Afternoon light in the Cottage Park neighborhood of Oak Bluffs, on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Decades before President Obama's expected August visit, Martha's Vineyard was a summer sanctuary for middle class black families unwelcome elsewhere. (Photo by Steven Senne / AP)
by Mark Silva
This isn't Crawford, Texas, anymore.
This is Martha's Vineyard, the remote island retreat of clapboard cottages, bluff-views of the ocean and tranquil harbors reachable by ferry, boat or plane off the shore of Cape Cod where the Obama family will vacation next month.
And unlike former President George W. Bush, known to spend the better part of August at his brush-filled Texas ranch, Obama and his family plan just a week on the vineyard beaches at the end of August.
If the place, like the nearby island of Nantucket, conjures images of John Kerry windsurfing - for that might have been the summer home of the president had things turned out differently in 2004 - the place isn't all tennis and high tea.
The longtime vacation home of the late, great ocean sailor, anchorman Walter Cronkite, remembered now on the pages of the old Vineyard Gazette - also featuring a story on worries about air traffic restrictions with the arrival of the first sitting president since 9/11 - once served as an island retreat for black Americans who found less of a welcome in other resorts. Black artists, celebrities and scholars call the place a summer home today. The history of the place provides a contextual setting for the summer vacation of the nation's first African-American president and his family.
Bill Clinton vacationed here. So did Ulysses S. Grant. Obama will become the third American president to do so.
"Because Mr. Obama will be the first sitting president to visit Martha's Vineyard since 9/11, pilots are predicting increased security restrictions on airspace over and around the Vineyard,'' the Gazette reports. "For Mike Creato of Classic Aviators, this is a crunch year and, while other business owners are jumping up and down about the next month's visit by President Obama, he's fretting over the possibility that the First Family's Island vacation will ruin his fragile biplane tours enterprise at Katama Airfield.''
The island's "paper of record'' has been going since 1846. From 1920 to 1965, it belonged to Henry Beetle Hough (author of Country Editor) and wife Elizabeth, who were given the old paper as a wedding present after his graduation from journalism school in New York. The late James Reston, famed columnist for the New York Times and summer resident of Edgartown, took over the paper in the late1960s. Since 1988, his son Richard has served as publisher. (We're happy to recall an internship there one winter, on break from that same school.)
Cronkite was a "devoted Edgartown seasonal resident for more than three decades,'' notes the weekly paper on an island whose winter population of 15,800 blossoms to 73,000 in the summer.
Readers may also remember this island as the location of Sen. Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick car accident that cost 28-year--old Mary Jo Kopechne her life. (The 40th anniversary of that July 18, 1969, accident passed with little notice the other day, though it is probably what prevented any hope in that third Kennedy presidential bid.)
Readers may be less familiar with the rich island history that the Associated Press' Jay Lindsay tells today. Reporting from Oak Bluffs, Mass., pictured above, Lindsay writes: "When Barack Obama kicks off his flip-flops on the Martha's Vineyard sand next month, he'll be adding a modern note to the island's black history that stretches back three centuries.
(Vineyard Gazette photo of Walter Cronkite, anchorman, sailor)
The AP's fine story about Martha's Vineyard:
"Decades ago, the island was a summer sanctuary for middle-class black families unwelcome elsewhere. Martin Luther King Jr. swam and wrote there.
"Centuries before that, Martha's Vineyard was home to blacks who defied the times to claim their place in island life. One slave woman became a landowner. Her great-grandson was the island's only black whaling captain. And a modest 20th-century innkeeper helped establish Martha's Vineyard as a summertime haven for the middle- and upper-class blacks who are preparing to welcome the country's first black president.
"There's so much pride. That (Obama) family is like our family," said Skip Finley, a radio executive and year-round Martha's Vineyard resident.
"Director Spike Lee, attorney and Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. are a few of the prominent blacks who call Martha's Vineyard home for at least part of each year. To Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, a friend of Obama's and a regular summer visitor, coming to Martha's Vineyard is a chance to do yoga at Inkwell Beach, fry some fish or loaf around in sandals past the gingerbread cottages without worrying that his skin color means anything at all.
""I have been escorted by Officer Friendly in many places to make sure I was going through, and not to, a community," he said. "That doesn't happen at Martha's Vineyard."
"The island's black history is isn't entirely upbeat.
