Exclusive - Study: Obama Most Well-Traveled, Expensive President In History Through Five Years

I suppose I can add a bit from a source or two which aren't traditionally considered to be on the right of Rush Limbaugh, so to speak.

In November 2010, National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) published a study that detailed how President Barack Obama spent more time abroad than any other U.S. President after two years in office.[1] Since then, President Obama has left the country less frequently, but after a historic trip to Southeast Asia in November 2012, he still has been officially out of the country more days than all but one other U.S. President in a first term. He has done so by taking more journeys than most previous Chief Executives, even as they are of shorter duration compared to past history.

Though President Obama’s foreign travel slowed in his second, third and fourth years in office, data indicates that Presidents tend to leave the country more often during their second term. With four trips abroad over 18 days through the first six months of 2013, Obama is on pace to set the record for the most travel in a fifth year in office. If that precedent continues, he will be among the most-traveled U.S. Chief Executives in history by the time he leaves office.

Source

He's a record breaker, in some ways. He's no better than the others and he has only one worse than him, in categories that matter. That's not defining success. It's literally defining failure to adjust the level of fail for a better feeling on the whole experience.

Even other countries were remarking on his high profile travel habits, and very early on...and that's saying something for the source and context.

King of the Road: British shocked at size of Obama’s entourage

What makes the above even more remarkable is how unremarkable the # he traveled with actually was. Bush went with 700 on a similar trip and Clinton packed a whopping 1300 on one of his overseas junkets. It's the tone deaf or just 'in your face because we can' attitude this First Family has and how flamboyant they are in appearance. It's toxic and turning a nation against him, IMO. "Let the eat cake" is rude and we don't like our cake.

Now we recently find out, as Michelle's Mom went to China with the official entourage, she also lives at the White House...on our dime. That's just one more outrage and liberty taken, where perhaps it CAN be by strict letter of the law? This one makes a habit of taking EVERY liberty which can possibly be justified or squeaked by. That got old a few years ago to far more than just folks on the right, as I've heard people talk.

If this is leading by example, the example is to all spend ourselves into unrecoverable financial destruction, and with as many credit cards as will approve each of us in the process. That would be following the current leadership....on and off duty.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Thank you for you input those numbers are shocking to say the least.

I have looked for the actual numbers that the past few presidents have spent on vacation, but I'm not having much luck.

How in the hell can you have a entourage of 1300 people? I would go insane I hate crowded places!

Diisenchanted

How in the hell can you have a entourage of 1300 people? I would go insane I hate crowded places!

That's because you aren't a narcissist. Some people revel in having tons of folks worshipping at their feet at all times stroking their ego.

Obviously they would need bodyguards, but I am not sure what the rest of the folks do. Groom of the stools perhaps? All your stool are belong to us...

reply to post by Diisenchanted

How in the hell can you have a entourage of 1300 people? I would go insane I hate crowded places!

I think the fact people ask that and have every sincere reason to, is what highlights the biggest differences between Obama and the rest before him. I'd be surprised if Reagan traveled with less in total, given the Cold War era considerations. I can say I've been inside his actual 'office' and living area on Air Force One (Reagan) since one of the real aircraft was retired to his library in California. It was austere to the point of shocking compared to what I expected.

(The Oval Office is also very small and VERY well photographed, always, after having seen a 1:1 scale mock-up at the same place as AF 1, as a side note of trivia)

Now everything has the pomp and circumstance of a rock concert with Royal guests as a bonus. I would definitely be interested in seeing Obama's travel records domestically, as he seems to be in perpetual campaign mode, even in his own lame duck term. A phenomenon I've read first as being identified under Clinton for a political science trend, it's only grown to destructive levels since for the endless election 'rush' and tempo of playing to crowds just not stopping like it once did. Perpetual Campaigning.

These men used to get to work ...eventually. They don't even bother now. That's where I think the public starts looking and noticing numbers, because it matters when the public is pissed anyway.

seeker1963
reply to post by Diisenchanted

 

OH BUT WAIT!!!!!

BUSH DID THIS OR BUSH DID THAT!!!

This is the mentality that screws us serfs whom buy into a two party system that was devised to create enough division to allow the criminals in DC to put us in the position we are in now!!!!

Actually, it is the mentality that might save you. Bush took nearly as many trips. It's a very relevant point. So did Clinton. Which means it has nothing to do with party lines or individual presidents does it?

The world is much more globally connected today as well. So consider that these trips... are they even something to get worked up over?

Now, if you want to say that America has gone way overboard on foreign policy and no future presidents should be making this many trips, and it should pull out some of its military assets overseas... well then you would be making an actually argument for change.

Bitching about the current press for the sake of bitching, or because the opposite side is mud slinging, is exactly why the system stays in place.

(Well, we cannot really blame him.)

Hey, I thought we were in the cyber world these days! Why can't these dudes use Skype or some sort of real-time video conferences instead of burning all those fossil fuels?

reply to post by diggindirt


they cannot because they prefer real physical contact with each other.

Diisenchanted
reply to post by boncho

 

Just for the record George Bush spent most of his vacation time at his ranch in Crawford Texas at very little expense to the taxpayer.

How many millions is it to stop being 'little cost' to the taxpayer right?

Those who criticize the cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation don’t want you to know that George W. Bush spent at least $20 million taxpayer dollars just on flights to his ranch in Crawford.

www.politicususa.com...

President George W. Bush spent over 124 million taxpayer dollars on trips to his ranch in Crawford, TX

www.politicususa.com...

