A Relaxed President

Huffington Post reports (8/14/08) that, after a day of work, President Bush on 8/15/08 would be leaving for his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

That's par for the course for the 43rd President. We all remember the Presidential Daily Briefing of August 6, 2001 with its title "bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." President Bush's response? As the BBC reported that day, "Washington is turning out the lights for August and Mr Bush is leading the way. For the next month the world's superpower will be run from a farm seven miles down Prairie Chapel Road in Texas."

But it's not only at times of crisis that Bush goes on vacation. As of 8/13/08, the President had been at Crawford or Camp David on 913 days. That's over 130 weeks of vacation. In a little over seven-and-a-half years. Approximately 17 weeks- four months- of vacation a year.

But as these photos from thinkprogress.org indicate, Mr. Bush does know how to have a good time and on the second of the four, appears possibly to have had some liquid refreshment to aid him.

The Associated Press on August 11 described the scene:
At the Olympic baseball stadium, Bush was in the mood to talk sports, not policy. He had just spent time mingling with the Chinese and U.S. baseball teams, and now they were lacing line drives across one of Beijing's pristine Olympic venues....Before the big U.S.-China basketball game, Bush met the players, huddled up, and led them in a one-two-three-USA cheer. He laughed in describing the moment, how high he had to look up to see their faces.

If only Mr. Bush enjoyed leading as much as he does cheerleading, perhaps he would do a little of it sometime.