Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Should a president be burned out after two weeks?

I realise these are trying times. However, a young, well-fit President like Obama should be able to last more than two weeks, even if he wasn't taking time off for super bowl parties and roasts.

Sometimes I get burned out at work, and just use a half-day of vacation to get out and get some fresh air. But I'm pretty sure I didn't do this two weeks after I started the job.

But today, exactly 14 days after taking the oath of office, Obama had had enough of all the pressure of defending democrats who failed to pay their taxes, so he and his wife ran off to read books at a local elementary school.

Oddly, no news media made fun of him for doing so, not at all like they treated Bush when he had a scheduled elementary school reading that was interrupted by the 9/11 attacks.

Obama of course is in a critical time for his new administration, trying to figure out if government can do anything right for the economy. But already he's managed to pick 3 nominees that had to quit, he's made fun of the DC school system for not risking it's children on icy roads, and held a super bowl party while millions of hard-working americans were losing their jobs.

He also found time to attend a private comedy roast.

And now, to escape the heat of the oval office, he hid with a bunch of school kids, who were rightly happy to have him.

And when Obama was asked why he was there, and not doing his job, Obama said:

"We were just tired of being in the White House."

I know a lot of people who are tired of Obama being in the White House. But my goodness, it's only been 14 days. I think Clinton lasted longer before he threw up his hands and said he had never worked harder but he just couldn't keep his campaign promise and give a child tax credit.

And it's not like Obama has been working 24/7. One day he was just wandering around and stumbled into the press office, only to leave after they had the audacity to ask him why he was there. And he threw a grand Super bowl party, which the media spun as showing how much better he was than Bush, since Bush would have gone to bed early instead of spending taxpayer dollars on beer and pretzels.

OK, I don't know if they had beer and pretzels.

Oh, and last week he had a coctail party. This is supposedly part of his plan to "return the white house to the people". Of course, we aren't invited to his parties, only elected politicians and people he can try to bribe into supporting his agenda. Somehow this is more "open" than the Bush policy of actually living in his house.

A President has to have a social life as well, and I don't begrudge a man the superbowl. But 3 parties, a half-dozen fluff interviews, and a reading trip all in the first two weeks?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you can probably see russia from your house too

Charles said...

That is so funny, because it explains what is wrong with our country, and how we elected a man as President who was entirely unprepared for the job (twice?).

You are quoting a line from a Saturday Night Line episode, as if it is (1) historical, and (2) indicates a lack of intelligence.

In fact, you can see Russia from Alaska, and the Alaskan National Guard is given special duties to be our first line of defense against Russia.

This week we saw that Geithner is unprepared for the job of Treasury Secretary. But he was still more qualified for that job than Obama was for the Presidency.