Wrabbit2000
reply to post by Diisenchanted

 

I think Obama kinda missed that whole section on the roots and causes of the French Revolution. It's an interesting little piece of history to take in. It ought to be required reading for Presidents..before they serve a day. Especially ones with a 'Me' complex.

I agree. It can and will happen again!

I think that it should be law that anyone who wants to be in congress should have to live one year on minimum wage--their whole family. It should be required before they can become eligible to serve the people. Obama is an idiot. My state voted for an incarcerated criminal over Obama. That being said, I think the only thing that moron has done right is how he's dealt with Iran. People like sen Lieberman and friends were going around singing "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran(barbarian-beach boys). That's how psychotic these zio-lunatics are. And the sad thing is that all the next batch of losers running are just as bad!! We are screwed--revolution and arrest warrants is the only way forward. The whole system has to be redone from the ground up.

muse7


Maybe next time they should do a piece on how corporations have received trillions of your dime in the past 5 years?

Is that really all you and people like you have?

When confronted about your epic failure of a president, the standard tactic is to deflect rather than accept.

You forgot to mention the Koch brothers and George Bush.

At this point in the Bush presidency he had taken 367 days vacation, compared to Obama's 92.

President Barack Obama "has taken 92 days of vacation since he was sworn in," compared to 367 for President George W. Bush at the same point in his presidency.

source: Politifact

Mark Knoller (CBS) keeps tabs on presidential vacations, and Obama doesn't come close to the previous president's vacation time.

Who’s Counting? At the White House, It’s Mark Knoller
(washingtonian.com)

Obama’s vacations and golfing by the numbers
(news.yahoo.com)

Keep in mind - with Bush and Obama - most of their gold trips were work related. Obama "golfed" with Republicans and Boehner as a way to break the ice. Bush hosted world leaders at his vacation home in Crawford, and both hosted summits and world leaders at Martha's Vineyards.

The Breitbart (and Fox) claims are just more political BS.

edit on 24-3-2014 by Blackmarketeer because: (no reason given)

I don't know why you guys get so worked up over Obama's Christmas parties, vacations and global overseas trips. If you just researched you see that he's really no worse than his predecessors. He isn't...so this is a non point. There is no point to this thread. You're listening to right wing mouth pieces again. Next cycle if it's a republican president, IF they can get someone in the primaries who isn't a Christian nut job, then I'll be ranting about the left press ...blah blah blah. Don't drink the Koolaide.

reply to post by amazing


You might reference the post I made a couple above this one with a link to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation and the numbers they assembled on this topic, running from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama at near present day.

We're sick of this man because his "best" argument is that he's "no worse" than Bush...who, himself, stands as the worst since Ike in more than one category.

As noted once before? When a man starts toward making a point by comparing himself to the worst on a scale of possible examples to use? We're starting at fail and just trying to find ways of making it look less so than the absolute bottom of the scale.

An improvement over Bush is still the 2nd worst President since Truman. That's hardly, by any stretch of the imagination, a thing to brag about or feel good about. (and Truman wasn't that bad, either) Why these people in Washington are seemingly proud of being 2nd to the bottom is....baffling.

I suppose our standards of "excellence" have fallen to...."better than total failure, anyway".

muse7

You are outraged because Obama has taken 3 more trips than Bush?

He still has time left in office to spend more money. The FACT is he is the most expensive and its on the tax payer dollar.

How anyone could still support this clown is beyond me...

-SAP-

SloAnPainful

muse7

You are outraged because Obama has taken 3 more trips than Bush?

He still has time left in office to spend more money. The FACT is he is the most expensive and its on the tax payer dollar.

How anyone could still support this clown is beyond me...

-SAP-

But the next presidents trips will be even more expensive and he could be a republican. Will you hold him accountable or will he get a free pass?

reply to post by amazing


I could careless what party he belongs to.

It's wrong either way.

-SAP-

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


iroinicly they used to ship regans poo back from his trips so that the medicines he was on would not be detected by societ agents and reveal his growing medical problems bush also did it lol (im not trying to blame bush just state that it happend)


www.rense.com...

The Israeli Mossad conducted one such operation against Syrian President Hafez Assad when he visited Amman, Jordan in Feb. 1999 for the funeral of King Hussein. The Mossad and its Jordanian counterpart installed a special toilet in Assad's hotel room that led not to a pipe but to a specimen canister. Assad suffered from diabetes and cancer and the operation was designed to discover the actual medical condition of the ailing leader. During Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Washington in 1987, the CIA reportedly placed a special trap under a sewage tank to collect the Soviet leader's bodily waste for analysis. More recently, the CIA was reported to have collected waste samples from Ugandan President-dictator Yoweri Museveni's toilet when he visited Washington. Even Bush's toilet paper was flown in from the U.S. Air Base at Ramstein, Germany. In addition, Bush's food was flown in from the United States and tested with special chemicals before he ate it. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was shot by a firing squad in 1989, was the last major European leader to constantly use a food tester. The last frequent state visitor to Vienna, who always relied on a food tester, was Adolf Hitler.

wiki.answers.com...=4


more on topic i think the difference between bush and obamas trips was obama goes all over the world and bush seemed to like to spend as much time at his ranch as possible (probably less expensive then then the china trips) and to be fair bush problay stayed home more for security reasons(what with some world leaders wanting his arrest and all) but i guess we will just have to see how much more he costs us before we get a new one to spend all our tax money going on adventures