"Discrimination lasted long after slavery was gone. But the overall story is not just about persecution; it's also about the "massive success" that followed for blacks on the island, says local historian Elaine Cawley Weintraub.
"In some ways, what happened here is sort of the American story: can do, will do," she said.
"Slaves probably lived on the island beginning around 1680, but the first known record of slavery is in the 1703 will of a man whose estate included "a Negro woman valued at 20 pounds."
"But slavery looked different in Massachusetts, partly because of a unique provision of the law that allowed slaves to inherit property. That enabled Rebecca Amos, a woman torn from her native Guinea, to become a landowner when her husband, a wealthy Wampanoag Indian, died in 1763.
"Her great-grandson, William Martin, also married an Indian, and that couple two lived on a Chappaquiddick Island plantation that was considered Indian land. The plantation was plagued by poverty and high death rates, which one state report attributed partly to "the habits of intemperance and licentiousness which always ... follow the contact of civilized and barbarous races."
"But Martin survived -- and apparently thrived.
"Working at sea was the primary way people of the plantation could earn a living, largely because whites were taking all the land, Weintraub said. Martin began his whaling career in 1853, and three decades later he had worked up to captain of an 86-ton whaling schooner, making him the island's only black whaling captain. The dangerous, dirty work of whaling, which sent people to sea for months or years, probably helped ease racial barriers because competence was far more important than skin color, Weintraub said.
"Such egalitarianism hadn't taken hold in other areas of the island in 1912 when Charles Shearer built a summer inn on property he'd purchased from a Baptist campground.
"Shearer was born into slavery in Virginia, before being freed by the Union Army, getting an education and moving north to the Boston area. A devout Baptist, he frequented a denominational campground in Oak Bluffs in the summers before purchasing a cottage. He and his wife later built a 12-room home on the property and opened Shearer Cottage, which catered to blacks when other establishments refused to host them.
"The cottage became a center of a black summer population that grew over the decades and included actor Paul Robeson, singer Ethel Waters and U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York, who all stayed at Shearer Cottage.
"In the 1960s, a home owned by New York political organizer Joe Overton hosted various black luminaries, including Martin Luther King Jr. Local rumor says King worked on his "I Have a Dream" speech between swimming sessions at a beach across the street, but Weintraub said there's no way to know for sure.
"Mildred Henderson, 84, a neighbor of Overton, said she recalls King sitting alone on the porch during the days and writing. To be on the island decades later when the nation's first black president visits is remarkable, she said.
"There's a beautiful connection," she said. "I think it's just wonderful that we've come this far."
"Notable as some visitors were, the less-known black professionals and their children vacationing on the island made the biggest impression on Bob Tankard when he first visited from New Jersey in the 1950s. Hanging around with the kids of black doctors, lawyers and politicians -- many attending big-name schools -- was a revelation, he said.
"When I came up for the summer of 1959, that was the first time that I had realized that blacks could be anything they wanted to be, other than an athlete and entertainer," said Tankard, who is black.
"Tankard moved to the island permanently at 15 -- about 2.7 percent of the island's year-round population of 15,500 is black -- and later earned his doctorate in education and became a local principal and football coach.
"Obama will be the third sitting president to visit the island, following Ulysses S. Grant and Bill Clinton, and it's his third trip to Martha's Vineyard. The island is buzzing about where he'll stay, the sights he'll see, the business he'll bring.
"But Ogletree said Obama is planning to make his mark on the island's black history without doing much of anything at all.
"He found it a place where he could rest, recharge his batteries," he said. "I think it's exactly why he'll come back again."
Comments
I really don't see how readers could possibly forget Chappaquiddick -- republicans have brought it up in every single election since it happened 40 years ago, and talk about it as if it happened yesterday. I'd rather have a president who enjoys a break on the east coast than one who concocted a pseudo southern drawl, pretended to be a brush-clearing cowboy and was actually more "east coast" than any presdient we've ever had.
Posted by: Grandblvd03 | July 21, 2009 9:06 AM
" . . . though it is the event which probably prevented any hope of a third Kennedy presidency."
I remember the first Kennedy presidency, Mark. When was the second? I must have missed it; maybe I was out of town?
Posted by: DaveB | July 21, 2009 9:49 AM
Maybe he can take the time to figure out where are those 3.5 million new jobs that he repeatedly promised with his must have "stimulus". So lounge around, have a few brewskies, enjoy some lobster, and show some abds for the slobbering press, while America seeks some real leadership. One thing for sure, many of those not so secure liberal Dems. in Congress will return with a new sense of fear for their reelection as the less fortunate American folks are waking up to this Obamageddon of debt and failed economic promises.
