Bush Cuts President Duties for Campaign

[RedEarth]

WASHINGTON -- Since August, President Bush has welcomed just one foreign leader to the White House -- the interim prime minister of Iraq. No other meetings with foreign dignitaries are on the horizon until Bush goes to Chile in late November for a gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders.

It was quite a different story this time last fall. The president played host, in the Oval Office and at the Camp David presidential retreat, to leaders from seven nations while aides put out word of several more mini-summits to come.

Presidential duties have been pared to a minimum as Bush concentrates on his campaign to win re-election for another four years.

"The president is clearly focusing on the election and little else," said Georgetown University presidential scholar Stephen Wayne.

The few weeks leading up to Election Day are not necessarily a representative snapshot of Bush's entire year. Certainly, with only days to go before Nov. 2, no one expects a president seeking re-election to maintain the same official pace of a non-election year. Moreover, Democratic challenger John Kerry isn't exactly winning a best-senator award as he tries to unseat Bush. The Massachusetts senator has participated in just 17 of 211 votes since January.





http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-lonely-white-house,0,1579088.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[JuniorPlankton]

1. The country would have been much better

if he had never started doing anything at all!

Send Bush to a vacation without parole!

[tnlefty]

2. Cut back those duties a lot in Aug. '01 too didn't he? It seems as if he's

been the biggest slacker for a pResident that I can remember.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. I hate to see what this asshole would like

if he had to actually work for a living.

[Cocoa]

4. that photo fits the story perfectly

Caption: Presidentin' is hard work!

[wildflower]

5. I could almost understand this if it were just him. Almost. But...

aren't just about all the other top staffers out on the campaign trail these days as well? WHO is running the country?

-wildflower

[grytpype]

6. The president is clearly focusing on the election... that, and

no world leader wants to be seen with Bush.

Has Tony the Poodle picked up his Medal of Freedom yet? I don't think he has, but it sure would look nice swinging from his dog collar.

[dweller]

7. Nothing

from nothing leaves nothing.

what a do nothing but f*ck up pResident.

dp

[bushwakker]

8. More like - Bush interrupts perpetual vacation to campaign

[KDLarsen]

9. A thing that really pissed me off recently..

.. was when he arrived at that rally in Marine One (the helicopter they always use when flying between The White House & Edwards AFB). I wondered how the people who didn't vote for him, the majority of the US, felt about him using THEIR tax dollars to campaign for the Presidency.

[Skittles]

10. ya, like that stupid f*** is a REAL president

PLEASE