Obama Ditches Press Pool To Take Daughters To Aquatic Park

UPDATES:

More from the Obama press pool:

Dec. 26, 2008 Waimanalo, Hawaii Pool Report No. 5

President-elect Barack Obama arrived at Sea Life Park, a marine amusement
park in Waimanalo, about 12:10 p.m. He is apparently inside the park with
daughters Malia and Sasha. He left their Kailua vacation home without the
protective press pool.

Your pool arrived at the park about 1:10 p.m. and are holding outside the
park to await instructions on whether we will have access to the Obamas.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt issued the following statement to your pool:
"With no further scheduled events for the day, a lid was called until
further notice. The President-elect decided to take the girls to a water
park and we assembled the pool as quickly as possible."

The park is nestled along the shoreline in the sparsely populated and
scenic Waimanalo area, with soaring volcanic mountains nearby.

For the first time on his Hawaii vacation, it appears Obama gave the press pool that follows him the slip. From the Obama press pool report:

Dec. 26, 2008 Pool report No. 4 Kailua, Hawaii

President-elect Barack Obama left his vacation home with daughters Malia
and Sasha about 11:45 a.m. His motorcade left without the pool, the first
time he has done so on this Hawaiian vacation. Your pool, which had a lid,
was not informed in time and is now en route to the Kailua home to be swept
by Secret Service. Pool will attempt to meet up with the Obamas shortly.

The Obamas are apparently at Sea Life Park, a marine amusement park near
Waimanalo and Bellows Air Force Station.

Updates to come once the pool is taken to the park.

Comments

[rhondadavis28]

For the love of God, can't this guy catch a break to spend some time with his family?

[eman]

oh please just leave him alone paparazzi . he's not britney spears. let the man rest before he takes on the hardest job in the world-

just think of the guys pressure- he IS history- everything he does is going to be magnified a thousand times over - ONTOP of the pressure of the job itself -

boy... i feel sorry for him. he's taken up quite a task for himself

good luck bam

[Jewkie]

I thought he was Britney Spears.

[JZ735]

He is...

[rhondadavis28]

Can the media give the man get a little private time with his family, please?

How about investigative reporting on what doing nothing duck Bush is up to in his last days.

[JZ735]

Sorry, NO!

[BWonka]

But then you aren't the media, just some sad, depressed wittle woser.....

[GuyFawkes]

Now that O took his daughters to a food court for lunch today, will the msm and the likes of Paul Krugman get off his back for renting a $9 million dollar vacation home?I mean, is this average enough for you guys?

[johnnynyc]

Might as well before he sends them off to their $40,000 per year per child grammer school, right?

[MoMick]

What's a "grammer" school? Did you skip that 6 years?

[nippyfan]

If more of our children went to 40,000 per year schools, maybe we'd all be able to spell, grammar.

It's something to aspire to, not hate someone for.

Sorry that was petty and I make my spelling mistakes, but that was too easy to let go.

[postman606]

The actual cost is plus $20,000 per child, but I think a man with a couple of best selling books and a couple of six figure salaries can afford it. Quality education can be a buffer against one's children turning into the Palin Bunch.

[KRS1]

Maybe your parents should have paid a few more bucks for grammAr school.

[vjoseph]

I know, what's up with Krugman all of the sudden?

[JZ735]

Sorry, NO!

[Gusto2]

GuyFawles, Paul Krugman and gang love to use words and false reporting to fool the typical Republican "clueless base". The value of the vacation home is $9 millin dollars, but Obama and family is NOT paying that price to RENT IT, but that is what Krugman and gang want to impress upon the American public. It is the samething they did with the auto workers when they claimed the guys were getting $78.00 per hour. They included healthcare benefits,vacation, and night differential pay and gave us an estimated average hourly wage, knowing darn well that they were lying. But that is normal to these guys whom call themselves Christian, conservative and God fearing.

[ImWithThatOne]

Man this press pool is behaving like the celebrity stalkerazzi. Pitiful.

[rhondadavis28]

agree

[Allocator2008]

Wasn't President Clinton able to ditch the press pool a few times whilst President? Seems this is part of the game - President tries to ditch the press, press tries to follow. Freedom of the press versus the right to privacy in a continual dialectic. Ain't our Republic grand? :-)

[Village]

This is ridiculous. He is entitled to privacy. He doesn't have to tell the press everywhere he goes.

The press has more than failed iin it's duty to provide the American people with unbiased news.

They abandoned the moral high ground a LONG time ago.

[ohmetoo]

Truly more like paparazzi than a press pool!

[johnnynyc]

"He doesn't have to tell the press everywhere he goes."

Sorry, when you're elected to the most powerful office on the planet you do owe those who elected you a full accounting of your appearances in public.

[vjoseph]

When he starts the job, yeah, not before

[Knowitall]

Just what has taking your kids to an amusement park have to do with "the most powerful office on the planet"? As parents most of us have taken our kids to amusement parks--no probative value there--no news, just pictures of the kids in bumper cars. We've already seen those pictures.

