As republicans are tromping through the country trying to get people to vote them in again I wonder if people remember why so many of us voted them out?  Do we forget so easily who got us into the mess we’re in now?  Depending on your political viewpoint you will certainly have different answers to that question, but as the country voted it was quite obvious who they thought was at fault.  This has not changed.

One of my conservative friends made a joke about President Obama going on Vacation again for a FEW days.  Give me a break!  Bush was on vacation over 1,000 days while he was president!!!

Actually: 1020 days = 2.79 years on vacation.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

I remember when GW was in office and I certainly had a problem with his administration and their decisions.  Wars, out of control lending due to his and previous administrations loosening of the rules that are supposed to protect us (Oh yeah, isn’t less intervention what Republicans want?  Thanks for that.), he was always on vacation in Texas or Camp David (487 days)…don’t believe me?  Here are the numbers: (per CBSnews)

And how has President Obama compared?  As of January 11, 2010 he took only 26 days.  That’s pretty much what any salaried employee gets.  Only two other presidents have taken LESS time off in their first year in office:  Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. (factcheck.org).

——————

Per the CBS article:

So here – in no particular order – are some of the numbers that mark the record of the 43rd President of the United States. When no source is cited, the numbers are from the tallies I maintained during day-to-day coverage of President Bush.

National Debt Increase: $4.9 trillion.

National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009: $10.6 trillion

Debt when Mr. Bush took office: $5.7 trillion

(Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)

My insert President Obama info:  As of 7/6/2010 $13.178 trillion which is a 2+ trillion dollar increase in one year. (source) Not a good start, but his administration was thrown into Bush’s destructive eight year war against everything and everyone (IMO).  I’m not sure what McCain/Palin would have done, but I am almost positive we’d be in worse shape under their thumbs (again IMO).

Number Of Political Fund-Raisers Attended By President Bush: 338

Amount Or Money Raised At These Fund-Raisers: $802,586,070

(Some campaigns refused to disclose the amounts)

Number Of Baseball Games Attended: 12

(Including Game 3 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, 2001)

Number Of All Sporting Events Attended: 98

(Counting the Beijing Olympics as one)

Number of Cabinet Meetings: 49

Number Of Times President Bush Had Dinner Out At A Restaurant: 21

U.S. Military Deaths In Iraq: 4,228

(Source: Dept of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)

U.S. Military Deaths In Afghanistan: 634

(Source: Dept. of Defense as of Jan. 16, 2009)

Medals Of Honor Bestowed By Pres. Bush: 12

(Nine were awarded posthumously. Four were for service in Iraq, 1 for Afghanistan.)

Number Of Commencement Speeches Delivered: 23

(The last one was Dec 12, 2008, at Texas A&M)

Number Of Visits To Camp David: 149, totaling all or part of 487 days.

Number Of Foreign Leader Visits To Camp David: 19, including 3 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and 2 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Number Of Visits To His Texas Ranch: 77, totaling all or part of 490 days.

Number Of Foreign Leader Visits To His Texas Ranch: 20, including 2 by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (Crown Prince at the time) and 2 by President Vicente Fox of Mexico.

Number Of Visits To His Parents’ Home In Kennebunkport, Maine: 11, totaling all or part of 43 days.

Number Of Out Of Town Domestic Trips: 609

(That’s not counting Camp David visits or bike riding outings)

Number Of Foreign Trips: 49

Number Of Foreign Nations Visited: 75

Foreign Nations Visited Most: Mexico, Italy and Russia, 6 times each.

Number Of Rounds Of Golf Played As President: 24

(The last one on Oct. 13, 2003. President Bush has since explained that he stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq.)

Number Of Katrina-Related Visits To The Gulf Coast: 18

Number Of Formal, Solo, White House News Conferences: 44

Total Number Of News Conferences: 212

(Including many joint sessions with foreign leaders at home and abroad)

Number Of News Conferences At Which Shoes Were Thrown At Him: 1

Number Of Presidential Pardons: 189

By Comparison:

Bill Clinton: 396

George H.W. Bush: 74

Ronald Reagan: 393

Jimmy Carter: 534

Gerald Ford: 382

Richard Nixon: 863

Lyndon Johnson: 960

John Kennedy: 472

Dwight Eisenhower: 1110

Harry S. Truman: 1913

Number Of Commutations Of Sentence: 11

Number Of Recess Appointments: 165

(Source: Senate Historian)

Democrats blocked the practice in the fall of 2007 by keeping the Senate in session even during holiday periods.

Addresses To The Nation: 23

(The last was his Farewell Address on Jan. 15, 2009)

Addresses To Joint Sessions Of Congress: 9

(Of which 7 were State of the Union speeches)

State Dinners For Foreign Leaders: 6

Pres. Vicente Fox of Mexico

Pres. Alexander Krasniewski of Poland

Pres. Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines

Pres. Mwai Kibaki of Kenya

Queen Elizabeth II of UK

Pres. John Kufuor of Ghana

States Not Visited As President: 1, Vermont.

(Last of the other 49 to be visited: Rhode Island, June 28, 2007.)

Vetoes: 12, including 1 pocket veto.

(President Bush did not cast his first veto until his sixth year in office – a measure to extend federal funding of stem cell research.)

By comparison:

Bill Clinton cast 37 (not counting line item vetoes)

George H.W. Bush: 44

Reagan: 78

Carter: 31

Ford: 66

FDR: 635

Vetoes Overridden By Congress: 4

H.R. 1495 – the Water Resources Development Act of 2007

H.R. 2419 – the $289-billion “Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008”

H.R. 6124 – The “Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.”

H.R. 6331 – the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.”

Number Of Flights On Air Force One: 1,674

(Source: Presidential Airlift Group)

Number Of Miles Flown On Air Force One: 1,490,698

(Presidential Airlift Group)

Number Of Chiefs Of Staff: 2, Andrew Card and Josh Bolten.

Number Of Press Secretaries: 4, Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony Snow and Dana Perino.

——————-

I may be a “liberal”, but my conservative friends need to turn off their “news” for a while and listen to news sources who report the facts, not editorialize every single thing and blow every single thing out of proportion to keep their numbers up, people scared and angry.  This is detrimental to the the future of OUR country.

Good luck to you all.  Again, no one reads this so it doesn’t matter what I say.

Click here to read the ultimate reviews on the best umbrella stroller for toddler.