"I just noticed that Obama returned to Hawaii today to "resume" his vacation, which had to be interrupted to attend to the nation's business during the fiscal cliff negotiations."

"How much vacation does this guy take?  It's getting absurd in my view.  I took Christmas Day and New Year's Day off, and worked the remainder of the time.  I left my office at 7:30 PM on New Year's Eve.  But then, I don't have free trips to Hawaii aboard Air Force One.Jerry

Jerry, I am quite sure that at this stage of your career you could arrange to take as many vacation days as you want to. However I don't think you want to for whatever reason.

BTW, of course you don't have free trips aboard Air Force One, you're not the POTUS.

Again,  "How much vacation does this guy take?  It's getting absurd in my view."

Sigh...It's that time of year again! Right wingers are in a tizzy about how the First Family is on vacation in Hawaii and how much it costs the taxpayers.

...Well, lets make a another  "childish comparison":

Bush Vacation Days in eight years of presidency: -  1020

Obama Vacation Days to date: --------------------------     78

There are only 2,922 days in 8 years. So he took vacation on over 1/3 of them....but then Cheney was in charge for the whole eight years, so I guess it doesn't matter. Cheney probably sent him away because it was easier to get "things" done without Bush underfoot.

...Seems Bush was always at that fake ranch clearing fake brush. He had a responsibility to clear that brush on his "ranch".
Can't get behind on a job like that or you never catch up. So what if Bin Laden was determined to strike in the US.

John Boehner was totally silent when President George W. Bush was setting the presidential record for most vacation days. Bush was not only on vacation more than any other president. He spent more money on non-official travel than any other president in American history. As president, George W. Bush used Air Force One to fly to his ranch in Crawford, TX for vacation.

Boehner’s comments about the cost of Obama’s travel got us thinking about how much money the Republican Party owes taxpayers for George W. Bush’s non-official vacation travels. Using a method that we have cleverly coined Boehner Math, this is what we came up with.

Number of George W. Bush flights for vacation in Crawford, TX: 77

Cost of running Air Force One: $179,000/hour

Flight time one way from the White House to Crawford: 4.5 hours

Cost of one way flight: $805,500

Roundtrip cost: $1,611,000

Total cost to taxpayers of Bush’s vacation trips to the ranch: $124,047,000.

Unlike President Bush who used Air Force One as personal vacation and campaign jet, President Obama’s events were held to discuss the public policy issue of the impending increase in the student loan interest rate. Bush spent over $124 million of our tax dollars flying to Crawford to clear brush, and while he was doing this Republicans like John Boehner never demanded that he pay back the cost of his travel to the taxpayers.

Dodging responsibility is a core Republican "Family Value" as Republicans demonstrate repeatedly with their vast cabal of "leaders" who are tax dodgers, draft dodgers, and work shirkers like George AWOL Bush.

No wonder people no longer respect Republicans. They really haven't earned any respect at all.

I don't give those numbers a lot of credibility either.  My father had a very good saying, "Figures don't lie but liars can figure".
Not calling my friend Star a liar, but I am questioning whoever it was who came up with those numbers.

I did read somewhere that Obama has already played more rounds of golf in 4 years than any other president, including those who had two terms played in their 8 years in office.

And, for Star - my vacation time is minimal.  I've never really enjoyed going someplace and vegitating.  We've been fortunate enough to see most of what we've wanted to see.  Going and lying on a beach - never; how boring !!!  I can get a sunburn in my own yard if I want one.  I like to see buildings, ancient ruins, Mediveal castles and cathedrals, and I've seen those I want to see.  So, I guess I do get more enjoyment out of working, and making a deal happen for a client than about any other use of my time.
Remember another old saying - an entreprenuer works 80 hours per week for himself so he doesn't have to work 40 hours per week for someone else.  I like that one - very true.

You should say that to the OP.

what or who is the OP?

 Evey source I have acessed puts this President's vacation time lower than the previous Presidents.. Except for Clinton and Carter...

Yes, and Clinton is in very poor health - 4 way bypass several years ago and now is on a vegan diet to try to atone for decades of Big Macs.
Bush (GWB) is still apparently very healthy.
Of course, being as young as he is, I'd expect Obama to still be in good health and he apparently is.

I've always been amazed that most former presidents live to a ripe old age, exceeding the life expectancy for whatever generation they were.  LBJ was an exception, but look at Ford, Reagan, Carter, GHWB - all either died at a very old age, or are still alive well into their high 80s.

Of course, many were athletes ( Ford and Reagan especially ), GHWB was a college baseball player and a Naval aviator, so his physical condition as a young man was above average, Carter is a Naval Academy grad, so he had years of good physical conditioning.  Clinton was neither an athlete nor served in the military, and the old phots of him eating Big Macs and smoking cigars are accurate predictors of his present poor health.

Yes, they all have access to the best medical care.  But supposedly they also had the world's most stressful job, at least for 4 years in the cases of Carter, Ford and GHWB; 8 years for the others.

Actually, Clinton may have been the poorest in his childhood - it's a close tie between him and Obama.

Paraquat wrote on 01/04/13 at 11:07:17:



You mention the word harvard, and people would be lined uo round the block giving you "student loans"
Obama paid his loans off sometime around 2005 if I recall. - Google and abcnews to the rescue -

"Check this out, all right. I'm the president of the United States. We only finished paying off our student loans off about eight years ago. That wasn't that long ago. And that wasn't easy--especially because when we had Malia and Sasha, we're supposed to be saving up for their college educations, and we're still paying off our college educations," he said.

That was august 2012 - so 2004.
Cool.
Srinath.