolling around like some vagrant.
And Bush stopped golfing because he felt it did not reflect well on a commander in chief in time of war. Bush screwed up, changed and fixed the problem. Obama screws up and keeps screwing up by putting himself and his selfish country club needs before the needs of the country.
He doesn't care about Republicans. He doesn't care about Democrats. He only cares about himself.
Sorry no more talk about the issues.
Got to go it's tee off time!
Fore!
4 - El Bicho
you still think we're at war in Iraq? you should check the papers
5 - Jordan Richardson
So Mr. Ellis, you basically figure that Obama wanted the presidency so that he could play more golf. That's the hypothesis here?
6 - jeannie danna
I am trying to hold my tongue on this one and alas, I've failed...
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!
Your country is England, correct?
nuf said...
7 - Dr Dreadful
Your country is England, correct?
God, I hope not.
I like to think even our most rabid righties have at least a tenuous toehold on reality.
8 - jeannie danna
Hi Doc.
Sorry for my outburst:( I miss arguing with all of you Obama bashers.
Why no articles about Dick Cheney's secret meetings with BP?
Why no articles about why we need to get off the oil teat?
This is a free country, right?
President Obama can do what he wants on Fathers day.
peace :)
go ahead and rip my writing apart, Doc, it's been awhile...
9 - John Wilson
The premise of this article seems to be that the Pres should leap into the fray with dictatorial powers when the hands-off business system finally fails. Is that really the best model for a successful stable business system?
Doesn't that just lead to erratic cycles and severe dislocations due to arbitrary disaster, intervention and unpredictability?
We COULD have known that these disasters were possible and we could have known the regulations and requirements needed to protect against them. But we chose, over the past 30 years of Reaganomics, to ignore safeguards and let business run wild.
And so we have the natural cataclysmic result.
It's partisan. Whether Bush and Katrina or Obama and Gulf, we have unmanned our government, in advance, so that it is basically powerless in the face of these tragedies.
10 - John Wilson
That should read 'bipartisan', not 'partisan'.
11 - Dr Dreadful
Go ahead, Jeannie, and type 'Katrina' into that little 'Search Blogcritics' box at the top of the page. There are a lot of results, but look for the articles that were actually written in 2005 about Katrina.
The comment threads are quite interesting. Particularly the right-wingers' attempts to pass the blame onto the state and local authorities and to absolve Bush and FEMA entirely.
Not a trick they seem all that keen on pulling right now.
12 - jeannie danna
I did it, Doc, yes there are a lot of results, but why compare a natural disaster to what the oil and gas industry is doing to this planet?
This isn't political, it's environmental.