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President Bush Goes on Vacation

Aired August 03, 2001 - 16:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush marking the first six months of his administration by reflecting on his victories. At a speech at the White House rose garden about two hours ago, Mr. Bush thanked his supporters. And he also marked the passage earlier this year of an across-the-board income tax cut, as well as action in Congress on education, energy and health insurance legislation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Together with Congress, we're proving that a new tone, a clear agenda and active leadership can bring significant progress to the nation's capital. We're ending deadlock and drift and making our system work on behalf of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLEY: The president promised to return to Washington next month with new policy ideas. President Bush departs tomorrow, Saturday, for his summer vacation. He's expected to spend most of August at his ranch in Crawford, Texas: population about 700.

If Mr. Bush returns to Washington on Labor Day, as expected, he'll tie the modern record held by Richard Nixon for presidential time away on vacation at one stretch: 30 days. Ronald Reagan took trips up to 28 days in length, and CNN senior political analyst William Schneider is joining us to look at presidential time off.

Hi, Bill. It's four weeks for the president. So this is a record?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: It looks like a record. But it's typical for a president to take off most of the month of August as long as there is no national crisis or international situation that demands his attention. I think people believe the president can function perfectly well at home, on vacation, just as long as he's in charge of any problem that emerges.

KELLEY: Sure. And have you heard? Is he doing any working on his vacation? I think he's going to do a couple of things, isn't he?

SCHNEIDER: Certainly he's going to do some work on vacation. He says he's going to prepare some new policy ideas for when he come back to Washington at the end of August. You know, a White House is really a movable operation. It used to be moved to Kennebunkport, and to Santa Barbara for Ronald Reagan, to Plains, Georgia -- it happens all the time. In fact, the entire press corps -- the White House press corps goes with the president and they cover it just as if it were in Washington.

KELLEY: Yes, that's right. You know, Bill, we do a live chat in the morning when we go and we do one in the afternoon here with live chat. "Why does President Bush get a full month of vacation?" Jay Best wants to know.

SCHNEIDER: Well, as president of the United States, I mean, he gets a vacation comparable to what other professional Americans get. A month is not an unusual vacation. A lot of working Americans get just two weeks, but I think it's not unusual for a president to get a month's vacation. Many presidents, Bill Clinton, rarely took a month. Clinton would take about two weeks. Interestingly, Clinton didn't have a permanent residence. He had always lived in the governor's mansion, so he had to rent places in Martha's Vineyard or in upstate New York. But Bush has a ranch in Texas. He's going back to his ranch for a few weeks, and that's not at all unusual.

KELLEY: OK, another live chat question for you, Bill. From Koreed Imam: "When presidents go on vacation, who is in charge?"

SCHNEIDER: The president. He's still president of the United States. If there's a crisis, the president's in charge. The vice president and other cabinet officials may take on more immediate responsibilities. But essentially the answer is: the president's in charge.

And presidents have occasionally gotten into trouble when a crisis breaks and the president's on vacation and doesn't respond immediately. The president has got to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when he is on vacation.

KELLEY: OK, another live chat question for you from Sid Barrett: "Does Bush plan on spending his whole vacation at the ranch?"

Have you heard?

SCHNEIDER: I have heard yes, that he is going to be in Crawford, Texas. Interesting place, that's where he has his ranch. Very hot down there. I'm not sure a lot of Americans would like to go to the middle of Texas for their vacations, but obviously he has a spread that he likes being at, he feels comfortable.

It's very much the way Ronald Reagan would go back to Santa Barbara and essentially the whole White House operation would move there. He wants to be at a place where he feels at home.

KELLEY: Yes, and maybe a couple of trips while he's there, is what I thought I'd seen earlier, that maybe he might make a trip or something like that, but then be back at the ranch at night.

Comment next. Dawn Ott (ph) says: "With all that Bush accomplished this week, doesn't he deserve a vacation?"

Of course, Bill, he's coming off of a solid set of wins this week.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, he's done very well. I think it's very good news for him that he's going on vacation at a time when his presidency is looking up. Even his poll ratings, according to "The Washington Post," have been going up.

It would be a very different story if he had suffered a series of defeats, because then there would be a full month of August in which all of the commentators and the pundits would say: "Oh, my God, his presidency is in failure. What went wrong?" And there would be a lot of people chewing over the problems this administration faces. But now it looks like he has gotten a fresh start and he can afford to relax.

KELLEY: You bet. But you're working out in Los Angeles.

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely.

KELLEY: Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst. Thank you very much.

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