On “exotic vacations” and politicians

Cokie Roberts in full concern troll mode:

I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be at Myrtle Beach and if he's going to take a vacation at this time. I just think this is not the time to do that.

People, let's get this straight, Hawaii is one of the 50 states and Obama has family there. It's a farking vacation ... one that remains within the United States. Not to mention that McCain took nearly every weekend off at residences in Arlington and Phoenix or vacation homes near Sedona and San Diego while Obama was still campaigning. Obama deserves a week off with family before the final march on Election Day. So he's not vacationing in Wichita or Norman ... who would want to?

But let's take the example of someone who should be working hard at the moment, what with a the Middle East being, well, the Middle East. Our sitting President is hard at work in Washington, earning the money he makes from the US taxpayer, trying to bring peace to that troubled region. 

Well, no, of course not, he and his wife are enjoying "some sort of foreign, exotic place," to use Roberts' phrase - an all-expenses paid, tax-payer funded, vacation in China to watch the beginning of the Olympics. Why the hell are we paying for this total and utter waste of money? (It is of note, that Bush is the first US president to ever attend the opening ceremonies for a foreign Olympic Games. There must have been some vital decidering to be done in Beijing).

Here is Bush decidering with the US women's beach volleyball squad. You can imagine what the media would be making of this if it was Bill Clinton doing this.

The good news is that today was the last day of Bush's little junket. Discussing the real world that he will have to return to, he had this to say to NBC Sports:

"I was very firm with Vladimir Putin ... I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia. We strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia."

In other words, bomb the crap out of Ossetia, we don't care. Leave Georgia alone ... it is only a coincidence that the latter sits on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian to Europe.