In a Sunday Washington Times column, Drudge Report editor Joseph Curl takes a look at the difference between how the last two White House occupants, President Bush and President Obama, approached vacationing as president. Curl reveals that unlike Obama, Bush was concerned with public perception (especially during the war in Iraq) and made an effort to schedule holiday vacations in a way that wouldn't take others away from their families -- even a media that despised him:

“I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal,” [President George W. Bush] said years later. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.”

That’s also why Mr. Bush did two other things, without fanfare or praise. First, he never headed home to his Texas ranch until after Christmas, instead going to Camp David for a few days. That way, the hundreds of people revolving around him at all times — White House staff, Secret Service agents, reporters, photographers, all the others — could spend the holiday with their families in and around Washington, D.C. No one ever reported that — until this column.

Second, he rarely attended sporting events, although he once owned a baseball team and was a self-confessed stats junkie. His thinking there was the same: If he went to a baseball game (right down the street from the White House), his mere presence would mean hours and hours of extra security for fans.

Conversely, Obama, who never has to worry about the media turning against him (including lying for weeks about a terror attack in Libya), doesn't give a damn about public perception -- not during a recession; not even during a time when sequester cuts are being blamed for the closing of White House tours and airport control towers:

How else to explain the nonstop vacations the pair keep taking during what Mr. Obama calls the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression”? In 2013, the First Family has already enjoyed three vacations — that’s one a month. (Sorry, Joe America, you might have to forget your week at the beach again this year, but make sure you get those taxes in on time!)

Curl closes the piece (which you will want to read in full) by making the point about how much this juxtaposition tells you about Obama. And indeed it does. But I would add that it also reveals just as much about our media.

well soemthing on here I can finally agree with - good piece

he needs to remember that he is our EMPLOYEE, and his wife needs to remember that she is not...we did not elect her

You got that right!

thing is, they don't need to be reminded, I really don't think they care. I read today that he' s asking Congress for $100 million in pocket change to study neurological communication in the brain at the cellular level ( apparently).....gee! $100 mil! that would be a great COLA increase for social security!

Considering the general state of things that's a pretty arrogant request

President Obama isn't taking more vacations that most of the other recent presidents, and while his vacations may seem lavish, he's paying for them, so that shouldn't matter. When he flies for vacations, he pays airfare for himself and his family. Only the security and secretaries fly for free.

Just because President Bush merely flew to Texas, it doesn't mean he didn't spend more on vacations. The Secret Service had to staff his Texas ranch year-round, and Bush flew there every week or two, so the flights to Texas ran up hundred of $millions each year. Bush probably would've flown to nice international vacations if he wasn't so internationally hated.

President Bush has class, Obama is a classless thug who spent his free time with Domestic Terrorists.

President Bush has class, Obama is a classless thug who spent his free time with Domestic Terrorists.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/26/taxpayers-spent-1-4-billion-on-obama-family-last-year-perks-questioned-in-new-book/

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.

In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.

Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.

Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring the cost of the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.”

“The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said in an interview with TheDC on Wednesday.

“The press has been so slow in picking up on this extraordinary increase in the president’s expenses,” Gray told TheDC. (RELATED: Five shocking truths about Michelle Obama)

Specifically, Gray said taxpayer dollars are subsidizing Obama’s re-election effort when he uses Air Force One to jet across the country campaigning.

When the trip is deemed political, it’s customary for the president to pay the equivalent of a first class commercial ticket for certain passengers. But Gray says that hardly covers the taxpayer cost of flying the president and his staffers around on Air Force One.

“When the United States’ billion-dollar air armada is being used politically, is it fair to taxpayers that we only be reimbursed by the president’s campaign committee for the value of one first-class commercial ticket for each passenger who is deemed aboard ‘for political purposes?’” Gray asks in the book.

“And is that bargain-price advantage fair to those opposing an incumbent president?” (SEE ALSO: Millions of taxpayer dollars used for Disney World conference)

In the book, Gray admits Americans want their president to be safe and comfortable but argues the system should be reformed to stop the amount of unquestioned perks given to the president.

“There is no mechanism for anyone’s objection if a president were to pay his chief of staff $5,000,000 a year,” he told TheDC. “And nothing but a president’s conscience can dissuade him from buying his own reelection with use of some public money.”

Aside from a salary, the president gets a $50,000 a year expense account, a $100,000 travel account, $19,000 entertainment budget and an additional million for “unanticipated needs,” he notes.
Next Page

NEXT: Examples of the pricey perks reserved for the president

Here is a sample of other pricey taxpayer funded perks exclusively reserved for the president:

The president can to appoint high-paid staffers without Senate confirmation: Obama has 469 senior staffers and 226 are paid more than $100,000 a year, according to the book. Seventy-seven are paid as much as $172,000 per year. He also has appointed 43 “czars.”

The president can vacation for free at Camp David: Gray writes that each round trip made to Camp David costs the taxpayers $25,350. It’s also estimated that the combined transportation and personnel costs for a Camp David visit are $295,000 per night.

The president has a full-time movie projectionist in the White House theater: Projectionists sleep at the White House and are there 24 hours a day in case anyone needs to see a movie. “Compared to the 450 times President Carter used the movie theater in his four years in the White House, the average American citizen, according to industry statistics, goes out to see a movie slightly less than five times a year,” Gray writes.

