487 days at Camp David
490 days at Crawford Ranch
43 days at Kennebunkport Compound
Total: 1020 days, more than 1/3rd of his presidency. Bush set the record for most vacation time taken by president.
Carter took 79 days in 4 years.
Clinton took 152 days in 8 years.
Reagan took 335 days in 8 years.
Bush Sr. took 543 days in 4 years!
So much for the mythological Republican hard worth ethic.
Total vacation days I took during the last 12 years: 2.
Well, almost 2. I was granted vacation by the hour at my previous job, so recieved 14 hours.
The rest of my jobs granted me zero vacation hours.
When Bush went on vacation, he'd chop wood and run about the ranch.
I voted for Obama, but come on. The guy plays golf and basketball. He's expected to speak in rhetoric and has to keep up all sorts of facile appearances like every other US president.
I could probably dream up a half dozen organizational systems in an hour or two that would work better than our democracy, and I'm not even that smart.
A system of civil service / test-determined meritocracy would be something I'd be just fine with. Certainly finely honed testing with checks and balances would be less corrupt and...oh, everything.
I wonder what sort of fall the future is going to be, when the oil and other vital resources are squandered. Or maybe scientists will save us, yet. I often wish I had pursued a career in science.
jonox
18 March 2009 @ 03:47 am
George W. Bush's vacation time (grand total)
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7 comments —
(Deleted comment)
Oh brother. I'm not examining myself via G.W.B, I'm illustrating the abusrdity of a system that allows the most vacation time to the people in the highest positions. He had no idea what was going on with his Iraq war, and some estimates place his vacation time (if one includes time spent campaining) as high as 42% of the days of his presidency.
Surely you feel its productive for people to keep track of their leaders and hold them accountable?
this is completely off topic, but i don't know how i feel about the word whilst...i wanted to use it quite frequently, but spell check has persuaded me to do otherwise.
Ooh, thanks for collecting these totals! They're exactly what I've been searching for tonight. I've been unable to find newspaper articles that include such totals. I don't suppose you still have any webpage sources around that you used to collect those numbers?
I do not, sorry. I think I just googled it, most vacation days presidents have taken, or something.
If George W. Bush would have been used 3/3 of his presidency time to go on Caribbean Cruises the world would have been a quiet and better place, don’t you think?!!!!?!?
From what I can remember, Ronald Reagan used to have a snooze every afternoon!