Obama on Presidential Vacations in 2008: My Vacations, Family Life, Leisure Are "Gone;" I Promise, If You Entrust Me With This Job as President, "I am Giving Myself To You"

Fantastic(al) video found by Weasel Zippers, also posted at the Independent Journal Review.

I won't steal their video (hit either link), but here's a transcript:

You have to understand that if you seek that office, then you have to be prepared to give your life to it. Essentially, the bargain that I think every President strikes with the American people is, 'you give me this office, then in turn my fears, doubts, insecurities, foibles, need for sleep, family life, vacations, leisure, is gone. I am giving myself to you.'

And the American people should have no patience through whatever's going through your head [i.e., the President's head] because you've got a job to do.

And so how I think about it is, that you don't make that decision unless you are prepared to make that sacrifice.

As Norm MacDonald said once of OJ Simpson's vow to not rest until the real killers had been captured: And the Manhunt continues.

ABCNews' Jon Karl notes Obama was on the links in "record time" at Martha's Vinyard-- they were only on the island for one hour before Obama was smacking balls.

"Pretty remarkable," Karl notes of the incredible expeditiousness of the president when it's something he wants to do.

I guess one way to get Obama to show up for his photo-ops on time is to brand them as tee times.

Meanwhile, Newsbusters catches the media defending Obama's devotion to Me-Time by making false claims about previous presidents' vacation and golf itineraries, especially Bush's.

On GMA, co-host Dan Harris tried to deflect from Obama's time on the golf course by claiming that "George W. Bush played his fair share of golf during the Iraq war as well"...

The Iraq War began April 2003. In August 2003, just four months later, Bush vowed to never play golf as President again because of the bad signal it sent to our troops in the field, a promise he kept.

And what of Obama's "I am giving myself to you"?

Has that promise been kept, or was it just another lie from Captain Bullshit?

As Jim Geraghty is fond of saying: All of Obama's promises come with an expiration date. Every single one.

Note: I originally said Instapundit coined this phrase. Honestly, I have no idea at this point. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at Instapundit a lot, but I don't know who actually coined it.

A commenter said it was Geraghty, so I'm going with that, because my memory is Teh Suck and I generally assume other people are right about these things.

Update: Scenes from the War. The first casualty of war? The short game.

That picture is from Saturday.

posted by Ace at 03:45 PM

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