Bush has spent 233 days at the "ranch" since taking office

[BOSSHOG]

according to the WP and chronicled in today's www.talkingpointsmemo.com. He has spent more than 40% of his term at one of his three retreats. I guess they provide a better "thinking environment" as he supports our troops in the hell he has created for them.

[Gasolinedream]

1. Any comparisons...

to past Presidents?

[snippy]

2. The W stands for whore, but Bush thinks it stands for vacation. Very odd.

[AVID]

5. * sees double V = 2X vacation

If we could only get a CNN, CBS or Faux headline like the title of this thread.

[daa]

3. Dozens are dying and vacation boy

is AWOL again. He is holding troups over but don't fuck with his vacation. He doesn't sacrifice anything for the guys fighting.

[snippy]

8. Bush sacrificed. He gave up sweets just before he launched the invasion.

From an April 2003 article:

He's being hard on himself; he gave up sweets just before the war began.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-01-bush-cover_x.htm

This entire article is worth reading. It has lots of information that makes Bush look almost as dumb as he is. One thing that I have always found interesting about it is that the White House people chose to provide this information to the obedient media. I do not think that the White House would ask the media to run this story now.

[Hippo_Tron]

15. What told him we'd stop criticizing Iraq war if he gave up lies

Nah couldn't happen.

[boxster]

4. What a coincidence. Isn't that the exact same number of days that Condi

Rice said they had in office before 9/11?

[walkon]

10. Yes it is.

233 is an interesting number.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pansypoo53219]

7. but but but

he has to be in bed by 9.

[kcwayne]

9. If you look at the numbers, this is a lame criticism

In Bush's 1185 days in office there have been 336 weekend days. If you add in another 15 days of Holidays such as Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, etc) that's about 350 days of "off" days.

Per the article, he has spent around 233+156+10=390 days at retreats.
If you add into the holiday/weekend numbers 30 days of vacation, then Bush is "entitled" to 380 days off. So the balance of days on the job versus days at retreats is not really shockingly out of line. It's just that most of us are not able to have taxpayers pay for us to jet off to our weekend retreats that makes this seem unusual.

All President's in my lifetime seem to have worked much, much harder than Bush. He treats the Presidency with less commitment than a manager at Taco Bell would have towards his $25000 a year job.

Bush supporters would argue that when he is at the "ranch" it is not all rodeo and shit kicking. They will contend that Bush is working much of the time. I don't agree with this, we won't see "The Crawford Accords" or any such evidence that the Resident is actually doing anything other than starting wars and grafting money.

Having said that, I will not use this number of days at retreats argument in my long list of things I detest about this president.

[PATRICK]

11. Times of crisis

Better comparison to how past presidents spent their time while: war was going on, coups and financial crises happening, demands of political campaigning. Where handled, how delegated, how much follow through(a real damning indictment of WH performance on anything except the most private agenda), all these could be factored into a more telling critique than the blanket meme. All it takes is a little research and math.

The bland indifference to any suffering around the country or the world can be seen more clearly. During the past couple of months when coups were launched and governments shaken worldwide Bush was campaigning. Now he is vacationing with barely a querulous deference to the 911 Commission.

You could get more out of most titled monarchs than out of Bush.

[LiberalFighter]

14. Those 390 days at retreats don't include weekends he spends at the WH

Gee I wonder if he works much on the weekends. For that matter during the week.

[Hippo_Tron]

18. I bet they don't include campaigning and fundraising time either

390 days = more than a year off. Bush is going to spend most of 2004 campaigning. Basically if he's out in 2004 he will have spent about half of his presidency in the white house. Talk about a half-assed job.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. That's right, it's not all rodeo and shit kicking!

He has to leave ample time to fall off of Segways.

[kodi]

12. kerry needs to run bloodhound ads like mcconnell did vs huddleston

in 1984 mcconnell used the fact that his sitting oponent was absent for a large number of senate votes.

mcconnell brilliantly ran ads that had people searching for him high and low through his senate office, the congress and the woods with bloodhounds, declaring that senator walter huddleston was no where to be found.

mcconnell beat huddleston, easily and that ad crystallized a negative trait about huddleston in the mind of the public.

the same type ad should be run about bush.

"KNEW MORE, DID LESS"

[DianeG5385]

13. Bush's first 233 days - Don't blame us says Condi

In her 911 commission testimony, Condi Rice kept referring to the fact that they had only been in power 233 days when 911 happened. Are these the same 233 days Bush has spent on vacation???

[Hippo_Tron]

17. More likely he was in the white house all 233 days...

The government works better when Chimp is on vacation not running it.

[yelladawg]

19. It could be worse

How many more troops would be dead if he really was a war president and stayed in the White House more?