President is taking the month off Some worry about impact on his image
By Laurence McQuillan
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, six months after his inauguration, will begin a monthlong vacation Saturday that is twice as long as the average American getaway.
White House officials are quick to point out that the president is never really off the clock, so they prefer to think of the 30 days at his Texas ranch as a working vacation. He'll receive daily national security updates and deal with the duties of the Oval Office from his 1,583-acre spread.
It does make some Republican loyalists nervous, however. They worry about Bush critics who claim he lets Vice President Cheney and other top officials carry the bulk of the workload.
They also worry about the reaction of the average American, who gets 13 vacation days each year.
''This is a serious problem for him,'' says William Benoit, a professor of political communication and image at the University of Missouri. ''It can foster other images -- maybe he's lazy, maybe he's not determined. It feeds into the impression that he's not in charge.''
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010803/3526824s.htm
------------------
"I suspect that many an ailurophobe hates cats only because he feels they are better people than he is; more honest, more secure, more loved, more whatever he is not."
--Winifred Carriere
By Laurence McQuillan
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, six months after his inauguration, will begin a monthlong vacation Saturday that is twice as long as the average American getaway.
White House officials are quick to point out that the president is never really off the clock, so they prefer to think of the 30 days at his Texas ranch as a working vacation. He'll receive daily national security updates and deal with the duties of the Oval Office from his 1,583-acre spread.
It does make some Republican loyalists nervous, however. They worry about Bush critics who claim he lets Vice President Cheney and other top officials carry the bulk of the workload.
They also worry about the reaction of the average American, who gets 13 vacation days each year.
''This is a serious problem for him,'' says William Benoit, a professor of political communication and image at the University of Missouri. ''It can foster other images -- maybe he's lazy, maybe he's not determined. It feeds into the impression that he's not in charge.''
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010803/3526824s.htm
------------------
"I suspect that many an ailurophobe hates cats only because he feels they are better people than he is; more honest, more secure, more loved, more whatever he is not."
--Winifred Carriere