How many record breaking vacation days did bush take ? And did he drive the family jalopy from DC to Crawford?

Just asking. . .

I guess the right is working its way up to an Obsessive Obama Disorder. Anyone claiming yet that Obama played a role in killing Vince Foster?

I seem to recall these same clowns launching rather vehement defenses of Bush while he played guitar and posed with John McCain's birthday cake while New Orleans drowned. In their view then, it was "too much to expect" the president to drop everything just because one of our largest, most historic cities was flooding and thousands of citizens were dying.

Feh!

Forget the fake press-release outrage. If Obama chose to closet himself in the White House, working 18 hours a day 7 days a week on the Nation's ills, the same people would be screaming that he's isolating himself from teh people.

Say instead how much traction this crap gets. My guess is that outside of Murdoch's Trough, no one really cares.

It's just target practice for these people, all the time.

I shouldn't be surprised by this anymore, but sometimes I am.

But does he or the first lady ever go to the bathroom? I've never seen that reported or commented on by The Party That Is About To Go Away (TPTIATGA).

I'm sorry, but the right wing blogs have a point. How much did the fuel for the jets cost and when will the Obamas reimburse the taxpayers? It's an abuse of public money and it would be unacceptable from a Republican as well.

And Bush took 3 1/2 ***YEARS*** of vacation. The POTUS cannot simply go somewhere without costing taxpayer's money. I didn't begrudge Bush that, nor would I Obama. If Obama starts taking almost as much vacation as he works, then I will have a problem.

I'm sorry, but the right wing blogs have a point.

Yep. We can start pressing Obama to repay the expenses right after we get Bush to repay the expenses he generated with all his personal galavanting. And we'll get right on that after we get Condi Rice to reimburse the government for her personal shopping trips to LA and NYC.

The only point I see the right-wing blogs having is the one on top of your head, Rock.

Oh for crying out loud, Rock, do we have to rediscover populism every time the republican aristocracy is out of power? The last time the hysteria focused on Nancy Pelosi and her lawful use, as speaker, of a plane ordered for her by the Sergeant at arms of the House. There is, of course, a standard way for the president or any public official to pay for the portion of the cost that properly accrues to him/her when they are forced by law and security procedures to spend tax payer money to be protected in jobs that are definitionally not nine to five. Obama and Mrs. Obama remain terrorist targets even after hours, and even on date nights. They are not permitted to decide to do away with the protections of the office. But no doubt they paid for the portion of the costs that they would have borne as private citizens. The same as Senators and Congresspeople do when they combine personal travel with official business.

Get off the fucking cross already. Your side lost and you just lose more every time you paw pathetically at the coat tails of an incredibly popular president. No doubt if Obama had offered to auction off their date night and go to the city of the highest bidder cities even deep in Red america would have lined up to bid for a brief appearance on their streets. That's how popular that couple is.

aimai

Obama said this: “You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime".

It's time for him to live up to his own expectations of others.

And these criticisms come from a party that worshipped the guy who spent probably a third of his 8 year term on vacation while ruining the country....

Republicans.......assholes, all of them.

Obama said this: “You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime".

It's time for him to live up to his own expectations of others.

This would make more sense if Obama weren't a 24/7 employee of the taxpayers.

It's sort of difficult to get angry when, technically, we pay the man to poop.

Obama just needs to have thick skin and ignore the right (and some of our commenters here) entirely.

To see why, one needs only ask "and if Obama did as they say and never left the White House, would they be happy?" The answer doesn't require speculation - it is a known fact. In the 1977-79 recession and Iranian crisis, Carter did exactly what the right now asks of Obama. He locked himself in the WH and rarely came out, wanting it to be clear how focused he was on the problems we faced. Did the right applaud this? Of course not. The right slammed on him for looking panicked and weak, for "retreating" into the WH, and for failing to go forth and rally the nation out of its malaise.

Reality: the right doesn't mean the substance of anything it says. The only point is to slam on Democrats - consistency, logic, civility all be damned.

So Obama may as well actually live a little, have as normal a life as possible, enjoy and keep strong his family, and tell the right to STFU.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why we pay attention to anything these people say. I work as a therapist, and have spent many frustrating working with dysfunctional families in which virtually all aspects of family life are controlled by the most unreasonable, self-centered and self-righteous members of the family. Our country displays the same dynamic (I'm reminded of the Gene Hackman character in The Royal Tenenbaums). Just as it is a mistake to let the most unreasonable member of a family exert control over the daily lives of other family members, it is wrong to let these people (the Rush,Newt,Cheney axis of ignorance) shape the national discourse. Sometimes I almost wish the 20 to 30 percent of the population that believes this rot would follow through on their idle threat to secede, but then I imagine the damage that a banana republican state could do. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I'd rather have Obamas have a date night on my dime than a President (oh, say, George W. Bush) appear in a video making fun of the fact that he couldn't find WMDs, then show that video to a black tie dinner party, while soldiers he sent to find those WMDs were dying in Iraq.