[devadasi]

Obama does not owe the public a full accounting of his whereabouts with his children.

The press needs to focus on the important issues, like the state of our economy and a million other things; not that President Elect Obama takes his children to an amusement park.

and as far as your comment about the Obama's sending their daughters to private school, do you have a problem with that.

Sounds like you you can't accept the fact that Obama was elected President.

You sound bitter.

[springsm]

OWE???? Are you nuts. He doesn't owe us his whole personal life, just the public one and if he wants time out with his kids he does not OWE me any of it. Get a grip. And of course, if he was parading the girls around for the press and all papparazzi to notice because he OWES that to you, you know that all of you would be screaming that he was exposing his daughters to the press for his own benefits. My gosh...OWE???? The maturity of this nation must be directly proportional to its collective IQ.

[vote-obama]

"Sorry, when you're elected to the most powerful office on the planet you do owe those who elected you a full accounting of your appearances in public".

the press did not elect Obama we did and if he wants some alone time with his family we say he can have it. you and the press need to buzz off.

[BethinIllinois]

I know I speak in a minority position. But as a reporter, you know what? If he didn't want to have the press there, if he didn't WANT there to be a pool, then he shouldn't have run for president. His days of doing whatever, whenever, are over. That goes for his family too. You make a deal with the devil, and the devil is the press. You want quality family time? Fine. Don't be president.

[Bitsko]

You're not a reporter, unless you count the Laundrymat Newsletter. I'm an old publishing hound, and nobody I've ever met in the new business would ever say anything so simplistic.

[ckfan]

You're a journalist and you refer to the press as a devil??? Hmmmm. . . that speaks volumes.

[Plus15]

As a reporter you probably should have brought this up a few years ago. At this point you might consider making up a list of items, maybe call them ahh rights that someone loses if they win the Presidency. I'll bet I speak for the majority when I say - Chill Out.

BTW as you have now admitted that you and the rest of the press are the devil would you explain the fictional tweaks you devils have been pushing since the election on various supposedly Obama stories as you fish for the scandal du jour?

[linfort]

Are you kidding me? He is making his own rules. The days of tap dancing for the press are now over. If he wants to go to the water park without the press, oh well. I do not believe it is written in the constitution that you "make a deal with the devil and give up quality family time" as a command to be president of the US. We are going to have to get used to a different way of life, and it doesn't all revolve around watching other people (president, celebrities, etc.) for our entertainment because the press has told us that we have the right to know it all and they have the right to give it. It is time we took his example and got back to being involved in our own quality family time and focus on ourselves and our families and not every little thing these people are doing. It is important to relay the NEWS when there is policy being made or announcements being made, but leave it at that. If we, the news reading/watching public let the press know that we are now focused on other things, but please let us know when something significant is happening, they will start to realize they need to back off. WE are the ones who are FEEDing the devil.

[johnnynyc]

I guess you missed the "Obama in a swimming suit" thread here last week.

Trust me, if people weren't eating this stuff up, sites like this would post something else.

[vjoseph]

Please stop embarrassing yourself and go check how true journalists do their jobs around the world, you will be surprised

[middlegirl]

Here's some nice pictures of the day:

http://www.daylife.com/topic/Barack_Obama/photos/all/1

[devadasi]

Thanks middlegirl!

[chewie2008]

nice pics

[firewmn]

I think it's funny he can give them the slip......hahahahaha...lol...
*

[johnnynyc]

Actually it's not that difficult.

Just leave it out of the daily schedule handed out every day.

Then don't announce you're leaving in x amount of time like you usually do.

[SueMVetforObama]

Kudos to the Secret Service! Keep it up!

[MissKaren]

Given the transitionis that await those two girls, they need to bond with their father. He's been running for POTUS for a while and they need to know he's back with them.

[truegreen]

Good for Barack, i'm so tired of watching CNN'S Ed Henry shoot his mouth of about nothing.

[bdbd]

"Your" pool? What does this mean? Are they "my" pool? I hope not, because I don't want them. And what in hell does it mean that they have a lid? If a pool has a lid, I assume it's to keep the water from sloshing out. But a lid would prevent us all from getting in, and if it really is "my' pool, I guess I'd like to be able to use it. Or maybe this means the pool is wearing a baseball cap. But if that's the case, why is this being reported? I don't think there's a person in the country who gives a damn what they're wearing.

[lizziekw]

The "lid" is an old White House Press term. It means they're done for the day - no more news will be forthcoming. It means the press corps can go home for the night.

[Bitsko]

The press were just trying to visit their brothers and sisters in the shark pool.

[bby328]

"He (Obama) left their (his $9 MILLION) Kailua vacation home (located on a $40 Trillion Island)without the protective press pool(The PP Pool)." . . . Thank god for small PPs.