Obama playing golf more than Bush???

[devilsadvoc8]

This article states that Obama has played more golf already than Bush jr did in his entire presidency. I understand why Obama didn't make the funeral in Poland, although he probably could have gotten there with a great deal of effort. I don't hold it against him.

The golf thing surprises me. Is it possible that Bush didn't play golf after 2003? Does this not count vacations or something? I find it hard to believe that he stopped playing altogether.

The amount Obama has played is surprising, too.

Does it make him a worse or better president? No. It is just surprising given the press Bush got for vacationing.

link

Edited April 19, 2010 by devilsadvoc8

[squishyx]

Since you are bringing up the Bush v Obama leisure time subject.

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/president-obamas-vacation-days/

President George W. Bush spent even more time away from the presidential mansion in the nation’s capital than Reagan. Of the 77 total "vacation" trips the former president made to his Texas ranch while in office, nine of them — all or part of 69 days — came during his first year as president in 2001, according to Knoller.

President Obama has spent all or part of 26 days "on vacation" during his first year as president, according to CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

That's a little unfair to Bush though, 7-8 of those months were pre 9-11. But really, it comes down to this as the factcheck article says:

But no matter how much time a president actually spends away from the official residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Knoller says that the commander in chief is never really off the clock. "I have long held the view that a US president is never really on vacation," Knoller told FactCheck.org in an e-mail. "The job - and its awesome powers and responsibilities - is his wherever he is and whatever he’s doing."

I don't care if Obama is playing 200 rounds of golf a day or if Bush wanted to spend 3 out of every 4 days in Texas, these guys are never off the job.

[oofrostonoo]

Also working more. Bush cleared 500% more brush.

[MantaRay]

Also working more. Bush cleared 500% more brush.

LOL. And shoveled the most manure since Reagan.

[Jimmy Leeds]

It's just another example of the liberal media terrorism that has been perpetuated on ignorant tools like Manta and similar simple minded folk.

Presidents are never on "vacation", but it was the main stream media terrorists who would do anything and everything to get at GW, all the while, basically sucking the nuts off of this EmptySuit-in-Chief himself.

I remember Olbermann going absolutely frothy at the mouth about Bush golfing...........funny I don't see this liberal hero saying anything about his idol golfing.....or has he? Somehow me doubts it.

[squishyx]

It's just another example of the liberal media terrorism that has been perpetuated on ignorant tools like Manta and similar simple minded folk.

Presidents are never on "vacation", but it was the main stream media terrorists who would do anything and everything to get at GW, all the while, basically sucking the nuts off of this EmptySuit-in-Chief himself.

I remember Olbermann going absolutely frothy at the mouth about Bush golfing...........funny I don't see this liberal hero saying anything about his idol golfing.....or has he? Somehow me doubts it.

Wow...

[Daniel]

Bush said he gave up golf at some point into his presidency because of Iraq/Afghanistan, although I don't recall exactly when. While I suppose some will call it an empty gesture, it is worth noting that Michael Moore (the pig, war profiteer, limousine socialist) tried to make hay out of Bush playing too much golf when he had more important things to tend to.

But I agree that how much time the President spends playing golf is a non-story.

And Manta, Reagan was a great President. Get over it.

[MantaRay]

It's just another example of the liberal media terrorism that has been perpetuated on ignorant tools like Manta and similar simple minded folk.

Presidents are never on "vacation", but it was the main stream media terrorists who would do anything and everything to get at GW, all the while, basically sucking the nuts off of this EmptySuit-in-Chief himself.

I remember Olbermann going absolutely frothy at the mouth about Bush golfing...........funny I don't see this liberal hero saying anything about his idol golfing.....or has he? Somehow me doubts it.

LMAO. Speaking of ignorant tools.

[MantaRay]

Reagan was a great President.

Yes, if your into arming terrorists, crushing the middle class and bringing down the american standard of living along with creating huge deficits with Vodoo economics.

[Vic Rattlehead18]

Yes, if your into arming terrorists, crushing the middle class and bringing down the american standard of living along with creating huge deficits with Vodoo economics.

Obama?