This is one of those "Let them eat cake" kinda things.

Politically tone deaf.

and you know what? They probably went home and had sex too. And we paid for that, too. And I say, thank goodness for that. After eight long years of the homebody bushes, it's nice to see the President out among the people, getting a burger, taking his lovely wife out for dinner and a show, not for the PR, but because it's a normal thing to do.

Wasting taxpayer money? It is not as though he went to Yankee Stadium.

And you know what? The few times the bushes left the safety of the White House, they hung with plutocrats and were resoundiy booed on the streets. People line up to catch the merest glimpse of Obama. I have a friend who met him last week, a sober, responsible republican adult, who was giddy for days, like a schoolgirl who just met her matinée idol. And that freaking kills the wingnuts.

They probably went home and had sex too

I thought that was the point of taking separate jets - so Barack and Michelle could join the "Mile High Club"

I want to know how much this dinner and a show cost us taxpayers.

.
I hear the elitist bastard craps on a porcelain toilet, too. PORCELAIN!!! Plywood's too good for him! WIMP!!! No wonder North Korea is kicking our ass!

And he listens to Hawaiian music! From some foreign country! FOREIGN Country Music!!! Whatever happened to George Straight??? Or ANYBODY straight???
.

Another added, "Obama also promised a middle class tax cut and healthcare reform, but obviously those can wait."

Uh .... Didn't we already get the middle class tax cut in the stimulus package?

"I want to know how much this dinner and a show cost us taxpayers."

Let's say it cost $10M.

We have around a trillion dollar deficit this year, and you're fucking worried about dinner and a broadway show.

I want to know how much Bush's golf games cost us taxpayers.

LOL -- one of the funniest posts on WM in a long time. God these people are stupid....

How much did it cost us taxpayers when Cheney went hunting for pheasants and shot his good friend Whittington in the neck (and that's just the one friend getting shot we heard about. Could Cheney have shot all his friends? There are some people who do that, so who knows. Is Cheney a mass murderer? I don't know, so hard to really know these things.)

This brings to mind the stories of the super rich jetting to Paris for a dinner date or taking a half dozen buds to a swank Florida resort for the weekend. Granted they were (supposedly) doing it on their own dimes. The extravagance and fuel consumption were still not an issue with the capitalist crowd.

As has been noted, the Obama's have to have the security where ever they go. Getting out of it is not an option.

Obama also made it clear that this was a thank you to Michelle for all they had to sacrifice over the very long campaign - a promise made that he waited over 100 days to keep.

I would hope our country can accept such 'extravagance' from a person who is willing to make all the sacrifices that go with this job. As the Dalai Lama puts it:

'Judge success by what you gave up in order to achieve it.'

Perhaps some investigative journalists could find statistics and information about other heads of state. The CEOs keep talking about the 'perks' that go with the job. The capitalists insist cutting back on those is socialistic. POTUS is a far more powerful, influential CEO than any of them, and possibly more than many combined. A short plane ride to NYC for an exceptional thank you? Maybe we should counter with how much stimulus it gave to Broadway shows and NYC?

Real Presidents, when they want to relax, go to their ranch in Texas and clear brush...

The President and the First Lady went to Manhattan and all I got was this lousy talking point.

It undoubtedly would have been cheaper to have paid the entire cast of the Broadway show to come to the White House and put on a private performance.

Here is the thing, this is of course a dumbass non story story. But here is the problem. Some asshole like Jake Tapper or Ed Henry will be repeating this dumbass bullshit tomorrow in the press briefing. "Robert how does the President justify actually taking his wife on a date?" Our sorry media will put that question on the same level of asking when we will get healthcare or if there will be a two state solution in the middle east.

But on the other hand when those of us on the left were questioning the WMD evidence in the lead up to the Iraq War the media did their damndest to ignore us and on the few occasions that they did as a question they made it seem as illogical as possible. Like "You know some say that Saddam Hussein may not have WMDs but we all know that he does right?"

That's what is so frustrating about those assholes. They will spend days trying to use right wing talking points to create a controversy that they can take credit for, but when we really needed them to hold someone's feet to the fire before leading us to War they instead practiced nothing but deference.

I hope Robert Gibbs makes them feel about an inch tall when they come with the weaksauce tomorrow.

