Maybe the president doesn’t like Washington, D.C. Maybe he really likes Air Force One. But whatever the reason, recently compiled statistics show he spends a lot of time on the road: 48 percent of his time, to be exact.
CBS News’s Mark Knoller, who regular compiles White House statistics, released numbers on Friday showing that the president has spent nearly 50 percent of his presidency outside Washington, D.C. As of January 2, Obama has been president for 712 days, reports the Washington Examiner. For 339 of those days — about 48 percent — Obama has been MIA from Washington.
“According to Knoller, Obama has spent 176 days on domestic trips, 70 days on foreign travel, 58 days on vacation, and 35 days at Camp David,” The Examiner’s Byron York writes. And “you can add a couple more vacation days to the total before the president returns from his break in Hawaii.”
Knoller’s numbers also show Obama enjoys recreation. He’s played 57 rounds of golf since taking office (29 of them in 2010) and gone on 28 basketball outings (20 of those coming in 2010).
As for the president’s low approval ratings, they’re not for lack of effort. As York points out, “of Obama’s 712 days in office, just 45 days have passed without a presidential public appearance or statement of some sort.”
York’s conclusion: “So as he begins his re-election campaign, Obama can travel even more and engage the people more. But that won‘t change the fact that many voters simply don’t like what he has done.”
And if that means Obama is unsuccessful in his re-election bid, at least we know he hasn’t grown too attached to D.C.
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