Obamas seek shrimp as rain lets up on Martha’s Vineyard
The First Family took advantage of a break in the rainy weather on Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday to escape their holiday farm and make their first public foray together.
They wound up at Nancy’s seafood restaurant on the waterfront in the town of Oak Bluffs. First Lady Michelle Obama commiserated with the crowd after three solid days of driving rain that had kept holiday-makers, including the Obamas, holed up playing board games and reading books to make the most of their summer vacation.
“How you guys doing? Drying off? Finally,” she asked restaurant guests, after shepherding her daughters Malia and Sasha into the restaurant for a late lunch with friends.
Complimented by a well-wisher on a purple-colored watch, she confided it was a present from the president, but hinted that he had gotten help in making the selection.
“I think somebody told him,” she said, clad in white Capri pants and a coral-colored cardigan over a striped shirt.
Her husband, in a white polo shirt, dark slacks and a White Sox baseball cap, cross-examined dining companion Eric Whittaker, an old Chicago friend, over his menu selection and shook hands with fellow diners.
The restaurant trip was the first time the Obamas had ventured out in public as a family. It came on day six of their 10-day holiday to the upscale island off the coast of Massachusetts.
On rainy Martha’s Vineyard, Obama hunkers down — and reads
So much for perfecting that golf game.
President Barack Obama has spent a lot of time indoors during his vacation. The posh island of Martha’s Vineyard has had a spot of bad weather — as in rain, rain, and more rain.
That means the sporty president, who likes to spend his free time on the greens, hasn’t made it to a golf course since Sunday, when his game almost got canceled because of impending storms.
Since then he’s been hanging out at the rented compound he is sharing with his family, playing games and reading books.
Obama went out for dinner on Tuesday night and, in a rare comment to the reporters covering his trip, said the weather hadn’t cramped his style.
“I’m having a great time,” he shouted to the waiting press corps. “Doing a lot of reading.”
No word on whether he has finished “Freedom,” the book by Jonathan Franzen that Obama got at a store on the island at the beginning of his vacation.
Obama unwinds into summer vacation, reading list revealed
Finally, the presidential summer reading list is revealed — well, one book anyway.
President Barack Obama took his daughters book browsing on Day 2 of the First Family’s summer vacation on the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Obama, casually dressed and sporting a baseball cup of his beloved White Sox, greeted and shook the hands of surprised shoppers in The Bunch of Grapes book store on Main Street in the pretty seaside town of Vineyard Haven, before leading Sasha, 9, and Malia, 12, upstairs to browse.
The First Reader bought Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, a novel that The New York Times review said showcases “his ability to throw open a big, Updikean picture window on American middle-class life.”
A sales assistant said the president also purchased “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning classic tale of racial tension in the segregated south of 1930′s America, and John Steinbeck’s “The Red Pony,” set on a California ranch in the same era. (We’re thinking those books were probably for the girls).
The visit swiftly drew a crowd of several hundred, as holiday makers emptied out of shops and cafes onto Main Street to catch a glimpse of their famous fellow vacationers.
Mocha Mott’s Good Coffee, down the street from the bookshop, was honoring the president with a Mocha/Obama special, a blend of either iced or hot mocha with milk and white chocolate for between $3.35 and $5.05 (including tax).
Suggested Book…Over The Cliff: How The Election Of Barack Obama Drove The Right Insane.
“Over the Cliff examines the right wing’s eagerness, especially in the aftermath of President Obama’s election, to invent and propagate stories that are provably false. Noting that such stories are disseminated in large part by mainstream-media figures like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs, the authors link that kookery to a wave of lethal violence and threatening behavior. They also explore the main drivers of this descent into nonsense, including a resurgence of extremist groups and the longtime Republican strategy of exploiting racial and cultural resentment. Finally, Over the Cliff details ways ordinary Americans can resist this madness.
Washington Extra – swimming with the fishes
The U.S. economy continues to swim with the fishes – weekly unemployment claims are at a nine-month high and the director of the Congressional Budget Office says the unemployment rate won’t fall to around 5 percent until 2014. Not much in the way of economic sunshine today.
President Barack Obama commented on the economic cloud before heading to Martha’s Vineyard where his family is taking their end-of-summer vacation.
We’re wondering if the Secret Service will allow the First Family to frolic in the waters off the Massachusetts island given that several great white sharks were spotted close to the Cape Cod shore at the end of July. Remember, “Jaws” the movie was filmed on Martha’s Vineyard (it’s hard to write out the movie sound of the shark approaching, but you get the picture).
