Maureen Dowd: Presidents should have fun, unless their name is Bush

posted at 1:23 pm on June 10, 2009 by Slublog
[ Double Standards ]    printer-friendly

One of the best things about having a Democrat in the White House in a time of easily-accessed information is pointing out the vast difference in how the press treats the new occupant versus how they treated the old one. The sharp disparity between press coverage of Obama vs. Bush came shortly after the election, the press heaped praise upon Obama’s workout regimen, since it gave the president his “chiseled abs and chest.” Of course, during the Bush years, the former president’s workouts were seen as a creepy obsession.

The newest inductee to the ‘that was then, this is now’ club is Maureen Dowd. Today, she defends Obama’s date nights, saying:

Mixing play with intense work is not only a good mental health strategy; it’s a good way to show the world that American confidence and cool — and Cary Grant romantic flair — still thrive.

Date on and tee it up, Mr. President. It’s O.K. if they’re teed off.

Compare that with the treatment she gave the former president in 2005:

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can’t get out, or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the old Afghanistan look like Cipriani’s. Yet his war, which has not accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.

When Republicans complain about Obama’s relaxation time, defenders of the president inevitably point to Bush’s Crawford vacations. However, as Bush’s aides pointed out at the time (and what was largely ignored by the critics) while on ‘vacation,’ Bush always “mixed play with intense work” while at the ranch:

They add that the president is getting his daily briefings on intelligence and other matters and has been talking on the phone with other world leaders, such as Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, and India’s Mommahan Singh, about Iraq and other issues. They point out that Congress is on its own summer break, but Bush can never escape from his duties as commander in chief no matter where he is.

More here. In the older column, Dowd is not content to simply criticize George W. Bush. She takes a few whacks at the elder Bush as well for having the audacity to go fishing or play golf.

Personally, I don’t begrudge President Obama his personal time. The presidency is a stressful job and everyone needs time to unwind. A relaxed president is a good thing, regardless of party. Still, I’m glad Dowd wrote that column. It’s always enjoyable to see someone embrace their own narrow-minded partisanship with such relish.

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