FLASHBACK: Obama Promises No Vacations For Himself As President
- Thread starter Tsing Tao
- Start date
Wasn't the type of guy Bush was. That's all there was to it.
Hardly. They'll be the first to use the complaint that our responses are "more snark", yet that's really the only weapon they have to use at all - and frequently employ it when they've no ground to stand on in debate.
Left wing Wapo columnist Dana Milbank:
President Obama must really be teed off.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, his once-loyal secretary of state and his likeliest successor, has gone rogue, criticizing his foreign policy as too timid.
Obama responded with not one but two rounds of golf.
Clinton, in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg published by the Atlantic over the weekend, offered a withering comment on the Obama doctrine, described in shorthand by White House officials as “don’t do stupid s---.” Said Clinton: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”
As the criticism became public, Obama was doggedly sticking with his plans to go on vacation — a decision that, if not in the category of stupid stuff, could fit under the heading of “tone deafness.”
Obama stood on the South Lawn on Saturday updating Americans on the new bombing campaign in Iraq — and then he boarded Marine One for a two-week trip to Martha’s Vineyard. There, half an hour after arriving at his vacation home, he was already on his way to a golf course. He played again Sunday, then had a beach outing Monday followed by a political fundraiser.
Even presidents need down time, and Obama can handle his commander-in-chief duties wherever he is. But his decision to proceed with his getaway just 36 hours after announcing the military action in Iraq risks fueling the impression that he is detached as the world burns.
The highly visible wartime vacation (Obama allowed himself to be photographed on a putting green Saturday with NBA star Ray Allen and retired pro-football player Ahmad Rashad) was not looking any better Monday as Iraq’s political crisis worsened, NATO’s chief declared a “high probability” of Russian military intervention in Ukraine and Gaza remained on a knife edge.
By Monday afternoon, the crises had forced Obama to revise his schedule. The White House announced that the president, after returning from the beach, would make an unscheduled statement about Iraq. He freshened up at his 8,100-square-foot vacation home, then stepped outside, in a blue blazer and open collar; his aides wisely chose a wooded backdrop rather than one with the infinity pool and the sweeping water views. Obama finished his four-minute statement and then hopped in his motorcade for the ride to a Democratic fundraiser.
Such visuals probably won’t help Obama with the 60 percent of Americans who disapprove of his handling of foreign policy. Even his former secretary of state is registering her disapproval.
Clinton, in the interview, took a harder line than the administration has on Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Syria, saying she argued unsuccessfully for earlier arming and training of the Syrian opposition. “I know that the failure to help build up a credible fighting force . . . left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” she said.
She applied a bit of Clintonian triangulation to the foreign policies of Obama and George W. Bush, suggesting that there’s a just-right medium between the too-hot Bush policy and the too-cold Obama approach.
“I think part of the challenge is that our government too often has a tendency to swing between these extremes,” she said. She later added: “You know, when you’re down on yourself, and when you are hunkering down and pulling back, you’re not going to make any better decisions than when you were aggressively, belligerently putting yourself forward.”
The no-confidence vote from Clinton (who, as luck would have it, also will be on Martha’s Vineyard this week) comes as Obama is smarting from criticism by hawks that the current mess in Iraq might not have occurred if he had kept U.S. troops there. “That entire analysis is bogus and is wrong,” the president said Saturday. “But it gets frequently peddled around here by folks who oftentimes are trying to defend previous policies that they themselves made.”
It’s understandable that Obama would want to get away from it all, but for a president struggling to build support for his foreign policy, vacationing during a crisis is no day at the beach.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest reminded reporters Friday that Obama was traveling to the Vineyard “with an array of communications” and advisers. But when it came time for the president to speak, there was a 20-minute delay because the TV feed didn’t work, and when he finally spoke, the audio and video quality was poor.
Obama gave an update on progress toward “the limited military objectives” against the Islamic State in Iraq, and he praised the naming of a new prime minister. But he didn’t mention that the current one, Nouri al-Maliki, is refusing to surrender power, setting up a showdown.
Criticism from Clinton. War with the Islamic State. Trouble with Maliki. It’s enough to make a man hook his drive into the sand trap.
President Obama must really be teed off.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, his once-loyal secretary of state and his likeliest successor, has gone rogue, criticizing his foreign policy as too timid.
Obama responded with not one but two rounds of golf.
Clinton, in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg published by the Atlantic over the weekend, offered a withering comment on the Obama doctrine, described in shorthand by White House officials as “don’t do stupid s---.” Said Clinton: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”
As the criticism became public, Obama was doggedly sticking with his plans to go on vacation — a decision that, if not in the category of stupid stuff, could fit under the heading of “tone deafness.”
Obama stood on the South Lawn on Saturday updating Americans on the new bombing campaign in Iraq — and then he boarded Marine One for a two-week trip to Martha’s Vineyard. There, half an hour after arriving at his vacation home, he was already on his way to a golf course. He played again Sunday, then had a beach outing Monday followed by a political fundraiser.
Even presidents need down time, and Obama can handle his commander-in-chief duties wherever he is. But his decision to proceed with his getaway just 36 hours after announcing the military action in Iraq risks fueling the impression that he is detached as the world burns.
The highly visible wartime vacation (Obama allowed himself to be photographed on a putting green Saturday with NBA star Ray Allen and retired pro-football player Ahmad Rashad) was not looking any better Monday as Iraq’s political crisis worsened, NATO’s chief declared a “high probability” of Russian military intervention in Ukraine and Gaza remained on a knife edge.