Onshore there will undoubtedly be golf outings for the First Golfer in what is a truly natural setting — as The New York Times pointed out earlier this week, the Vineyard Golf Club is a completely organic course. Perhaps they also serve arugula salad for lunch.
Here are our top stories from today…
More tough economic times forecast by CBO
The U.S. economy faces even more difficult times ahead with chronic unemployment and slow manufacturing hurting the recovery, the head of Congress’ budget agency said. The warning from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office came on top of more bad economic data that heightened concerns about a return to recession. It could also spell trouble for Democrats facing November elections.
Obama tees up his “staycation”
President Barack Obama is following up his busy week in Martha’s Vineyard with … another holiday. But, like many Americans in this time of economic recession, he is taking a “staycation” — time off without leaving home.
In Obama’s case, home is the White House, and as president he cannot truly leave his work behind. His “break” on Martha’s Vineyard was interrupted repeatedly by breaking news, including his renomination of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve and the death of Obama’s friend and former colleague, the late Senator Edward Kennedy.
But the president appears to be doing his best to relax. He squeezed in four golf outings last week on the Massachusetts island, and on Monday he headed out at lunchtime, beginning his “staycation” with another round of golf, this time at a country club outside Washington.
The first family heads to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, for part three of his break on Wednesday.
Click here for more Reuters political coverage.
Photo credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas (Obama family comes home from Martha’s Vineyard)
What is it about presidents and golf?
President Barack Obama seems to have a new favorite past-time. The 48-year-old campaigned as a basketball player, but now his heart seems to belong to the links. He has squeezed at least four golf outings — three for 18 holes and one just nine — into his week-long vacation on the Massachusetts island Martha’s Vineyard, despite two days of rain and a trip over to Boston for the funeral of his friend and former colleague, the late Senator Edward Kennedy.******Lately Obama has also been golfing on most Sundays when he is in Washington, generally on courses at military bases near the city.******His foursomes are more likely to include long-time friends and aides than well-heeled contacts — this week he golfed with a top executive of the UBS investment bank, but he also played with a White House assistant chef and a press aide.******The habit has attracted a few jibes. Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan used it to publicize a news conference she was planning on the island during Obama’s visit. “When President Obama was playing golf yesterday, four soldiers died in Afghanistan,” Sheehan said in a flyer distributed at the Martha’s Vineyard White House press center this week.******But for U.S. presidents, golfing is — er — par for the course. Fifteen of the past 18, including Obama, have golfed, according to Golf Digest magazine. Obama explained its appeal for him this summer in an interview with CBS News. Although he was unhappy with the state of his game (he took more than five hours to play 18 holes this week, and a woman who lived near one course described his ball hitting a tree), he said it gives him a chance to relax and spend time with friends, largely unobserved (the Secret Service is around, but often off in the woods, Obama said) and away from reporters and photographers.******”It is the only time that, for six hours, first of all, that I’m outside. And second of all, where you almost feel normal, in the sense that you’re not in a bubble,” he told CBS News.******Golf Digest ranked John F. Kennedy as the top presidential golfer, noting that his average score was 80, despite chronic back pain. Back in January, it put the athletic Obama 8th.******The presidents who didn’t golf? Golf Digest says they were Jimmy Carter , Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt. But Roosevelt would have been another golfing president if he had had his way. According to the Armchair Golf Blog, Roosevelt loved playing golf as a young man, but polio in 1923 forced him to give the game up.******Photo credits: Obama golfing on Martha’s Vineyard, Reuters/JASON REED
Postcards from the edge: Obama sans helmet
President Barack Obama got a lot of blog biting for looking “dorky” (hey not our word) when he wore a bicycle helmet while dodging traffic in the urban streets of Chicago.
So it was a different look when he was photographed on a bicycle in the fields of Martha’s Vineyard with hair freely blowing in the wind (although we are told it’s unclear whether the helmet was off only at the time the photograph was taken or through the whole ride).
All other family members with him were in helmets for sure.
The White House assures everyone that the president “supports the wearing of bicycle helmets.”
In Massachusetts bicycle riders under age 17 are required to wear bicycle helmets, so no laws broken…
Anyway here are some postcards from the first family vacation.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Sasha Obama walks her bike, President Obama rides his)
Everybody seems to miss th epoit that the President sets a good example by going on a bikeride with his kids.
When it comes to the helmet, their usability, efficiency and potential for good in the greater picture of road safety or even more public health have been wildly exaggerated.
