Unless you live in a cave, you hear snippits from the major media every day. This short little clips involve everything from the latest celebrity divorce to the climbing price of gasoline. I don't think anyone avoids hearing them. The question becomes, "How much of what you hear can you believe?"
Byron York at the Washington Examiner posted a story yesterday shining some light on one of the current sound bites. On a recent "Meet the Press" show Valerie Jarrett stated that President Obama's biggest regret is that all of his hard work in the White House has kept him isolated from the American people. He really hasn't had a chance to leave the White House to spend time with us. Awwwww. The President is trying to figure out a way that in the coming two years of his administration he can spend more time outside the nation's capital talking to us. Wow.
Sounds great until you confuse the issue with a few facts. As of January 1 (the date of the article in the Washington Examiner), President Obama had been in office for 712 days. President Obama has spent 339 of those days (48%) outside of Washington. Fifty-eight of those days were spent on vacation, and 35 of those days were spent at Camp David.
The article also comments on the idea that President Obama needs to 'engage' the American people. Of the 712 President Obama has been in office, there have been only 45 days that the President hasn't made a presidential public appearance or issued a statement. I'm actually already feeling pretty 'engaged.'
There will be a lot of comments made in the coming year that will attempt to improve the President's approval ratings. The trick is to separate the fact from the fiction.
Leave a comment