Wednesday, December 28, 2011

White House careful to avoid photos of the President having too much fun

The President is clearly having a lot of fun on his Hawaiian vacation, but he doesn't want anyone to know about it:
With Americans suffering through difficult economic times, the White House has been careful to avoid photos of the president having too much fun [in Hawaii].

He has been photographed greeting troops at a nearby Marine base, but not hitting a putt on a manicured green. Journalists were permitted to see him holding his daughters' hands in a visit to a sea park, but not driving a golf cart.
Likewise, Reuters reported back in August:
Critics have slammed [President] Obama for vacationing for the third consecutive summer on Martha's Vineyard, an upscale island off the Massachusetts coast... They say vacationing at the scenic island, a stomping ground for movie stars and other wealthy Democratic Party backers in August, shows Obama is out of touch while 14 million Americans are out of work. The White House says the country does not begrudge Obama some time with his family, but it has been careful to allow no pictures so far of him at play on the golf course.
The Boston Globe noted at the time that, during one of Obama's Golf outings, when he approached "the eighth tee in a golf cart with friend and frequent golfing buddy Eric Whitaker," he "noticed three TV cameras and a Globe photographer across the street. Rather than stop and be photographed teeing off, the president skipped the hole."

On the following day the Boston Globe reported:
Perhaps because it poses difficulties for the media horde trying to get pictures of him, Obama returned to Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown [a private club], where he played Friday and had largely managed to avoid the cameras. And yesterday, he did skip some holes in an effort to bypass photographers.
I noted at the time:
While the White House has been releasing photos showing the vacationing President in a serious frame of mind - like the photograph it released..., showing a solemn-faced Obama in discussion with his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan - it is doing all it can to keep the President's Golf excursions out of the public eye.
Likewise, now, during the President's Hawaiian vacation, the White House released photos showing him greeting the troops at a nearby Marine base, but it "has been careful to avoid photos of" him "having too much fun...."

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