Obama: Inconsiderate behavior or acceptable executive priviledge?

That is what happens when the President comes to town. My mom and dad have had to deal with annoying waits and inconveniences when a President has needed medical care (they use the same medical center as the President). And, when the President goes anywhere it blocks up traffic. Oprah just the other day was complaining about traffic in California when he is there. If we are privy to his arrival, we plan around him. Rush hour does suck timing wise, but I don’t think the President has tons of flexibility in his schedule, and he is probably in your city what? Once or twice a year? I have no idea where you live?

Acceptable executive privilege plus Obama defers to his security people and other planners as for his manner of travel. I don’t think he has time to even opine on “Hey why don’t we cause traffic just for show!” situations.

Acceptable. Like Jleslie said, it doesn’t happen often. I would be pretty pissed off, too, because I absolutely detest rush hour, and I would assume it easier to take a helicopter, but I don’t think they intentionally meant to disrupt everyone.

Shit happens. I live at one of the busier intersections in Toronto, and they’re always closing down a lane or a street for a parade or something, which pisses people off. At least if it were the Prime Minister closing streets it’d be for a better reason than a marijuana parade.

There’s traffic everywhere, and every city suffers, whether the President is there or not.

I get out the tiny violins on this one. Try living in his hometown that he likes to visit wayyy too many times. sucks big time!

Here is his schedule for yesterday. He left the WH in the morning after his daily briefing, then it was El Paso in the afternoon, then Austin in the evening, then he didn’t get back to the WH til 1:15 AM.

I sympathize with the traffic woes (I live in Chicago, and traffic gets screwed up every time he comes home), but I’m not sure how it could have been rearranged.

The President does not choose his own schedule or choose what method is employed to get him from one place to another.

“This is a man who can pretty much set his own schedule and can choose any form of transportation known to man”

EHHHHH! Wrong. Nor can he choose how to get from point A to point B. Its all planned out for him by security experts and other people on the staff. He has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

This harks back to Jimmy Carter attempting to schedule playing time on the White House tennis courts back in the 70s.

Blame our cult of celebrity and our bad habit of murdering and attempting to murder presidents, necessitating the levels of security that now surround the position.

PS: Now that it’s been established that secret raids into sovereign territory are ‘internationally acceptable’, how much additional security will we need to assign to former presidents from now on?

We had major traffic jams when Bush came to town. I couldn’t even get to my house because his car was going to be driving down a street that my house backed up to. Welcome to the post 9/11 age.

It’s perfectly acceptable.
My guess is you’d feel differently if you liked him. (It’s President Obama, not Mister. Show some respect.)
As a side note, Austin has some of the worst traffic in the country to begin with.

@breedmitch I didn’t catch the Mr. That bothers me also. It does not bother me when people simply write or say Obama, but Mr. Obama is very odd to me. Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, all no no’s in my book. But, maybe the OP thought using Mr. is respectful? Some people don’t realize proper etiquette is to always use President. Even when out of office they are still addressed as President.

Waaah. Hollywood and Highland closes down every few weeks for a stupid movie premier. Add to that Lakers’ games, Dodgers’ games and concerts and any street in any part of L.A. could be shut down or rerouted.

Texas doesn’t have that great a track record when it comes to protecting Presidents from would-be assassins.

Apropos of nothing.

The only reason I made that statement is because it makes just about as much sense as declaring that the President can choose the time and method of his arrival.

He can’t even go for a walk with his wife, anywhere other than the grounds of the White House, without advance scheduling approved by a ton of people in charge of security for his every move.

To imply that it is his personsl callous disregard for the citizenry causing the traffic makes no more sense then blaming the entire State of Texas for Kennedy’s death.

Of all the possible things a president does that one can question, you really want to focus on this? You couldn’t possibly find that your time is better spent debating virtually any other issue regarding his actions, policies, decisions, etc? Combined with the use of “Mr.” instead of “President”, this is why people say Obama gets treated exceptionally unfairly.

For what it’s worth, the style manual for reporters at NPR calls for the president (any president) to be referred to as “President ______” on the first mention, but then as “Mr. ______” on all subsequent mentions.

@thorninmud That would be a change from how I learned it in school. That would be like calling a doctor, Dr. Lastname and then switching to Mr. Lastname. Sometimes I think the journalists are screwed up in how they use language anyway. But, language evolves and so does etiquette, what do I know. I just say Obama on its own usually. If I was talking directly to him I would address him as President Obama or Mr. President.

Apparently, CBS has the same policy.

If the President had no regard for the citizenry of Austin he wouldn’t have gone there. It is an honour to have a visit from the President.

Regarding the use of the term “Mr.” vs. “President”, it is my understanding that either term is considered acceptable.

As for it being an honor, apparently the folks plunking down multiple thousands of dollars a plate for the fundraiser thought so. As for me, I was rather annoyed that my youngest son wound up at home unattended for awhile due to the traffic disruptions.

@thorninmud They probably all do.

So if either term is acceptable, let’s hear you say it. Say “President Obama”. Go ahead. Say it! my guess is you won’t…

There is no reason to think the OP purposely wrote Mr. as disrespectful or a sign he does not like the current President.

@JLeslie Except that this is a tactic that Faux Noos and their ilk use often.

Part of this has to do with city design. Presidents Bush and Obama have both visited the city where I live, and they’ve both caused traffic to be worse than normal. But because of how our main routes are designed, it wasn’t actually all that bad. An extra 5 – 10 minutes to any trip at worst. And that’s including the fact that the streets were just lined with police officers.

@klutzaroo Yeah, I know, but we don’t know if that is the case. Previously a lot of people on the left were going on about how the right just said Obama, leaving off Mr. and President. That was disengenious because almost everyone I know says Bush without anything in front of it. I think let’s not assume intention by such things and just assume either habit or ettiquette.