[Jimmy Leeds]

LMAO. Speaking of ignorant tools.

I was........YOU

[Daniel]

Yes, if your into arming terrorists, crushing the middle class and bringing down the american standard of living along with creating huge deficits with Vodoo economics.

Or unprecedented economic growth. Ending stagflation. Burying the Soviet Union.

For all the belly-aching about the debt under Reagan, it is absolutely nothing compared to what it is now, yet I don't hear many complaints about that from Reagan bashers.

And the standard of living did not go down, and the middle class was not buried. And if "voodoo economics" is lowering the top income tax bracket (a vital part of economic growth) from 70% to 30%, than sign me up.

And Roosevelt armed Stalin. Much worse than giving arms to Afghans, and not Arabs who actually are the terrorists. (Despite the myths, the US did not arm bin Ladin).

No the guy wasn't perfect, but the country is demonstrably better off than it would have been had Carter been re-elected, or had Mondale won in '84.

Like I said, get over it.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Daniel

[oofrostonoo]

No you're a tool! lol

[MantaRay]

Or unprecedented economic growth. (Until Clinton's 4.0 vs Reagan 2.8)

Burying the Soviet Union (pure myth -- If Gorbachev isn't in office nothing happens during the Reagan term).

For all the belly-aching about the debt under Reagan, it is absolutely nothing compared to what it is now, yet I don't hear many complaints about that from Reagan bashers.

Agreed. But it I don't know why anyone would complain about that, especially when it took Clinton to erase Reagan's economic mistakes and eliminate the debt.

And the standard of living did not go down, and the middle class was not buried. And if "voodoo economics" is lowering the top income tax bracket (a MYTHICAL part of economic growth) from 70% to 30%, than sign me up.

Whatever economic growth occurred benefited only the upper quintile, a fact easily proven by cold, hard stats available to the public at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His tax cut of 1982 benefited only the upper quintile and, inevitably, the chasm between the rich and everyone else widened. To be expected, wages declined; home ownership declined; infrastructure declined. Only crime and poverty increased. The rich remember Reagan fondly. They alone prospered. Everyone else lost ground.

No the guy wasn't perfect, but the country is demonstrably better off than it would have been had Carter been re-elected, or had Mondale won in '84.

I agree. No President is perfect. Reagan was in the right place at the right time providing the illusion of a strong leader when the US needed it. But he squandered the opportunity for the country to thrive.

Edited April 19, 2010 by MantaRay

[Vic Rattlehead18]

Clinton didn't erase the debt, he just moved it to the deficit. Which is still a debt.

[squishyx]

Clinton didn't erase the debt, he just moved it to the deficit. Which is still a debt.

huh?

Clinton fixed the deficit not our national debt. Deficits are what our annual budgets do every year, and for 3 years under Clinton we were running in the black rather then the red, which meant it was chipping away (ever so slowly) at the national debt.

This was completely undone when Bush Jr come into office, and blown to smithereens when Obama entered last year.

[Daniel]

You're looking over the entire term, when in the beginning of his term you faced the biggest economic crisis in decades.

And unlike our current administration he made the difficult and painful decisions, letting Volker raise interest rates, that benefited the country in the long-run. Obama is just delaying the inevitable with sugar rush stimulus.

And again, everyone who talks about the main benefits of tax-cuts going to the upper quintile never address the fact that before that the top marginal tax rate was 70%. Even the most left-wing government we've had in 40 years recognizes how utterly counter-productive that is.

Clinton "erasing" Reagan's debt is a non-sequitur and doesn't really mean anything. Plus, you had a Republican Congress that passed things like welfare reform (it takes two to tango), and actually demanded that certain debt be retired, which Clinton resisted initially. But in any event, I'm not a Clinton basher, and on the whole he was pretty good, but more of steward than anything else, the evidence of which is that he did not, and with the exception of his healthcare plan, never purported to seek any major reversals of economic policy from the 1980s, just tweaks really. (For example, he, and the Democratic Congress, raised the top marginal income tax rate by 2.5% to 37.5%, Bush then lowered it to 35%).

