Why doesn’t Obama just stay home?

By Weekly Archive On Jun 17, 2009

By Bill Press

In the interest of full disclosure, I sometimes crave a good burger. So whenever the mood strikes, I head to the “Five Guys” closest to Washington’s Capitol Hill: on New Jersey Avenue, near the new Nationals’ ballpark.

Too bad I wasn’t there on May 29. I could’ve shared a cheeseburger and fries with the commander in chief himself, who dropped in with NBC’s Brian Williams to pick up lunch for the gang back at the White House. For the crew at Five Guys, it was a once-in-a-lifetime presidential fast-food fix. For President Obama, it was just another day out on the town.

Michelle Obama had previously taken her staff out to another Five Guys location. Obama and Vice President Biden made a surprise lunch run to Ray’s Hell Burgers, across the river in Arlington, Va. Almost every Saturday, the Obamas cheer on their daughters’ soccer games at local schools. And the President and first lady have stepped out recently for high-profile date nights in Paris and Washington — plus dinner and a play in New York City.

Not only that. On many weekends, Obama rounds up friends for a fast-paced basketball game. And, now that warm weather’s here, he can frequently escape to one of the local golf courses. In fact, Obama walked out of the White House, toting his clubs, only 90 minutes after returning from a six-day trip to Europe and the Middle East — while his wife and daughters were still doing Paris and London.

How unusual. A president and his wife who actually seem to enjoy each other’s company and, no matter how difficult it may be, love getting out of the White House. Which, of course, is driving Republicans crazy. Unwilling to criticize Obama’s public policies, they’ve decided to attack his personal lifestyle instead.

So far, Republicans haven’t condemned Obama’s time on the basketball court or golf course. It would, after all, be hard for them to do so, given the long hours George W. Bush spent on his mountain bike during some of the country’s most pressing problems. Even in hard times, presidents need their exercise.

But the date nights proved too much for Republicans to swallow — especially the First Couple’s May 30 back-and-forth jaunt to the Big Apple, for which Obama gave a very straightforward explanation. “I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished,” he said in a statement released by the White House.

That didn’t satisfy his critics. No sooner had Marine One left the South Lawn than the Republican National Committee put out a press release denouncing the president’s decision to go out for a night on the town in the middle of a recession, while General Motors was preparing to file for bankruptcy. And they accused the Obamas of wasting at least $25,000 in taxpayer dollars to pay for the trip, when they could have just as easily — and more cheaply — gone out for a play at the nearby Kennedy Center.

On Twitter, Republican Chuck Grassley even chastised the president for urging action on health care reform while still in Paris. In a message demonstrating the inanity of Twitter and Grassley both, the senator from Iowa wrote: “Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care. We still on skedul/even workin/WKEND.”

Give me a break. This is the best Republicans can do? There are plenty of legitimate issues they can raise against President Obama, but how he spends downtime with his family is not one of them. Nor is the cost of their travel to New York. Don’t blame Obama. He’d have been just as happy taking Amtrak or the Shuttle, which the Secret Service would never allow. And jetting to New York, by the way, is a lot cheaper, and requires a much smaller plane, than jetting to Crawford, Texas, for the weekend.

If Republicans really believed in family values, they’d be celebrating a couple that spends time with their kids and each other — yes, even in the middle of a recession. I don’t get it. Eight years ago, they attacked Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife. Today, they’re attacking Barack Obama for not cheating on his wife. Why don’t they make up their minds?

Bill Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a new book, “Train Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too Soon).” You can hear “The Bill Press Show” at his Web site: billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.