You know if the Obamas had a lot of taxpayer money spent on rest and relaxation say like a third of the time he's in office we then would have something to be pisswhining about. I'm 110% sure that the vast majority of people are just fine with the guy spending the night out with his wife. It doesn't seem possible for the republicans to look or act any dumber and more petty. Yet somehow they manage every single day to perform the impossible by going to lower and lower depths.

This is one of those "Let them eat cake" kinda things. Politically tone deaf.

If this is the best you can do you need to shorten your handle to "myiq2".

Read the story for comprehension. There were not angry mobs with pitchforks rioting in the streets over his lording of his wealth over them. Rather they were 8-deep in joyous celebration of seeing a leader they admire and respect. This is not "let them eat cake." This is "let them see an example of a strong, functional, loving marriage." Trust me when I say that, at least for now, a lot more of the public will swoon at the romance, will proudly embrace the young, classy, couple representing them, and will cheer than will have the dour, bitter, joyless reaction you suggest.

Maybe if more Republicans had dates they'd understand.

zeitgeist-

"myiq2" was a regular troll over at Balloon Juice, until he/she finally got so hounded for their stupid comments that they left. Now I see they're back off their meds, and commenting again, this time here!

Obama also made it clear that this was a thank you to Michelle for all they had to sacrifice over the very long campaign - a promise made that he waited over 100 days to keep.

Over 100 days before he kept a promise to his wife. It's not surprising that she had to go to the end of the line. Women are always last on President Popular's list of priorities. His misogyny stinks.

lol. thanks, IFP.

The First Couple went on a *date together* to a nice event and had an evening OUT?!!!!! It just goes to show you how twisted much of our society has become when good marital relations are mis-characterized as some kind of newsworthy, aberrant behavior.

It undoubtedly would have been cheaper to have paid the entire cast of the Broadway show to come to the White House and put on a private performance.

With the plus that peter would then have gotten to bitch about the arrogance of demanding a closed "Royal Command Performance", the expense of moving the whole cast and crew to DC on our nickel for an audience of dozens, yadda, yadda.

If the man walked on water he'd be bitched at for putting the jobs of hard-working, unionized ferry workers at risk.

These cranks could be ignored except that Faux News and its wanna-be CNN will use this, or something equally stupid, as a way to fill air time and generate 'controversy' they can talk about endlessly. (cf: Car dealership 'conspiracy.')

This is true even if those complaining are more concerned with dissing the Obamas than they are with paying attention to the actual news - Obama passed that tax cut already, dude. Duh.

It is sad that our discourse is being run by angry childish morons, but it is.

Obviously, the wingers didn't take into account what the Obamas' trip did FOR the New York City tourist industry. In fact, you can be sure if the Obamas were fuddydud stay-at-homes like the Bushes, the Repubs would be criticizing them for not using their positions to stimulate the economy -- case in point, there's an op-ed in today's Times criticizing Michelle Obama for not liking to cook.

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

Boo hoo hoo....The left has been pulling this crap for almost a decade....When it's their ox getting gored it's "insensitive".

Get over it and grow a pair.

Is everything grounds for petty, partisan sniping?
========================

Well, yeah. What did you expect? They're Republicans.

Boo hoo hoo....The left has been pulling this crap for almost a decade....When it's their ox getting gored it's "insensitive".

Are you posting to the wrong article or are you just that dumb?

"The left's" response to right-wing griping about the Obama's trip to New York is not that it's "insensitive" - it's that you guys are hilariously ridiculous. Keep it up. It makes you look real good.

The post is because the left has been bitching about dubya's vacations (to a small town in texas and his HOME) for almost a decade. Now they get it back and they cry about how everyone should leave barry alone.

Same crude that will be touted when(if) the republicans filibuster a supreme court nominee. The liberals can do it to their hearts content but then somehow think the other side will not or should not, they should "rise above it" now that my guy's getting criticized.

Barry's out galavanting around on taxpayers dollars and folks who don't LIKE guvment employees having 100K dates don't like it. Good for them...

If the AIG's of the world can't "go to vegas" I don't really see where mr. hypocrisy should "go to nyc".

The right-wingers comparing the Obamas' dates to Bush's repeated and extended vacations are forgetting what the main objection was at the time. It has and had nothing to do with the cost of the trip: it was the fat that Bush was more interested in his vacations than with the job of running the country that he was actually being paid to do.

One night out on the town in comparison? Chump change. If Bush actually gave a damn about the future of this country beyond how much money the plutocrats could make, we wouldn't be in half the mess we're in now.

