Nice work if you can get it
From
The Washington Examiner:
Michelle's ski trip marks 16 Obama vacations
First lady Michelle Obama�s weekend jaunt to Aspen, Colorado for a President�s Day ski holiday with her daughters Sasha and Malia makes the 16th time members of the first family have gone on extended vacations during their three years in office.
Their stay at the home of a major Chicago fundraiser for President Obama makes the fifth time the first lady and her daughters have taken a break from Washington on their own. Only once has Obama had a long weekend out of town and alone, celebrating his 49th birthday in Chicago in August 2010.
Accounting for trips out of Washington for several days, the total number of vacations Washington Secrets tabulated is 16, 10 where the family was together, such as for Christmas and summer vacations, one by the president and five by the first lady. Not included were Camp David visits or trips like the first family�s New York City date night in May, 2009.
But of course, they bring up Bush (it's all his fault):
According to presidential watcher Mark Knoller of CBS, George W. Bush, at this time of his presidency, had made 30 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 220 days. The Obama�s vacation day count is less than half of that.
What they fail to note is that the Crawford Ranch was another White House. Bush worked, he met with dignitaries there unlike the champagne wishes and caviar dreams of the current regime. More on Craford from these two articles at the New York Times (
here and
here)
After 24 hours on Mr. Bush's ranch here, punctuated by hours of private discussions and a barbecue dinner on Tuesday night that included lessons in how to dance the Cotton-Eyed Joe, the two presidents emerged this morning to visit the local high school.
What followed was a remarkable sight. For nearly an hour, the leaders of the two largest nuclear powers answered questions from the students on women's rights, the details of reducing their nuclear arsenals and their sudden race to put together a government in Afghanistan that represents a cross-section of the country's fractious tribes.
And
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit last week to President Bush's ranch in Texas was punctuated by an unannounced, last-minute surprise: Mr. Bush invited his house guest to sit in on his highly classified morning intelligence briefing, the daily global review of terrorist threats, loose nukes and brewing hot spots.
Just a few weeks before, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia got similar insider treatment at the ranch: he was given a precious seat at the table for Mr. Bush's strategy session with the American negotiators with North Korea.
And:
Whether all of this will work is anyone's guess. Mr. Bush first used the ranch near Crawford for diplomatic ends when he entertained Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Jiang Zemin of China and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In retrospect, Mr. Putin's visit was the high-water mark of United States-Russia relations: Mr. Bush's aides even taught Mr. Putin and his wife the country-western dance "The Cotton-Eyed Joe."
Quite the difference...
Posted by DaveH at February 20, 2012 6:10 PM