So former President George W. Bush broke his silence and opened up a quick line of criticism on President Obama by waving the super villain in Gitmo flag and the usual GOP line of small, hands off government works best. It was this stab at the economic policies of Obama’s that reminded me of how little President George W. Bush did during his tenure as Commander in Chief when it came to domestic policy and it also reminded me of his holding the record for most time on vacation by a sitting president.

I think W. took the small government Republican line too seriously and perhaps thought the role of the President was to just wage war.

According to a CBS article from January 16th of this year former President George W. Bush spent 487 days at camp David and 490 days at his ranch in Crawford. That means he spent more than one year of his 8 year presidency at Crawford and just three days less time at Camp David. That’s a lot of vacation time. That means he only really worked about 6 years (felt longer too me). Folks get fired from companies for taking excessive vacations normally but the nation kind of looked the other way – what with the wars and sending Gitmo Detainees to rehabilitation camps which gave the illusion that Bush was busy.

I understand the concept of wanting small government but I think our current economic crisis, jobs being shipped overseas, and the poor handling of natural disasters all point decidedly towards W. being less than effective as President. Or maybe the Republicans really think this is okay – that the President’s job is simply to do nothing for 8 years because the magical market corrects a failing infrastructure or corporate-Maddoff-like greed.

I think it would be best if W. just stayed retired, enjoyed his new home in Texas, and built his Presidential Library filled with wonderful vacation photos of his time as President.

The man must have some pretty thick photo albums.

Sources:
Bush Breaks Silence, Goes After Obama In Speech – Huffington Post

487 Days At Camp David For Bush – CBS News