Posted by: bubba Porter | July 21, 2009 10:31 AM
There is now a car ferry where the bridge once was. Little harder to have an accident there now. What kind of agenda does the 'White' House have acting like bHo discovered Martha's Vineyard? It is ridiculous really, and this will probably ruin what was once a fantastic vacation spot.
Posted by: truthurts | July 21, 2009 11:03 AM
Maybe he can take the time to figure out where are those 3.5 million new jobs that he repeatedly promised with his must have "stimulus". So lounge around, have a few brewskies, enjoy some lobster, and show some abds for the slobbering press, while America seeks some real leadership. One thing for sure, many of those not so secure liberal Dems. in Congress will return with a new sense of fear for their reelection as the less fortunate American folks are waking up to this Obamageddon of debt and failed economic promises.
Posted by: bubba Porter | July 21, 2009 10:31 A
Hard time for the General Public, but our Dauphin President must have his THRILS and big Bills for The Tax Payers.
Posted by: Inky | July 21, 2009 11:04 AM
One thing for sure, many of those not so secure liberal Dems. in Congress will return with a new sense of fear for their reelection as the less fortunate American folks are waking up to this Obamageddon of debt and failed economic promises.
Posted by: bubba Porter | July 21, 2009 10:31 AM
The end is at hand! Repent! The economy is collapsing! It's a new great depression! It's all Obama's faaaauuuulllllltttttt!
Posted by: Panicked Repunbllican | July 21, 2009 11:45 AM
the phrase in the article is "third Kennedy presidential bid", and relates to family members running for the office of the president, not the number who had been president.
Posted by: WestEnder | July 21, 2009 12:07 PM
To DaveB:
"third Kennedy Presidential BID"
John, Robert, Ted. Three.
Posted by: TDBD | July 21, 2009 12:20 PM
Obama... "Worst president" or "worstest president"?
Posted by: duped again | July 21, 2009 12:20 PM
Obama... "Worst president" or "worstest president"?
Posted by: duped again | July 21, 2009 12:20 PM
It never ceases to amaze me how much faith the average American places in their government--especially at the state and federal levels. How many times do you have to be lied to? Cheated? Promised one thing and delivered another? Had nominees and elected officials caught not paying THEIR taxes--but working hard to incarcerate you and your family if you are even a dollar short and a day late? You don't have to love either party, but you have to face the facts at some point that YOU know how to spend YOUR money better than a bunch of lying, cheating, cowardly criminals in Washington or Springfield do. You had the opportunity to see what "change" is all about. Not so great, is it?
Posted by: John | July 21, 2009 12:33 PM
It never ceases to amaze me how much faith the average American places in their government--especially at the state and federal levels. How many times do you have to be lied to? Cheated? Promised one thing and delivered another? Had nominees and elected officials caught not paying THEIR taxes--but working hard to incarcerate you and your family if you are even a dollar short and a day late? You don't have to love either party, but you have to face the facts at some point that YOU know how to spend YOUR money better than a bunch of lying, cheating, cowardly criminals in Washington or Springfield do. You had the opportunity to see what "change" is all about. Not so great, is it?
Posted by: John | July 21, 2009 12:33 PM
Ahhhhh, the alleged common man. The alleged "big Sox fan," who doesn't even know the name of the plac his favorite team plays in, will be hobnobbing with the rich and famous on Martha's Vineyard. I wonder who will be paying for his time on Martha's Vineyard? Will he be staying at one of the rich and famous's home like Clinton did? At least with Bush and Crawford, TX, it didn't cost taxpayers anything.
And then we get such a nice and cuddly article from Mark Silva about a what a wonderful place Martha's Vineyard is and how wonderful it has always been being so nice and open to the black man. Mark, I'm wondering, did David Axelrod write this fluff piece too?
We know the media will love it, though, because they get to hang out at some fancy hotel, hobnob with their rich, elitist, liberal friends and not be stuck in that dirty, small, uncouth Crawford, TX, right?
Posted by: John D | July 21, 2009 1:28 PM
Friends,
Dave B caught a simple miswording, which I have corrected, with thanks to him.
Posted by: Mark Silva | July 21, 2009 2:04 PM
WestEnder, TDBD: You've come in late. The phrase in quotes was copied and pasted from the original article. Mr. Silva subsequently corrected it.
