Obama's views on Presidential vacays before he was President

[All Tell]

So if Obama came out and got rid of his healthcare plan would he get blasted for waffling? Or is that waffle okay?

 

Probably, but more likely I would blast him for his poor judgement in getting that monstrosity rammed through congress and not allowing meaningful debate on the law's merits and faults. Most likely a big old I TOLD YOU SO.

[BlueTip]

LINK

 

Interesting

 

Do you guys really think the President thought he was going to go 8 years without a vacation?

 

I suspect what he was thinking is there are times to be on vacation and there are times when you just can't do that.

 

Every president takes vacation and they all work while they're on vacation. Obama worked and so did Bush when he was on his ranch.

 

I suspect the vacations are more for the wife and kids anyway...a way for them to sort of spend some time together.

 

If you want to argue that the President shouldn't appear to be on vacation under certain circumstances, I could live with that argument. You can question Obama about that. I think that's fair.

 

But get off the flip flop argument on the vacation topic. It's silly.

[Mitch Rapp]

Do you guys really think the President thought he was going to go 8 years without a vacation?

 

I suspect what he was thinking is there are times to be on vacation and there are times when you just can't do that.

 

Every president takes vacation and they all work while they're on vacation. Obama worked and so did Bush when he was on his ranch.

 

I suspect the vacations are more for the wife and kids anyway...a way for them to sort of spend some time together.

 

If you want to argue that the President shouldn't appear to be on vacation under certain circumstances, I could live with that argument. You can question Obama about that. I think that's fair.

 

But get off the flip flop argument on the vacation topic. It's silly.

Obama flew back to DC to hold a press conference that he could have held in Martha's Vinyard but he did not have time to attend the funeral of the highest ranking American to be killed in action since the Vietnam War. He was even too busy on his vacation to send Joe Biden to the funeral - or maybe Biden just refused to take a break from his own vacation. It's silly.

[TheDeuce]

Obama flew back to DC to hold a press conference that he could have held in Martha's Vinyard but he did not have time to attend the funeral of the highest ranking American to be killed in action since the Vietnam War. He was even too busy on his vacation to send Joe Biden to the funeral - or maybe Biden just refused to take a break from his own vacation. It's silly.

 

How many funerals have our past few Presidents been to?

[Voice of Reason]

I didn't read the link because my position is - I couldn't care less about Presidential vacations. Why does anyone care about presidential vacations? No matter where the President is, he is connected and on duty 24/7. I don't care if Bush took more vacations than Obama or vice versa. With all the truly important and serious issues we can discuss, why waste time on this stuff?

[All Tell]

Once again folks as I have now said three times in this thread THE FACT THAT HE IS ON VACATION IS TRIVIAL AND ONE THAT I DON'T CARE ABOUT. The purpose of the thread is that it is yet another illustration of how candidate Obama had 1 view of an issue and was critical of his predecessor for the way he did something yet when he became President he flipped. Obama ran on a platform of CHANGE. The only thing that seems to have changed is his position on issues.

[BlueTip]

I agree it would have been good to send Biden to the funeral. That should have been an easy call.

[Mitch Rapp]

How many funerals have our past few Presidents been to?

don't know. What I do know is that MG Harold Greene was the first general in 40 years to die during wartime and Obama and Biden were both too busy having a good time on vacation to attend his funeral.

 

I have not even been able to find a video of Obama making a statement about MJ Greene's murder. Afghanistan's President Karzai issued a statement condemning the attack that resulted in Greene's death.

[rjs4470]

don't know. What I do know is that MG Harold Greene was the first general in 40 years to die during wartime and Obama and Biden were both too busy having a good time on vacation to attend his funeral.

 

I have not even been able to find a video of Obama making a statement about MJ Greene's murder. Afghanistan's President Karzai issued a statement condemning the attack that resulted in Greene's death.

 

Details are pretty sketchy, but as far as I can tell, there is no tradition of Presidents attending funerals of military personnel killed while on duty. The Secretary of Defense did attend, so there was a high ranking official there. In addition, this funeral was a private ceremony (according to news reports), so having the POTUS or VP there with loads of security may have been a distraction to the family. I'm guessing Obama would have at least spoke privately to the family to give his condolences. I do think some sort of public statement should have been made.

[IceIceBaby]

Don't care if he goes on vacation, but I do care if what I read is true, that at the funeral of the general killed in Afghanistan, our POTUS was nowhere to be found.

[Getslow]

I'm so sick of politics I could vomit.

[IceIceBaby]

Details are pretty sketchy, but as far as I can tell, there is no tradition of Presidents attending funerals of military personnel killed while on duty. The Secretary of Defense did attend, so there was a high ranking official there. In addition, this funeral was a private ceremony (according to news reports), so having the POTUS or VP there with loads of security may have been a distraction to the family. I'm guessing Obama would have at least spoke privately to the family to give his condolences. I do think some sort of public statement should have been made.

 

There may not be tradition because a high ranking military official, like a general, does not often die during his post in war. It has been a very long time since it's happened. I believe lower ranking officials have died and previous POTUS and VPs have attended. I'm not sure if everyone completely understand's just what it takes to become a general, but for what that man gave this country to earn his position, I believe a break from Obama's vacation was a small thing to expect as our POTUS, tradition or not.

 

A public statement should have been made, yes.

[rjs4470]

There may not be tradition because a high ranking military official, like a general, does not often die during his post in war. It has been a very long time since it's happened. I believe lower ranking officials have died and previous POTUS and VPs have attended. I'm not sure if everyone completely understand's just what it takes to become a general, but for what that man gave this country to earn his position, I believe a break from Obama's vacation was a small thing to expect as our POTUS, tradition or not.

A public statement should have been made, yes.

 

Like I said, details are sketchy, but from what I could find, the last time it did happen, the then president, Nixon, did not attend. Again, the statement that there is a tradition to do so, is not really accurate. Should he have attended?? I guess, in theory. But again, it was a private ceremony, which is usually limited to friends, family and others with a close relationship to the deceased. And just the president being there, the ceremony becomes a huge production, something the family may not have desired. We have no knowledge that the family wanted him to attend or what their wishes were. And, I'm willing to bet he made some communication with the family to express condolences privately.

 

My issue is no statement was ever made publicly, although that too, could have been the wishes of the family.

[PurplePride92]

Like I said, details are sketchy, but from what I could find, the last time it did happen, the then president, Nixon, did not attend. Again, the statement that there is a tradition to do so, is not really accurate. Should he have attended?? I guess, in theory. But again, it was a private ceremony, which is usually limited to friends, family and others with a close relationship to the deceased. And just the president being there, the ceremony becomes a huge production, something the family may not have desired. We have no knowledge that the family wanted him to attend or what their wishes were. And, I'm willing to bet he made some communication with the family to express condolences privately.

 

My issue is no statement was ever made publicly, although that too, could have been the wishes of the family.

 

Or maybe the family voted for Romney and are disgusted with Obama and told him not to come.

[Mitch Rapp]

Or maybe the family voted for Romney and are disgusted with Obama and told him not to come.

That makes perfect sense. He would not be welcome at my funeral.