If you think that the Soviet Union would have fallen if Carter or Mondale were President, you're out of your mind. I never said Reagan did anything single-handedly, but to claim he had nothing to do with it is just wrong.

Finally, let's show that some of your factual assertions are demonstrably false:

Home ownership rates in the 80's were higher than they were in the 70s. They more or less stayed flat in the 90s.

My link

Crime rate fell then rose to about the same level as it started in 1980.

My link

And even so, the crime rate has virtually nothing to do with who is the President at any particular time.

[run_to_the_ditch]

It's just another example of the liberal media terrorism that has been perpetuated on ignorant tools like Manta and similar simple minded folk.

Presidents are never on "vacation", but it was the main stream media terrorists who would do anything and everything to get at GW, all the while, basically sucking the nuts off of this EmptySuit-in-Chief himself.

I remember Olbermann going absolutely frothy at the mouth about Bush golfing...........funny I don't see this liberal hero saying anything about his idol golfing.....or has he? Somehow me doubts it.

You speak of simple minded folk yet I never see your name on a ballot.

[oofrostonoo]

I remember Olbermann going absolutely frothy at the mouth about Bush golfing...........funny I don't see this liberal hero saying anything about his idol golfing.....or has he? Somehow me doubts it.

Frothy at the mouth? Bush gave up golf right when Countdown officially became a show on MSNBC. So unless Kieth was pulling a Hannity and using old footage I don't think you are correct.

Olbermann did however make fun of the fact that his sacrifice to the troops was giving up golf, not that he was in fact golfing.

If you can find any actual "facts" or "information" pointing to Olbermann foaming at the mouth while ripping on Bush for playing golf I'd have to side with your point... however it's tough to link to fantasy land.

[Daniel]

Frothy at the mouth? Bush gave up golf right when Countdown officially became a show on MSNBC. So unless Kieth was pulling a Hannity and using old footage I don't think you are correct.

Olbermann did however make fun of the fact that his sacrifice to the troops was giving up golf, not that he was in fact golfing.

If you can find any actual "facts" or "information" pointing to Olbermann foaming at the mouth while ripping on Bush for playing golf I'd have to side with your point... however it's tough to link to fantasy land.

But it is undeniable that Michael Moore (pain and misery be upon him) tried to make a lot hay over Bush playing golf in one of his clumsy propaganda pieces (I try not to refer to his films by name, in order to do my little part to prevent him from profiting from war more than he already does).

I'm not saying that it was some sort of grand sacrifice on Bush's part. But if you think it was a huge outrage that the guy played golf at one point during a war, you shouldn't be able to say it was a meaningless act to give it up.

[oofrostonoo]

But it is undeniable that Michael Moore (pain and misery be upon him) tried to make a lot hay over Bush playing golf in one of his clumsy propaganda pieces (I try not to refer to his films by name, in order to do my little part to prevent him from profiting from war more than he already does).

I'm not saying that it was some sort of grand sacrifice on Bush's part. But if you think it was a huge outrage that the guy played golf at one point during a war, you shouldn't be able to say it was a meaningless act to give it up.

I agree that Michael Moore is in no way a balanced documentarian. But the clip was uncut of Bush making a serious statement about stopping terrorists who murdered americans... immediately followed by a laugh and "Now watch me hit this drive." Kind of an inappropriate place for a serious statement to the press, and poor timing on the joke.

Had more taken a bunch of random shots of bush playing golf and juxtaposed them next to important national events going on causing the viewer to assume he was chipping balls out of the woods when kids were getting blown up by roadside bombs; I'd have the problem. It's creates a heavy handed manipulated view of whatever information he's trying to pass along. But the clip used in that instance was in context.

Giving up golf is a meaningless act only for someone who doesn't have people in the slanted press waiting to attack them at any moment. Bush had the right to play golf every few weeks; its naive to think these guys are effective leaders if they have no down time. It's a good way to avoid BS media swipes. I'm sure Drudge will... if he hasn't already announce a headline in red about some tragedy and put Obama's picture on a golf course right above. Dude knows his propaganda, and narrative building. Every day of drudge is like a new episode of a tv show... only remaining intriguing because little things are over blown, and wedged into his narrative.