Get 'em while they're hot!
Posted by: DaveB | July 21, 2009 2:12 PM
And, if you really want to get picky, Ted Kennedy did run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980, but lost to Jimmy Carter. So, there was a third Kennedy presidential bid, regardless of Chappaquiddick.
Posted by: DaveB | July 21, 2009 2:19 PM
Ah, John D. the defender of everything republican. Once again making things up to fit his babble "At least with Bush and Crawford, TX, it didn't cost taxpayers anything" An amazingly inaccurate statement. John, take some time and research what the cost of providing the year round security for the "Crawford digs" cost the taxpayers - don't forget the cost of constantly bringing staff and guests out there to create the illusion that he was actually "doing the government's work" during his months and months of residence there during his tenure. You might have some credibility once in a while if you chose to moderate your extreme statements,
Posted by: Gene M. | July 21, 2009 3:42 PM
ENJOY YOUR VACTION PRESIDENT OBAMA - YOU DESRVE IT!
----------------------------------------------
Republican George W. Bush "accomplishments" as president:
* Attacked and took over two countries.
* Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
* Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
* Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
* Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
* First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
* First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
* First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
* Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
* In first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
*Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
* Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
* Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
* Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
* Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
* Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
* Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
* Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
* Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
* Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
* Presidency was the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.
* Members of cabinet were the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
* First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
* Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
* First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
* Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
* Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.
* First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.
* First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.
* Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
* Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
* Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
* Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
* First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).
* All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
* Biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
* Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
* First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
* First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
* First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
* Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
* With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
* First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
* First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
* Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts
* Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
* Failed to fulfill his pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
* Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
* In the 18 months following the 911 attacks Bush successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
* Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
* In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
* Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
Posted by: Drunk, Stupid and Republican is no way to go through life | July 21, 2009 4:01 PM
Gene M, darling, ALL presidents but Clinton had personal homes. And because of that, there are year-round security costs. In fact, with ALL ex-presidents there are year-round security costs because ALL ex-presidents get Secret Service detail and their homes and offices are protected, just as Bill Clinton's "home" in New York is today. Since you're a lefty and like all lefties your brain is about three feet lower than it should be, I am referring to "vacation" costs. Because Bush's home already had security detail afforded to ALL presidents and because there were no costs to stay there like their might be if Obumbles is staying at a hotel, it didn't cost the taxpayers money for Bush to vacation at his home.
And, Gene, dear, Bush was on the clock, whether at the White House, Camp David or at his home in Crawford, TX. That Bush was on vacation all the time, most of the time, months and months or whatever nonsense you and your demented, deranged brethren want to believe, the FACT is Bush was on the clock, as all presidents are (well except for perhaps der Clinton) regardless of where they are. Gene, dear, you might have some credibility if YOU were to moderate your extreme views and move your brains about three feet higher to where they should be!
Posted by: John D | July 21, 2009 4:03 PM
Loony John D.,
Bush's 'ranch' in Crawford, TX was nothing more than a glorified photo op. There were few animals on the ranch (we need to remember Bush #41 has a phobia of horses). The hay and brush were shipped in from the outside. Then you see the Supreme Court appointed Bush walking around the grounds of the ranch with his Wrangler faded jeans and Stetson cowboy hat acting like he's a gruffy western cowboy. The moron, Bush, is not even a native of Texas and has never ridden a horse. Let's also remember Bush spent 495 days on vacation, most of that time at this 'ranch', playing cowboy. Each and every trip he made to this ranch was off course billed to the American taxpayers. He ran down to this ranch just a few days after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and remained there for a week. Supposedly these days, the ranch is unoccupied and Bush hasn't been there since departing the White House. Go figure.
Posted by: Doug R. | July 21, 2009 4:17 PM
Correction - Bush #43 (boy George) has a phobia of horses. Not sure if HW Pappy does. Probably not though.
Posted by: Doug R. | July 21, 2009 4:46 PM
The deranged left is more unhinged than ever. First, I'll tackle Doogie R: A ranch does not have to have animals to be considered a ranch. Second, stuff was not shipped in to make it appear a ranch. Third, the George and Laura did live at the ranch after he left office because their home in the Dallas area was not ready yet. For your sake, Doogie, stop reading your left wing websites. They don't serve you very well.
