Aww, WH Staffer Laments That Poor, Overworked Obama Has to Spend So Much Time in D.C.

The hell? It's like the collective new year's resolution for everyone at the White House was to tell as many little white lies as possible. They're not major fabrications, just enough to spin a whole 'nother narrative. Just below I posted the lie by omission in Obama's statement about the attack on a Christian church in Egypt.

Here's something from last week, spotted by Byron York:

On "Meet the Press" December 26, top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said President Obama's "biggest regret" is that the severity of the economic crisis forced him to "spend almost every waking hour in Washington focusing very hard on solving that crisis" and thus kept him from traveling the country to connect with the American people. According to Jarrett, Obama recently told aides, "I really want to figure out a way where I can spend more time outside of Washington listening and learning and engaging the American people." Jarrett says that in 2011 the president's schedule will "reflect that priority" -- that is, include more time outside the nation's capital.

The claim that he spent "almost every waking hour in Washington" in lieu of traveling about the country is utter bullshit. Everything including the the as, ands, and buts is a lie. This is so far from the truth that you couldn't see truth with the Hubble space telescope from here.

The truth is that President Obama has spent almost half his presidency on the road and not in D.C.

As of January 2, Obama has been president for 712 days. According to figures compiled by CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, who serves as a sort of unofficial White House record-keeper, Obama has spent 339 of those days -- nearly 48 percent -- outside Washington.

According to Knoller, Obama has spent 176 days on domestic trips, 70 days on foreign travel, 58 days on vacation, and 35 days at Camp David. (You can add a couple more vacation days to the total before the president returns from his break in Hawaii.)

Keep in mind all this traveling took place when Obama wasn't even running for anything. Can you imagine how little time he'll spare for doing his actual job once campaign season really gets going?

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:01 PM

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