I can recommed the following article written by a physician :
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/3 21/7276/1582
“Three lessons for a better cycling future”
The Wikipedia article on Bicycle helmets is an ok starting point, with lots of references to researech and critiques of research :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_hel met
The following site contains the broadest set of commentaries on bicycle helmet studies :
http://cyclehelmets.org
For those that want something more lightweight, and less accurate, have a look at this video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdoE2YCvw dM
Activist Sheehan is a bipartisan vacation protester
War protester Cindy Sheehan, who sought to be a thorn in President George W. Bush’s side over the Iraq war, has set her sights on a new war, Afghanistan, and a new U.S. leader, President Barack Obama, this week.
Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, set up a small “Camp Casey,” named for her late child, near Blue Heron Farm, the compound on the Massachusetts island Martha’s Vineyard where Obama and his family are spending a weeklong holiday. While Bush was president, she was a frequent protester during his vacations in his adopted hometown of Crawford, Texas. She began visiting Crawford in the summer of 2005 when she wanted to meet with Bush while he was vacationing at his ranch. Bush had met with her after her son died but did not see her again, although he sent two top aides to talk to her.
Sheehan became perhaps the most public face of opposition to the Iraq War, but some strident statements made some observers categorize her as more of a fringe figure over time.
Sheehan’s supporters shouted at Obama’s motorcade as he drove by on his way to play golf. Some members of her group had posted small placards reading “World Needs Vacation from War” near a filing center set up for the traveling press, and distributed handouts noting that soldiers had died in Afghanistan while Obama played golf this week.
But her efforts drew scant attention. On Martha’s Vineyard, happy crowds have greeted the Obamas wherever they have traveled this week. Only about a dozen people turned out for Sheehan’s public statement Thursday morning, and several of those were with her entourage.
Picture Credit: Obama bike riding with his daughter on Martha’s Vineyard, Reuters/Jason Reed; Cindy Sheehan, Reuters/Kimberly White
Hang in there Cindy. The supporters of human sacrifice can’t always prevail.
Obama’s summer holiday no walk on the beach
President Barack Obama began his summer vacation by sending a specific message to the White House press corps.
”He wants you to relax and have a good time,” Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said as Air Force One carried the first family to the Massachusetts island where they are spending a week-long holiday. “Take some walks on the beaches. Nobody is looking to make any news, so he’s hoping that you guys can enjoy Martha’s Vineyard while we’re there.”
“I asked him if he had a message for the press corps, and that’s what it is,” Burton said.
Right.
No president really leaves the news behind when he takes time off, but Obama’s 7-day break would be a busy news week, even if it ended now — just halfway through.
On Monday, the Obama administration said it was setting up a new group to interrogate terrorism suspects in accordance with established rules, to be overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, rather than the Central Intelligence Agency. His attorney general, Eric Holder, named a special prosecutor to probe CIA prisoner abuse cases.
On Tuesday, Obama broke the news perhaps most keenly awaited by financial markets. He announced that he would nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The decision on whether Obama would retain the central banker as the economy struggles to recover from recession had been widely expected, but not until later in the year.
All this talk about the dreadful things the CIA did to the terrorists and the inquires that they hope will prove that what they did was unamerican is a charade. Their motive is for one reason ,to appease their hatred of dick cheney, and because this hatred is so intense they have developed a sympathy for these murders. The one aspect of this conspiracy that they have underestimated is that Cheney is no PUSHOVER,their threats against him are not bothering him in the least,he will face them head on. Another miscalculation on their part is that the vast majority of the american pubic are not at all bothered about their indignity.
Obama’s summer holiday reading list: 2,300 pages
President Barack Obama is squeezing some reading into his week-long Martha’s Vineyard vacation. OK, a lot more than “some.”
The brainy president has brought along a stack of five books– three novels and two works of non-fiction — to amuse himself in between rounds of golf, visits with friends, activities with his family and the inescapable business of running the country while he is on the Massachusetts island.
Two of the novels are thrillers, but his reading list is hardly light, literally or figuratively, with a total for the five books of more than 2,300 pages.
Here’s what’s on Obama’s holiday reading list:
“The Way Home” by George Pelecanos, is a thriller set in Washington, DC, a city that should be familiar to a president and former senator. The crime novel by the best-selling author explores the relationship between a father and his son.
“Hot, Flat and Crowded,” by the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, is a non-fiction book that looks at one of Obama’s top policy issues — climate change — as well as what Friedman considers the United States’ loss of hope and purpose since the September 11 attacks.
“Lush Life” by Richard Price is another thriller, this one set on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in New York City.
What part of the Constitution talks about Czars? The same part that says the founding fathers knew communism doesn’t work?
If anyone has a pretty large gap in their understanding of the Constitution, it’s Bob in NC, not the guy who actually taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