Now onto another loon and his comments point by point:
Republican George W. Bush "accomplishments" as president:
* Attacked and took over two countries. (and yes, one of those countries was Afghanistan, which I thought you Lefty Loons were OK with considering 9/11 and all? Course, I always have known the Left is on the side of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Loons do prefer one another.)
* Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury. (Sorry, there was no surplus and no bankruptcy. Now, Obumbles $10 trillion deficit in the next eight years, which surpasses all presidents from Washington to W, will bankrupt us).
* Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. (Sorry, Obumbles is shattering those records with trillion-dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see. Obumbles has racked up about $2 trillion for this year, quadrupling Bush's worst year.)
* Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period. (Give Obumbles a chance, he'll surpass it this year or next.)
* Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. (Well it did get to 6500 under Obumbles watch from the 14,000 it was under Bush.)
* First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. (And the problem is?)
* First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. (Yes, what criminal record is that? And what about Obumbles own use of cocaine and selling it?)
* First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. (Yes, more left wing lies.)
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history. (Again, more lies. Hmmm, wasn't planning for 9/11 begun under Clinton and didn't he pass on a few opportunties to nab or kill Bin Laden?)
* Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history. (Yeah, more lies. Anyway, Obumbles has done much of that already in just six months!)
* In first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job. (Obumbles has topped that in just six months with 3 million losing their jobs!!)
*Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history. (Again, more lies. No unemployment benefits were cut under Bush.)
* Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period. (I think Obumbles will pass that this year and next!)
* Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history. (More lies. Who are these convicted criminals? Now, if you want to talk facts and all the tax cheats Obumbles has appointed and the REAL criminals he has made czars, I'm more than glad to do so!)
* Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television. (So what? Anyway, Obumbles press conferences are more porn movie between him and the media.)
* Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history. (Ahhh, how was the constitution amended under Bush? Loons, the only way the constitution can be amended is through Congress and the states.)
* Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. (Actually the energy crisis in the mid to late 1970s was worse. Anyway, this one actually began in 2000 when then Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said we got caught with our pants down -- he was referring to energy not Bill.)
* Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have. (Tapping into the reserve would have done nothing. What would have helped is beginning to get oil from our own country, something you Lefties are against!)
* Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans. (Again, lies.)
* Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. (Ok, drink more Kool Aid and do some more cutting and pasting!)
* Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history. (Hmm, which ones were those?)
* Presidency was the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history. (Yeah, more lies. So far, though, the "transparent" Obumbles is being even more secretive!)
* Members of cabinet were the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her). (Yes, drink more Kool Aid!)
* First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt. (Please explain when all states went bankrupt or even one?)
* Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world. (Again, not reality!)
* First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation. (Really? WE never attacked Japan? Germany? Italy?)
* Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States. (If you're referring to the Department of Homeland Security, that was a Dem idea!)
* Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history. (Sorry, not true. But I will say I was not happy with Bush spending increases, something most Republicans did not like and why many Republicans sat out 2006 elections.)
* First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission. (And having Libya on the Human Rights Commission doesn't make it a joke?)
* First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board. (Yes, drink more Kool Aid!)
* Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history. (I think you're drunk on the Kool Aid. Anyway, let's talk about Obumbles 30 czars that didn't need Senate approval!)
* Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant. (The UN has been irrelevent for decades. It really has done good stuff in Kosovo, Sudan, and other places, hasn't it?)
* Withdrew from the World Court of Law. (Drunken Kool Aid alert!)
* Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions. (Sorry, but the Gitmo detainees have had regular visits from the Red Cross.)
* First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections). (Kool Aid alert! The UN has never had elelection inspectors in the U.S. before and I wouldn't want them anyway.)
* All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
* Biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation). Lay also donated to Dems a lot too. Anyway, Tony Rezko, anyone?)
* Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history. (Sorry, but the Clinton administration was the poll administration. Obumbles likes the polling too. Sorry, but Bush administration did little polling.)
* First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community. (What country was that? UN resolution actally allowed U.S. to attack Iraq and dozens of countries took part in it too!)
* First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1). (Kool Aid alert! Sorry, but Secret Service dictates president's security.)
* First US president to establish a secret shadow government. (What shadow government was that? Clinton did establish a shadow government and Obumbles has his 30 czars!)
* Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history). (Drunk Kool Aid alert!)
* With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years. (Sorry, but Bush did engage the Palestinians and Israelis. Anyway, I think the relations has never been good and certainly was probably worse in the 19600s and 1970s.)