By Monday afternoon, the crises had forced Obama to revise his schedule. The White House announced that the president, after returning from the beach, would make an unscheduled statement about Iraq. He freshened up at his 8,100-square-foot vacation home, then stepped outside, in a blue blazer and open collar; his aides wisely chose a wooded backdrop rather than one with the infinity pool and the sweeping water views. Obama finished his four-minute statement and then hopped in his motorcade for the ride to a Democratic fundraiser.
Such visuals probably won’t help Obama with the 60 percent of Americans who disapprove of his handling of foreign policy. Even his former secretary of state is registering her disapproval.
Clinton, in the interview, took a harder line than the administration has on Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Syria, saying she argued unsuccessfully for earlier arming and training of the Syrian opposition. “I know that the failure to help build up a credible fighting force . . . left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” she said.
She applied a bit of Clintonian triangulation to the foreign policies of Obama and George W. Bush, suggesting that there’s a just-right medium between the too-hot Bush policy and the too-cold Obama approach.
“I think part of the challenge is that our government too often has a tendency to swing between these extremes,” she said. She later added: “You know, when you’re down on yourself, and when you are hunkering down and pulling back, you’re not going to make any better decisions than when you were aggressively, belligerently putting yourself forward.”
The no-confidence vote from Clinton (who, as luck would have it, also will be on Martha’s Vineyard this week) comes as Obama is smarting from criticism by hawks that the current mess in Iraq might not have occurred if he had kept U.S. troops there. “That entire analysis is bogus and is wrong,” the president said Saturday. “But it gets frequently peddled around here by folks who oftentimes are trying to defend previous policies that they themselves made.”
It’s understandable that Obama would want to get away from it all, but for a president struggling to build support for his foreign policy, vacationing during a crisis is no day at the beach.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest reminded reporters Friday that Obama was traveling to the Vineyard “with an array of communications” and advisers. But when it came time for the president to speak, there was a 20-minute delay because the TV feed didn’t work, and when he finally spoke, the audio and video quality was poor.
Obama gave an update on progress toward “the limited military objectives” against the Islamic State in Iraq, and he praised the naming of a new prime minister. But he didn’t mention that the current one, Nouri al-Maliki, is refusing to surrender power, setting up a showdown.
Criticism from Clinton. War with the Islamic State. Trouble with Maliki. It’s enough to make a man hook his drive into the sand trap.
Tuesday on CNN, host Wolf Blizter discussed "the optics" of President Barack Obama vacationing and playing golf while several world crisis including the United States bombing Iraq unfold and said, "It is awkward though, you got to admit, everybody seems to admit."
CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger agreed and said, "I think the optics of what you were just showing, Wolf, is not terrific for the president."
Borger added the president needs to be more upfront with Americans about the mission in Iraq.
"I think he has to tell the American people how he's going to do that without mission creep. How you can cripple ISIS without mission creep?" she said. "How long it will take. I mean, he told us other the weekend this isn't going to be a matter of days or weeks. and so how he can achieve his goals if he has a very limited way of going at it. And I think those are the questions that are now being raised by the American people that he ought to answer."
CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger agreed and said, "I think the optics of what you were just showing, Wolf, is not terrific for the president."
Borger added the president needs to be more upfront with Americans about the mission in Iraq.
"I think he has to tell the American people how he's going to do that without mission creep. How you can cripple ISIS without mission creep?" she said. "How long it will take. I mean, he told us other the weekend this isn't going to be a matter of days or weeks. and so how he can achieve his goals if he has a very limited way of going at it. And I think those are the questions that are now being raised by the American people that he ought to answer."
Another script...
"A crisis-weary president addresses the nation on the latest turmoil in the Middle East while on vacation away from the White House, as his staff assures reporters he will be able to monitor world affairs from the comfort of his oceanside home.
"No, it's not President Barack Obama, who is vacationing this week at Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. It was George H.W. Bush, who took off on a 25-day vacation to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1990. Despite deploying troops in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Bush was nonplussed about concerns that he would not be able to effectively manage the situation. He explained he did not wish to ''be held hostage in the White House to events.''
"A crisis-weary president addresses the nation on the latest turmoil in the Middle East while on vacation away from the White House, as his staff assures reporters he will be able to monitor world affairs from the comfort of his oceanside home.
"No, it's not President Barack Obama, who is vacationing this week at Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. It was George H.W. Bush, who took off on a 25-day vacation to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1990. Despite deploying troops in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Bush was nonplussed about concerns that he would not be able to effectively manage the situation. He explained he did not wish to ''be held hostage in the White House to events.''
I'm confused as to what you're going for. Are you trying to say that Bush was as bad as Obama or vice versa, or that they're equally bad?
It still doesn't change the fact that Obama is an absentee President, no matter how many bush comparisons you bring up.
I'm confused as to what you're going for. You do realize that Obama is in his second term, will not be running for a third, and cannot be reelected president...?
You're wrong, rightie presidents are absent more.
What does him being in his second term have to do with anything? So he won't run for a third....does that mean he should stop doing his job? As usual, your "logic" if it can be called such, is elusive.
Where did I make a comparison between Obama's being out-to-lunch and "rightie" Presidents?
First rule of sales: don't bash your competition's product. It's time for you guys to start looking forward.