Keywords: president, job, council, golf, fundraising, schedule, full plate
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's comment that the president has a lot on his plate has unleashed a barrage of criticism and focus on how the President Obama's been spending his time over the past six months.
Carney's remark about the president's full agenda in response to a question from the press as to why the president hadn't met publicly with his jobs council.
In the era of digital media and Youtube, the Republican National Committee pounced on the opportunity to launch a new ad chronicling how the president's been using his time.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus also mocked the president in a statement, "Millions of Americans are struggling to get by in President Obama's dismal economy, and Obama has 'too much on his plate' to focus on jobs?"
Breitbart.com's Wynton Hall piled on, writing a piece claiming, "President Barack Obama averages just eight minutes more a week on economic meetings than the average dog owner spends walking their dog."
Hall, using information from the Government Accountability Institute came to the following conclusions: • Throughout the first 1,257 days of his presidency, Mr. Obama has spent just 412 hours in economic meetings or briefings of any kind • In 2012, so far Obama has spent just 24 total hours in economic meetings of any kind • Assuming a six day, 10-hour workweek, Obama has spent less than 4 percent of his total time in economic meetings or briefings of any kind • There were 773 days (72 percent), excluding Sundays, in which he had no economic meetings • Mr. Obama has spent an average of 138 minutes a week in economic meetings. According to a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, new dog owners spent an average of 130 minutes a week walking their dogs
No matter your political leaning, you have to admit that at a time of stagnant job growth and 41-straight months of unemployment above 8%, the president could have skipped a round of golf, and instead put a little more effort into putting Americans back to work.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's comment that the president has a lot on his plate has unleashed a barrage of criticism and focus on how the President Obama's been spending his time over the past six months.
