{"id":408,"date":"2013-04-01T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T15:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/01\/potus-is-never-off-the-clock"},"modified":"2013-04-01T15:50:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T15:50:00","slug":"potus-is-never-off-the-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"POTUS is never off the clock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

President Obama played a round of golf the other day, the first since the mandated budget cuts required by the so-called \u201csequestration\u201d of federal money.<\/p>\n

And oh yes. Some of his critics lambasted him for it. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/291087-obama-makes-first-post-sequester-visit-to-the-golf-course<\/a><\/p>\n

He shouldn\u2019t play golf while canceling the White Hours tours because of lack of money, they said. One congressman, Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, filed a budget amendment that prohibits the government from taking Obama to and from the golf course until the White House tours are resumed. Others have griped all along that Obama plays too much golf as it is. He and his family take too many expensive vacations, they complain. <\/p>\n

Allow me this brief response. The president is never not<\/em> the president. Sure, he plays golf, but he\u2019s surrounded by Secret Service agents; he\u2019s accompanied by his personal aide, the one with \u201cThe Football,\u201d the case carrying the secret launch codes in case of a nuclear attack; he\u2019s on call 24\/7.<\/p>\n

And this president is far from the first president to take time off from the job. George W. Bush was fond of clearing brush at his Texas ranch; Bill Clinton vacationed frequently at Martha\u2019s Vineyard, Mass.; George H.W. Bush liked to ride around in his speedboat off the Maine coast; Ronald Reagan went to his<\/em> ranch in California, often for weeks at a time; Jimmy Carter spent time in Georgia; Gerald Ford liked to play golf in California.<\/p>\n

None of these men ever shirked their duties while they were the Leader of the Free World.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I am glad the president finds time to relax, clear his head while maintaining focus on the issues of the day. Barack Obama has a lot of them and no one should begrudge him for seeking some time away from the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

But if the phone rings and something important happens, I remain fully confident the president will answer the call.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama played a round of golf the other day, the first since the mandated budget cuts required by the so-called \u201csequestration\u201d of federal money. And oh yes. Some of his critics lambasted him for it. http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/291087-obama-makes-first-post-sequester-visit-to-the-golf-course He shouldn\u2019t play golf while canceling the White Hours tours because of lack of money, they said. One … Continue reading POTUS is never off the clock<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}