* First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability. (Europe is nuts anyway!)
* First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea. (Yes, exactly did we threaten the South Koreans? And, hmmm, North Korea is behaving even wore under Obumbles!)
* Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. (Please show proof)
* Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts. (More Kool Aid, again, huh?)
* Failed to fulfill his pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'. (OK, but he has been on the run and largely insignificant. Anyway, aren't you Loons up in arms over the plan to create assassins to kill AlQaeda leadership?)
* Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects. (Sorry, but I think the guy committed suicide last year before he could be arrested??)
* In the 18 months following the 911 attacks Bush successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States. Please, get real!)
* Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history. (Yeah, Roosevelt didn't put Asians in so-called concentration camps and Lincoln didnt suspend habeous corpus. More Kool Aid, I see.)
* In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war. (Yeah, that's it!)
* Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down. (Yeah, the strongest economy ever! Hmm, the stock market was crumbling, unemployment rising and the surpluses disapeared even before Bush took office. The economy was tanking.)
Posted by: Drunk, Stupid and Republican is no way to go through life | July 21, 2009 4:01 PM
The Drunk and Stupid part is right in the name.
Posted by: John D | July 21, 2009 7:53 PM
Oh and Gene, so far providing protection for the Obumbles Chicago home has cost the city of Chicago $2.2 million. That is since Obumbles has become prez. That means by the end of the year, it will cost Chicago about $4 million. But, hey, he is president and his home needs to be protected. Comes with the territory. So, please don't try to moan and groan about the costs of protecting the Bush home.
Posted by: John D | July 21, 2009 11:03 PM
John D., once again in a fevered defense of George Jr.'s work habits,has reinforced the original point that was made. To say that Bush and Crawford, TX cost the taxpayers nothing is a flat lie. Nearly 500 days at the ranch over eight years? Come on John, security aside, the taxpayers paid for virtually all of it. By the way, assuming you are employed do you get paid vacations with per diem?
p.s. Is it a republican trait to address other males as "dear" or is that limited to those with a "wide stance".
Posted by: Gene M. | July 22, 2009 4:05 AM
Gene M, I just refer to the Lefty Dufuses as dear or darling becuase of the sheer stupidity of you folks means it requires condescension. You see, and not surprisingly, you miss the point. ALL presidents homes get constant security. It comes with the job. Obumbles home in Chicago is under constant surveillance, so far costing the city of Chicago $2.2 million. When I refer to Bush's vacations not costing taxpayers any money I am not referring to things that happen out of necessity. Presidential security is a constant necessity. Bush going to his home home did not cost the taxpayers additional money because he owns the place. There is no nightly hotel charge. Because the home already has security, additional security is not necessary. As far as food is concerned, I'd be willing to bet it cost less for the three weeks he was there every August than it will for the one week Obumbles and family are at Martha's Vineyard. Presidents, no matter who is president, get some perks: free housing (White House), free food, free chefs, etc. Obumbles going to hobnob with the rich and famous at Martha's Vineyard will cost U.S. taxpayers more money. Security teams have to go there ahead of time to secure the area. There will be costs, evidently, for staff to stay in area hotels. Hotels on the island are not cheap. Gene, dear, think if you can. Use whatever brain God gave you for a change. If possible, get a freakin' clue!! Sheesh, the sheer stupidity of the Left never really never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think they can't get any dumber, you cretins prove me wrong! Is there ANY bottom to your absolute stupidity levels???
Posted by: John D | July 22, 2009 9:18 AM
John D, babycakes, when Bush went to Crawford, did a security detail travel with him? Where did Bush's staff stay? Did they roll out sleeping bags in Bush's living room, or did they stay in hotels, studmuffin? Come on sweetums, you know all these details, don't you sugarpie?
Posted by: Honey Bunch | July 22, 2009 2:22 PM
Oh Honey, dear, some staff would stay at the Bush house in Crawford and some would stay at nearby hotels/motels, which I would imagine were much cheaper than the digs at Martha's Vineyard. Also, HoneyBunches of Dope Bran, secuirty detail has to go to Martha's Vineyard in advance of Obumble's arrival, and we're not talking a few hours either, but days in advance. In fact, they are probably there already. Hmmm, since Bush went home, that wasn't necessary. But you keep spoon-feeding yourself that Obamabot pudding, Ok, Honey Bunches of Dope Bran.
Posted by: John D | July 22, 2009 5:36 PM