We learned earlier this week that President Obama will be spending the long Memorial Day weekend at his home in Chicago:
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to spend a long holiday weekend in Chicago.
The White House says Obama and his family will travel to their hometown on Thursday and stay through the weekend. It will be their first trip back home since a visit for Valentine’s Day weekend in February 2009.
On Monday, Obama is scheduled to participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.
In Obama’s absence, Vice President Joe Biden will participate in the customary wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington
It wasn’t long before the wingnuts came out of the woodwork, like Glenn Beck:’
Obama is skipping out on a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington Cemetery because he’ll be in Chicago on vacation. I’m sorry, I don’t ever, ever question the president’s vacation. I didn’t under Bush, I didn’t under Clinton, I don’t under Obama.” He later stated: “I have no problem with the man taking a vacation. But I am sick and tired — sick and tired — of people believing the lie that this administration has respect for the police or has respect for the soldiers of our country. I’m tired of it.”
Over at JammieWearingFool, they called it a “slap in the face to our veterans,” another blogger called it “despicable,” and a third accused him of having “no respect for the fallen.”
One wonders, though, how these people felt when other President’s did the same thing:
1983: Reagan attended summit meeting; Defense Department official Thayer laid wreath at Arlington. Deputy Secretary of Defense W. Paul Thayer laid a wreath at Arlington Cemetery during the Memorial Day ceremony in 1983, according to a May 31, 1983, Washington Post article (accessed via Nexis). The AP reported that President Reagan attended a “summit meeting in Williamsburg, Va., with leaders of the industrialized democracies.”
1992: George H.W. Bush allowed VP Quayle to lay wreath. In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, according to a May 26, 1992, Boston Globe article (accessed via the Nexis database). The Globe reported that President George H.W. Bush attended a wreath-laying ceremony and made brief remarks at an American Legion hall in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he also played a round of golf.
Veterans Day 2007: Cheney attends ceremony to pay tribute at Arlington as Bush remained in Texas. On November 11, 2007, the AP reported that “President Bush honored U.S. troops past and present at a tearful ceremony Sunday for four Texans who died there.” The AP further reported that “Vice President Dick Cheney went to Arlington to pay tribute to Iraq veterans.”
Were those Presidents slapping veterans in the face, doing something despicable, or insulting the fallen ?
Of course not, and neither is President Obama.
This is just ridiculous, people.
Update: More shocking news of Presidential dereliction of Memorial Day duty as we learn that George W. Bush spent the 2002 holiday in shudders France.
What can you expect from the same people who frothed at the mouth over Nancy Pelosi wearing a scarf in visiting a mosque in Damascus when Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice did similar things?
Do any of them realize how stupid they sound? As for Beck, it is either some part of shtick or he’s a complete idiot. Either way, I stopped paying attention to him over a year ago.
Doug, I love that you debunk this kind of nonsense, it’s so refreshing. The cynical part of me however, knows it won’t do much good.
Beck relies on the fact that his audience at large will invariably not question what he tells them. So whether other Presidents did this or not becomes irrelevant, they don’t know it and they won’t go look it up. It’s a concerted effort to make noise and imply that Obama is not dedicated to the armed forces. Beck is saying, “That Obama, he’s going home on vacation instead of paying tribute to our troops.” Which is enough to imply, in the mind of his audience members, that all former Presidents did not go home for vacation and stayed in Washington, ever vigilant, shedding a single tear for every fallen service member. Thus Obama’s commitment is less meaningful or insulting. It’s a logical short-circuit and he knows it’s terribly effective.
Below The Beltway » Blog Archive » Obama Travels To Chicago For ……
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog
…
The Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh’s of the world will attack Obama for anything and everything he does. It doesn’t matter what he does. He’ll be attacked for it by these out of touch morons. It’s not so amazing to me that they keep doing it, what’s amazing to me is that they still have people that take what they say seriously.
Thanks for posting this Doug. I admit I had the same kneejerk reaction. But my second thought was to ask “when was the last time a President missed this ceremony.”
This is a non-outrage. I like the idea of him going somewhere other than Arlington to show it isn’t all about the DC area, still recognizing the symbolic importance of Robert E. Lee’s old residence. I like the idea of him visiting other veterans’ cemeteries.
BTW, Arlington was actually one of the last places I revisited before moving away from the DC area in 2005. Yes, Arlington is different, I recognize that, but the other cemeteries are equally deserving of respect.
[Snark: Can you believe he dissed the Kennedy's by not going to Arlington on Memorial Day so soon after Teddy died and was buried at Arlington? See, it is political.]
Barack Obama is a leader who will go down in history for more than just becoming the earliest dark U . s . president. In the global financial trouble there has been some extremely tough situations currently for People in the usa and for the entire globe and President obama has had to deal with the correct way to handle this and lots of various other concerns. He has his practitioners and his critics yet he’s without doubt made a big contribution to America.