Dump Duhbya

After 6 Months, You Deserve a Month Off

Bush golfsUSATODAY.com – White House to move to Texas for a while
By Laurence McQuillan, USA TODAY
08/03/2001

WASHINGTON — Six months after taking office, President Bush will begin a month-long vacation Saturday that is significantly longer than the average American’s annual getaway. If Bush returns as scheduled on Labor Day, he’ll tie the modern record for presidential absence from the White House, held by Richard Nixon at 30 days. Ronald Reagan took trips as long as 28 days. …

[S]ome Republican loyalists worry about critics who say Bush lets Vice President Cheney and other top officials do most of the work. They’re also concerned about the reaction of the average American, who gets 13 vacation days each year.

“It can foster other images,” says William Benoit, a professor of political communication at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Maybe he’s lazy, maybe he’s not determined. It feeds into the impression that he’s not in charge.”

Bush, who is scheduled to return to Washington on Sept. 3, is taking his vacation while Congress is in recess. Cheney will be in Wyoming. …

President Bush’s father was criticized in 1990 for remaining on vacation in Kennebunkport while dealing with the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

Bush has described playful plans for his days at the ranch, which was finished in the spring. Talking to members of the agricultural youth group FFA last week, Bush joked that he looked forward to “seeing the cows. Occasionally they talk to me — being the good listener that I am.”

But White House image-makers worry a lot, and Bush was a bit more serious a few days later when he spoke on videotape to the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree. He read from written remarks: “I’ll be going to my ranch in Crawford, where I’ll work and take a little time off. I think it is so important for a president to spend some time away from Washington, in the heartland of America.”

Some observers say Bush taking a month off could feed a perception fostered by critics that he is disengaged and does not work hard enough.

However, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll of 1,015 people taken in April found that many don’t take that view. Of those surveyed, 70% said Bush was working hard enough.

I wonder how many people NOW think he was working hard enough. mjh