What do you think he does for entertainment? Do you suppose that he watches movies? What movies do you think he watches? Speaking of movies, have you seen any movies that you like lately? Personally, I really like movies (although I have to admit that I don’t really go to the theater much anymore because the management (much like, and I’m just free form thinking here, some moderators) really don’t do much to keep a few bad apples from really distracting from the enjoyment of the film.
I do realize that. But the soldiers are taking their working vacations in Iraq. Are you honestly blind to the irony of seeking comfort and relief for yourself after you have extended the tours of duty for those in your command? They are there to achieve his goals, and if all he’s going to do is work, then he can vacation in the Situation Room.
I don’t care where he does his job, as long as he does it (a vain hope so far).
Attacks based on symbolism (such as length of “vacation”) are feeble.
I agree with your assessment of this President. But: if the vacation was a vacation per se and not just I’ll be working from home not the white house.
It would mean 5 less weeks of stupid decisions, bad appointments and antagonizing world leaders. So either it doesn’t matter or it is a good thing.
I can certainly agree with that sentiment. In a sense, the less work he does, the better. But the War President keeps starting wars — on Bin Laden, on terror, on Iraq, on domestic liberty — and he keeps abandoning them. He’s been running away from wars since Vietnam, and he’s doing it again.
Well, only 80 hours of PTO carries over at the end of the year, so if he doesn’t use up everything over that, it’s just wasted.
:dubious:
Well with 12 posts a day here, plus whatever other forums Liberal uses for his daily fix, Dopers could be forgiven for thinking Liberal himself has been on vacation for the last five years.
A working vacation to be sure. It’s certainly work for anyone who has to read him.
Did you know that Bush was the guy in the back of the theater when you saw Terminator 2 yelling, “Bring it on!”
I think someone should forward the OP to The Daily Show – no doubt they’ll come up with a terrific skit for it.
In fact, how about we bat around some ideas right here?
Well think of it this way. As a libertarian type maybe it would be best if he just went on perma-vacation. A cessation of any policy making is preferable to bad policy making. Let’s expand the vacation to twenty weeks and make sure he relaxes without phone, fax or internet to interrupt his leisure.
So long as Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld are minding the store, do you really think it will make any difference how long the Chimp-in-Chief stays in Crawford?
What a stupid fucking OP. In these days of cell phones and satellites, it makes no difference where that monkey sets his policy. Of all the things about which to Pit Bush, you choose this?
I’m wondering…did FDR take vacations during the Second World War?
Just out of interest, Lib, would you mind explaining how and why your thinking has changed since last June? In the thread titled The Lies of Michael Moore, discussing Christopher Hitchens’ review of Fahrenheit 9/11, you made the following post about presidential vacations, in post #68:
In reviewing Hitchens’ article, i made the comment about “the totality of [Bush’s] vacation images,” noting that they give the impression of a President without too much commitment to doing his job. In response, you said, in post #77:
I, in turn, agreed that the stuff about vacations was mostly irrelevant, but asked why Moore shouldn’t be allowed to have some fun at Bush’s expense. To which you responded, in post #87, with:
And in response to someone else regarding the issue of vacations, you said, in post #89:
I’m just wondering why, exactly, his vacations are now so important to you?
Yes, But I can’t find the cites.
He vacationed at: Campobello Island , New Brunswick , Canada – Dutch Colonial Revival with 34 rooms. Keep in mind he was American Aristocrat even more than Bush family.
Found this Snippet: Roosevelt died in 1945, while on vacation in Georgia. At his death, the entire country was convulsed in mourning.
Obviously this was during WWII. http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/people/fRoosevelt.html
I think he took long vacations even during the war. It was a tradition in the 1800’s for several Presidents to take month long summer vacations on Jersey Shore.
His final vacation had started on March 30th and he died April 12th.
No mention of how long he was planning to stay.
I don’t think there will be a good cite on this. It wasn’t really news worthy.
My dad says he took long vacations every year like every other president had.
I don’t like Bush much if at all, but this is one thing I’ve never been able to get worked up about. It’s August. Congress is on Vacation, there’s not a lot for him to do in Washington. If there’s an emergency, they can easily reach him.
I do find it ironic that people who don’t like him are complaining about this. If you don’t like him and what he does, shouldn’t you be happy he’s not doing anything?
This appears to be common wisdom among the calm and reasonable***** critics of Bush; those of us who point out aspects of Mr. Bush’s behavior, demeanor or speaking characteristics are accused of dwelling on “minor irrelevancies” or of “distracting away from the real problems” caused by this Chief Executive. We’re told that the President’s facial expressions, body language and patterns of speech aren’t worth discussing. We’re told that the public posturing of “Mission Accomplished” and “bring 'em on!”, while risible, are just the public face of bad policy decisions which should be the real focus of our arguments. We’re told that the quarter hour of inaction in the Florida classroom on 9/11 should be avoided as a topic by “serious” analysts and partisans. And we’re told that “attacks based on symbolism” are “feeble”.
I wonder[ul][li]if, as a self-portrayed strong decision maker, sitting idly and then taking a photo op while waiting for instructions as your country is being attacked, []if characterizing millions of war protestors as “focus groups” you shouldn’t pay attention to and asking individuals “Who cares what you think?”,[]if declaring “Mission Accomplished” at the nominal completion of an invasion preluding a lengthy occupation,[]if smirking while you explain to a mother whose son has just died enforcing the occupation you’ve ordered that it’s “hard work” for you to deal with her,[]if, as a vehemently self proclaimed “War President” doing the hard work of fighting a grave threat to global democracy, taking more time as vacation than any President in the modern era[/ul]aren’t relevant to the moral character and attention to duty of a PotUS and his administration… what the hell is?[/li]
*****I mean that without irony. These are level headed and concerned people of disparate and well considered ideologies who all agree on the right approach to public debate. If only the times were as reasonable…
Kachiiiing! Turnabout. Sauce for the goose and all that.
You made your point, Binarydrone. Don’t whine to us about this being ‘trolling’, Liberal. Having a thread wrenched astray by somebody working an agenda is really, really annoying, isn’t it? Now why don’t you just ponder on that for a while.