By this time in his presidency, Bush had already made three trips to Crawford. And that's flying with the big plane and the whole fleet of entourage. By the time he finally hunkered down for that month long August vacation pre-9/11, he was on his fifth trip to Crawford. And that's not counting the Kennebunkport jaunt and all those weekends at Camp David.

And the right bellyaches about the First Couple taking an executive jet to NYC and not even overnighting? Obama Derangement Syndrome, sure enough.

And where was Bush when Katrina hit.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/24/flashback-as-katrina-raged-mccain-celebrated-69th-birthday-with-bush/

Let them eat cake, anyone.

Ridiculous...The leftists criticized any and every thing that bush did. EVERYTHING.. It was incessent...there was even a syndrom named for it Bush Derangement Syndrom.

You do have a point about Bush not interested in governing as much as Barry if you grade it by the amount of money Barry has racked up on the credit card.

Barry's got him beat by a mile...we are looking at a $4T defecit THIS YEAR! About ten times what Bush was criticized for and the entire defecit that Bush rang up in 8 years.

Don't you think Barry should sort of reign in the happy days are hear again night on the town while he's lecturing us that we "are out of money"?

Let 'em eat cake.

This one I am leaving up just for the purposes of highlighting teabagger stupidity and ignorance of the English language. I figure the regulars will enjoy this one as much as I did. --Mod]

Actually, liberals didn't criticize Bush for taking all that time off; we welcomed his long absences from the White House.

Just sayin..

[Get some fresh material or be gone.]

yeah dude, i think Obama deserves a night out. after all, he's accomplished more in 4 months than Bush did in 8 years.

and before you do the broken record bit with the "he sure has, if you measure it in spending!" i'd just note all he has spent is the credit card bill that arrived after the Bushies left for all the freakin' damage they ran up. takes some serious cash to get the train back on track when the Mission ol W Accomplished was steering it a few thousand miles off course.

"The leftists criticized any and every thing that bush did. EVERYTHING"

Waaah, I'm a Republican and my pants are poopy!

Wow...barry hasn't accomplised a damn thing but spend 4trillion bucks?

For the record I don't begrudge barry's taking momma out on the town one bit. What's hilarious is the lefties getting their panties in a wad because someone has criticised theOne.

He's the teflon man, much like the previous leftist in the presidency.

I think we both very well understand, you and I, that the specter of the Republican president going for a night on the town mostly on the taxpayers dime when with the country in the midst of a recession and companies, and families, are struggling to survive, would have brought unprecedented amounts of anger from the dinosaur media.

You can bet your butt cheeks that Benen would be among those who would be screaming the loudest.

As it is, The Chosen One is the subject, and quite predictably, Benen goes to bat for him, becoming the consummate apologist. Forgive me for thinking that there might actually be a bias/ credibility issue for Benen here. (Spit)

Good God, Steve. I really don't care too much about Obama's trip, but why not wait a little bit before you froth your defense of the man? You're getting worse.

You got the links to Just One Minute and Sweetness-Light reversed.

"I'm sorry, but the right wing blogs have a point. "

No, they don't.

"For the record I don't begrudge barry's taking momma out on the town one bit."

Hey, that's "baby momma", pal - didn't you get Rove's talking point memo?

Hmmm, racist much?

"the Republican president going for a night on the town ... would have brought unprecedented amounts of anger from the dinosaur media."

Waaaah! I'm a Republican and my pants are poopy!

"The leftists criticized any and every thing that bush did. EVERYTHING.. It was incessant..."

I actually voted for Bush in '00. So did a lot of my (formerly) Republican friends.

It wasn't just "Leftists" that criticized Bush-Cheney. It was anyone with a brain. Because, Bush kinda sucked. In a major way.

Did you sorta noticed how Republicans are less popular now than before Bush-Cheney? Why do you suppose that is?

The "press release" also threw in the 'Clinton hair cut that shut down the airport' canard just for good measure.

They got nothin'

I also understand that the so called President spends time on the toilet eliminating his own personal waste when he should be eliminating waste from the government budget! He has no sense of decency and no shame!!!

Barry spent taxpayer's money on himself in an elitist, selfish, wasteful way!

Well Chimpy spent more!

But Bush never spent any taxpayer's money on taking his wife to NYC for a date to see a Broadway production, unlike BARRY!

What the #)@# is wrong with taking your wife out for a date? Maybe the country would have been better off if Chimpy had had more dates and started fewer wars.

But Barry's supposed to be a man of the people! Real people don't take corporate jets for a one night trip! Frickin' frackin' limosine liberals!

Hey, did we mention that Chimpy spent WAY more money than Obama? And, at least Obama works for a living! Chimpy took WAY more vacation time.