The president’s family’s gets certain travel and security expenses paid while vacationing: “First Lady Michelle Obama drew flack from the media and irate citizens when it was disclosed that, not counting Saturdays and Sundays, she spent 42 days on vacation — within the span of one year.”

The president’s dog gets its own high-paid staffer: “Bo made the news when he and his handler were flown to join the president on vacation in Maine,” Gray wrote about the Obama family dog. “It has been reported that the first family’s dog handler was paid $102,000, last year.”

I don't know what planet your from, but welcome to earth.

lives under a bridge maybe? billygoat gruff

Oh please....

Bush sucked worse than Reagan.

I think ANY POTUS....deserves a badass vacation. Not only do they got the most mercilessly critiqued job on the planet...they got a crapload of armchair quarterbacks (you) telling them what a schitty job they are doing.

Completely ignoring the fact that I have never even heard of any puss from the politics threads having even attempted to run for public office.

If you guys got all the answers...why ain't you the f'n president?

...and not taking a vacation...?

The media seem to cover it here pretty well. I guess they are on vacation where you're at!

i guess that includes you now too, huh?... i like the fact that everyone else in here posts their OPINIONS in here without calling anyone "puss's"...

Presidents should have vacations, but not when the country is in shambles like it is and certainly not one a month which we pay for. As far as feeling sorry for them because they have a tough job goes, I say suck it! Nobody forced them to run for that position, they chose it because they have great big ego's. When BP was destroying a part of America Obama decided it more important to play golf in Florida than hold the companies feet to the fire. We have a sequester taking place, the white house is closed to public tours, you will see national parks shutting down, air ports will have towers shut down, but this POS can take a vacation. Well halle****inlujah!

Fair enough.

Why ain't you running for president?

You will get used to it. I am still working on being politically correct. Gonna take some time.

I've thought about it. Still time, who knows...

Feast your Eyes on this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/26/taxpayers-spent-1-4-billion-on-obama-family-last-year-perks-questioned-in-new-book/

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.

In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.

Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.

Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring the cost of the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.”

“The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said in an interview with TheDC on Wednesday.

“The press has been so slow in picking up on this extraordinary increase in the president’s expenses,” Gray told TheDC. (RELATED: Five shocking truths about Michelle Obama)

Specifically, Gray said taxpayer dollars are subsidizing Obama’s re-election effort when he uses Air Force One to jet across the country campaigning.

When the trip is deemed political, it’s customary for the president to pay the equivalent of a first class commercial ticket for certain passengers. But Gray says that hardly covers the taxpayer cost of flying the president and his staffers around on Air Force One.

“When the United States’ billion-dollar air armada is being used politically, is it fair to taxpayers that we only be reimbursed by the president’s campaign committee for the value of one first-class commercial ticket for each passenger who is deemed aboard ‘for political purposes?’” Gray asks in the book.

“And is that bargain-price advantage fair to those opposing an incumbent president?” (SEE ALSO: Millions of taxpayer dollars used for Disney World conference)

In the book, Gray admits Americans want their president to be safe and comfortable but argues the system should be reformed to stop the amount of unquestioned perks given to the president.

“There is no mechanism for anyone’s objection if a president were to pay his chief of staff $5,000,000 a year,” he told TheDC. “And nothing but a president’s conscience can dissuade him from buying his own reelection with use of some public money.”

Aside from a salary, the president gets a $50,000 a year expense account, a $100,000 travel account, $19,000 entertainment budget and an additional million for “unanticipated needs,” he notes.


NEXT: Examples of the pricey perks reserved for the president

Here is a sample of other pricey taxpayer funded perks exclusively reserved for the president:

The president can to appoint high-paid staffers without Senate confirmation: Obama has 469 senior staffers and 226 are paid more than $100,000 a year, according to the book. Seventy-seven are paid as much as $172,000 per year. He also has appointed 43 “czars.”

The president can vacation for free at Camp David: Gray writes that each round trip made to Camp David costs the taxpayers $25,350. It’s also estimated that the combined transportation and personnel costs for a Camp David visit are $295,000 per night.

The president has a full-time movie projectionist in the White House theater: Projectionists sleep at the White House and are there 24 hours a day in case anyone needs to see a movie. “Compared to the 450 times President Carter used the movie theater in his four years in the White House, the average American citizen, according to industry statistics, goes out to see a movie slightly less than five times a year,” Gray writes.

The president’s family’s gets certain travel and security expenses paid while vacationing: “First Lady Michelle Obama drew flack from the media and irate citizens when it was disclosed that, not counting Saturdays and Sundays, she spent 42 days on vacation — within the span of one year.”

The president’s dog gets its own high-paid staffer: “Bo made the news when he and his handler were flown to join the president on vacation in Maine,” Gray wrote about the Obama family dog. “It has been reported that the first family’s dog handler was paid $102,000, last year.”

Same question applies Conrad....

Why are you not the president?

If this president is doing it wrong...why ain't you helping us by doing it right?

Allow me to answer my own question....

None of you got the answers.

Just random bitching with no solutions.

Hmmmmm...sounds like you would all make great presidents.

You are embarrassing.

Let me show you how it is done....

First thing...take a vacation.

Secondly...execute everyone on deathrow...in an hour.

Legalize and tax the crap out of pot and gambling.

Nuke a country to get my point across