This is really too funny.
Members of the White House press corps went on record Sunday complaining about what it's like to follow the President around on vacations such as his present one in Martha's Vineyard.
Some even said they're prisoners of Obama's vacation (video follows with transcript and commentary):
STEVE HOLLAND, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: The thing to remember when you’re traveling with President Obama on his vacation is that he’s the one who’s on vacation not the White House travel pool. We see him do all these wonderful things in all these wonderful places – out to eat, playing golf. Right now he’s out playing in the sand on the beach here at Martha’s Vineyard, and we’re sitting in a bus on the side of the road. So, it’s not always the most fun thing to do. We are in spectacular places, but are a prisoner of the White House even here on the road.
RODNEY BATTEN, SENIOR NBC WHITE HOUSE CAMERAMAN: I love going on these vacation trips, but I’m not really on vacation.
LARRY DOWNING, REUTERS SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: I have absolutely no control over my life when I’m covering the White House.
BATTEN: See, I’m here to cover the President of the United States.
STACEY KLEIN, NBC ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: If you’re not in the pool, you’re not the one with the direct access.
DOWNING: Anything he does, I have to do.
JEFF MASON, REUTERS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So if it’s a really late day or a really late night and you’re sitting either on the side of the road or in the bus, it can be a little soul draining because you want to get out, you want to move, you want to go, you want to go to bed, and you don’t really have any control over your movements at all. You’re lucky to have a cool job, but it’s, it can be a little rough at times like that.
MARGARET TALEY, BLOOMBERG NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So the thing is that maybe nothing happens, and they don’t want anything to happen, but maybe something does happen, and the President wants to be here with his family and his kids, golfing and swimming, and spending some down times, but if the Egyptian military and the transitional government decides to kill a couple of hundred protesters, the United States has to respond. The President has to respond, and that’s what we’re here for. And it happened this week, and it happens every time. Something happens every time no matter how hard the President tries to insulate himself for a few days and have a little bit of down time. News always manages to find its way into vacation, and it did again this time, and that’s why we’re here.
Jim Watson, the AFP staff photojournalist who created the above piece wrote:
The travel pool are the closest journalists in the world to the President’s daily activities; be it news or recreationally, the world has a desire to know what the most powerful man in the world is doing ever [sic] second of the day. For that reason, journalist [sic] are bound to his schedule no matter what it may be and become is [sic] essence prisoners of his vacations.
Makes you want to cry, doesn't it?
(HT Twitchy)