Oh sure, you lefties were really really mean to Bush when he was the president, and now you're just big old hypocrates [sic] (Editor's note: Right wingers never know how to spell that word for some reason...)!

Are not!

Are too!

I mean seriously folks. Why do we stoop to their level. It is just so asinine. I am so with Broken Arrow on this one. We pay too much attention to pathological bs like this. Let us continue to celebrate Obama's accomplishments, hold his feet to the fire when he weasels out on campaign promises, and target the big issues, like torture and health care.

When our President is a philandering scumbag, Republicans bitch and moan.

When our President is a family man who clearly still loves his wife, Republicans bitch and moan.

Actually, whenever the President is a Democrat, Republicans bitch and moan.

For the record, I bitch and moan whoever the President is because to become a President, you pretty much have to be a bought and paid for scumbag. They are just playing a game.

It's a great play.

It's not the date, it's the hypocrisy. Remember, this is the man who recently told us, "We all need to tighten our belts." Apparently the ObamaSpeak lexicon defines "We" as "all of you, but not me."

"Let us continue to celebrate Obama's accomplishments, hold his feet to the fire when he weasels out on campaign promises..."

Well, he's done a lot of the latter. Not so sure there are any instances of the former yet, except to spend more money than anyone in the history of the world while yammering about fiscal responsibility.

From Benen's article: "the Obamas didn't take the usual Air Force One jet. It's a short flight, and the First Couple took a smaller plane"

Actually, there were three planes. Our host's reporting omits this detail for some reason. Perhaps because it makes this little outing a less inspiring example of belt-tightening for us little people.

The real problem seems to be that the right cannot imagine itself attending a play, concert, dance performance or other artistic event; at the best of economic times, they consider art pointless and wasteful. Perhaps Obama should have taken the Gulfstream to some rural area for some brush clearing, turkey shooting and chaw spitting. Not sure that Michelle would have liked it, but then that's the other problem the right has with the Obamas: they're so obviously happy together and enjoy each other's company, and the Bushes were so obviously...not, and so obviously...didn't.

"The real problem seems to be that the right cannot imagine itself attending a play, concert, dance performance or other artistic event ... the other problem the right has with the Obamas: they're so obviously happy together and enjoy each other's company"

It's wondrous to behold the exercise in missing the point that you folks are putting on. Let me spell it out: The man who is lecturing the rest of us on the need for austerity is demonstrating zero interest in doing so himself. "Date night" is merely the latest incident in a string of them, such as Michelle wearing $540 sneakers to a shelter, the $100/lb wagyu steak at the Wed. night parties, and, just the day before date night, telling this to bank execs:

"President Barack Obama said he made clear to bank CEOs who visited him Friday that they need to get rid of lavish bonuses and perks that have angered the American people. " (politico)

I'll bet those execs are really impressed how the President eschews lavishness and perks, hey?

"...and the Bushes were so obviously...not, and so obviously...didn't."

That just gives the game away that you're simply making stuff up.

This is in the sa

d category, like everything I post.

And I believe Duhbya spent something like 1/3 of his presidency on vacation? But that's OK if your Republican.

Let's give this president the same perks we gave the last 43 presidents. I'm pretty sure that included trips, dinners, performances at the residence, time at Camp David, appearances at events coast to coast and abroad...etc....

Is there some reason President Obama has to answer for doing exactly the same things that presidents before him have done? I understand Bush never wanted to leave the bubble -- it was either DC or the "ranch" -- but he isn't the only presidential example we have.

As for the "date" -- we've had plenty of presidents who went on secret "dates" behind the backs of both the taxpayers and their wives. Personally, I'd rather know he's with the missus.

Is everything grounds for petty, partisan sniping?

Yes.

What issue do the Republicans have to demonstrate their competence to govern? Everything they have tried since Gingrich orchestrated the takeover of the House in 1994 has come a cropper. Nothing has worked for them. Nothing of any significance at all that wasn't already in action in the Civil Service. Period.

ALL THEY HAVE is petty partisan sniping and the hope that events will turn worse for Obama so that the Republicans can then blame him. They depend on the short term focus of the public and the Press.

Wow ... the right has nothing, does it?

I mean, they could give us an idea of how they'll handle the recession (that they've created), or how to save the struggling companies (minus defense contractors), or how to help families (other than rich white ones via more tax cuts), or how to deal with a pair of wars (which they've totally mismanaged for 6 years).

But they've instead decided to whine about arugula, Obama's choice of mustard, and now an evening out with his wife.

So ... how long before the GOP stops being a national joke and offers something of substance for our nation? What's the over/under?

I say it'll take at least 6 years. A bit sooner if Rush, Beck, and/or Cheney get hit by a bus.