Places Obama Family Visitied on Vacation to Panama City Fl
President Obama and daughter Sasha swim at Panama City Beach, Florida, in this released on the White House's Flickr page.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: President Obama and daughter Sasha took a swim in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday
- White House released a photo of the swim on its Flickr page
- Obama had said he would swim on Sunday with press corps present
- Event is meant as a gesture showing that the Gulf Coast is open for business organization
(CNN) -- The one actually large question hanging over President Obama's weekend vacation to Panama City, Florida, now has an answer.
Will he or won't he dive into the water to send a bulletin that the Gulf Declension is dorsum?
The answer: He volition, and sooner than expected.
"I think we're going to go tomorrow and as I merely said Ed, I'thou non going to let you guys take a picture show of me with my shirt off," Obama jokingly told CNN Saturday. "You guys will tease me just like final fourth dimension. I was on the front folio ... People commenting."
Just just hours later, a photo was published on the White House Flickr page showing a smiling President Obama and his daughter Sasha taking a dip in the Gulf waters off Alligator Point in Panama City Embankment, Florida.
No reporters or press cameras were present for the swim, merely the paradigm will nonetheless send a message that the White House has sought to convey with the first family'south trip: the Gulf Coast is open for business.
Obama caused a bit of a tabloid stir when he took off his shirt to reveal a muscular physique during trips to Hawaii during the 2008 presidential campaign and subsequent presidential transition. Only some are less concerned about Obama ending up on magazine covers, and more than worried about the White Firm sending the right message.
"Absolutely, I want him to accept his shirt off and go far the h2o and evidence it'southward clean and rubber," said Stephen Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University in Miami who puts together an annual listing of America'south all-time beaches.
Leatherman rates the beach there equally one of the top 10 in the country, and he said Obama has a unique opportunity to showcase the fact that the Gulf Coast is still open for business organization despite the worst oil spill in American history.
"Information technology'south got lily-white sand, and bluntly the oil didn't actually make it there. It was pretty well spared," said Leatherman, who noted that the water is 87 or 88 degrees considering of the steamy Florida weather condition, making it conducive to at least a quick presidential plunge.
"At that place is no better symbol than the president of the U.s. showing united states the way," Leatherman said.
White Firm press secretary Robert Gibbs was cagey Fri when reporters asked whether the president will accept a swim during the outset family's 27-hour mini-vacation.
"Stay tuned," said Gibbs, who grew slightly impatient and a chip bemused about getting and then many queries well-nigh something every bit seemingly minor equally a presidential swim.
"Look, he's going to have some fun," Gibbs said. "Whether or non he gets in the water is up for clearly some debate. Only, wait, he will accept an opportunity to savour ... the physical beauty of the Gulf and practise some work at the same time."
Gibbs turned it around on reporters and wondered whether they would bare their midriffs this weekend.
"Are you bringing your suits?" Gibbs said with a grin.
But Leatherman suggested it'southward no joking matter because the president'southward decision to swim or non to swim will carry tremendous symbolic weight.
"I think it's very important that he gets into the water because I recall there's this feeling that if you lot get in, you're going to go contaminated or go all kinds of diseases," he said.
This is the president's fifth trip to the Gulf region since the Apr twenty explosion that sparked the oil disaster. The trip is generating criticism over whether Obama is giving the region short shrift by spending only parts of Sat and Sunday in Panama City.
White House officials announced the trip earlier this summer after critics wondered why the president and start lady had urged Americans to vacation in the Gulf simply originally chose Bar Harbor, Maine, and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as the only locations for their own sojourns.
Now, the criticism has shifted to whether 27 hours in Panama City is too quick of a jaunt, and the Republican National Committee released a argument Fri that also said Obama has included Florida in just a couple of his trips to the region in contempo months.
"It's nice to see the president take the time out of his busy schedule of golf games and campaign fundraisers to clear his censor and visit Florida for merely the 2d time since the oil crisis began," RNC spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said. "As he meets with business owners in the Panhandle, information technology seems like the perfect opportunity for him to explain how his reckless spending, tax increases, and government takeover of health care are supposed to help the Gulf's devastated economic system. Not fifty-fifty the Sunshine Land tin put a positive light on the president'southward failed liberal policies that have sunk his approval ratings to an best low."
The president is accompanied past first lady Michelle Obama and their younger daughter Sasha. (The oldest, Malia, is however abroad at camp and volition not be in Florida). Also making the trip is Gulf Coast recovery chief, Secretarial assistant of the Navy Ray Mabus, to try to prove the administration is committed to a long-term turnaround.
Gibbs largely deflected questions about whether the trip was too brusk, maxim the president is focused on promoting the "health of the region" with the vacation.
"Tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast is the economy," Gibbs told reporters Friday. "This is an opportunity to highlight the notion that this important region of the state is still doing well and open up for business organization."
While Leatherman said he does think the trip seems as well brusk, Obama should be applauded for carving out some time to help the region.
"I think information technology'southward basically a photo-op, isn't it?" said Leatherman. "Just I withal call up it's a proficient thing for the president to come down and evidence the world that information technology's clean and safe. That will go a long way to helping the Gulf Coast."
Leatherman added: "The best thing that could happen is the president saying, 'I'm going in!' And I don't hateful damn the torpedoes. I hateful him saying, 'It's make clean and safe, and I'm going in the water!' "
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Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/14/obama.gulf.swim/index.html
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