By Katherine Skiba
WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama and his family head home to Chicago for the Memorial Day weekend, an administration official said.
The first family will arrive Thursday and stay through the holiday, the official said.
The president will participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, the official said. The cemetery is about 50 miles south of Chicago.
Last year Obama marked Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery. This year, Vice President Biden will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony there, the official said.
Obama has visited the Windy City three prior times as president. His first trip in February 2009 was for three nights; trips last June and July were in-and-out visits for part of the day.
He said after winning the presidency that the South Side of Chicago would be his "Kennebunkport," a reference to former President George H.W. Bush's summer retreat in Maine.
But trips to "Sweet home, Chicago" have been scarce.
First lady Michelle Obama has said their two daughters' schedules--extracurricular activities, sleepovers and friends visiting from Chicago--are among the reasons they haven't returned more often.
Another concern is disruption, she has said. The first lady, remembering the Valentine's Day visit in 2009, said "we shut down Lake Shore Drive and shut down our neighbors."
Comments
Hmmm, sounds like Obama is planning another Commie-Socialist-Fascist-Nazi plot to pull the plug on Granny and steal Memorial Day from us white real Americans again.
Posted by: Reputard | May 24, 2010 3:29 PM
I think it borders on the truely morbid how we follow what he does and where he goes. Who cares where he goes to take a break. I hope he has a relaxing time and comes back home rejuvenated and quits.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida
Posted by: Charles B. Tiffany | May 24, 2010 4:20 PM
Crawford TX got plenty tired of the Bush entourage.
But of course he really was NOT a rancher, was he? The ranch was just a political prop.
Hyde Park will always be in love with Obama.
Lincoln had Springfield, and Obama has Hyde Park.
Posted by: ornery | May 24, 2010 4:25 PM
glen Bec says Obam not da prez cause not born in merca lik i is. an glenn is never rong.
Posted by: Ted Teabag | May 24, 2010 5:15 PM
Hurray!!! Our liar is coming home to us!!!!
Posted by: Libtard | May 24, 2010 6:03 PM
I think he should go to Arizona for vacation.
Then they can check his papers and put to rest all that birther crap.
Posted by: wingnutmaster | May 25, 2010 5:08 PM
Will Cindy Sheehan & Code Pink be sitting outside of Obama's house? Didn't she camp out at the entrance in Crawford. Last time I looked the war was still going on. I think Cindy would like Chicago.
Posted by: vla | May 25, 2010 6:39 PM
A few of Chicago's unemployed should go and panhandle in front of his house. Ornery, are you available?
Posted by: Terry | May 25, 2010 7:17 PM
Bill Clinton was in town today.
I don't think he's going to stay around to see Obama.
Hillary was, as usual, elsewhere.
Posted by: Milton Friedman | May 26, 2010 3:06 AM
T, I wouldn't try going near the President's house these days. Not without an invite.
Lots of concrete barriers like they put around the federal buildings after 9/11.
Lots of black vans. I drove by on Saturday but told the driver not to stop or slow down--unless he wanted to play 20 questions with the secret service.
Cindy can come camp on my boulevard--just a few blocks away.
We're a no fly zone here. Also, the "Google street view" for us is, er, "unavailable".
Were they thinking of you, T?
Posted by: ornery | May 26, 2010 4:16 PM
Ornery,
Good point - Cindy Shehan had better access to President Bush than they should have to BO in Hyde Park. Then again, Cindy wouldn't get to Hyde Park in one piece.
Posted by: Terry | May 26, 2010 6:40 PM
Memorial Day 2010
Our president may not have enough of a sense of tradition to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day but the rest of us commoners can still honor that day on Monday.
As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day 2010, a day that has become synonymous with nothing more than the launching of summer, let’s try to remember what it’s all about.
Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday dates to 1868 and is intended to remind us all of those who gave their all in service to this great nation. It is especially meaningful, or should be, during wartime while our men and women are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, vacation time in his adopted city of Chicago is more important to Barack Hussein Obama than bothering himself with . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1704)
Posted by: Berlet98 | May 27, 2010 5:37 PM