The Obamas are on the lookout for escape hatches. Who can blame them?
To close the gap between out there and in here, the president insists on reading at least ten of the thousands of letters from "real people" that reach the White House each morning. He and his family look for excuses to get the hell outta there now and then, even if it means watching his team get defeated.
Obama has asked his advisers to schedule at least one campaign-style
trip out of Washington each week, and he has fled the White House to
eat meals out, visit Camp David in Maryland and spend a weekend with
old friends in Chicago. On Friday night, he sat courtside at Verizon
Center and watched the Wizards trounce his hometown Bulls. One
afternoon last month, Obama and his wife, Michelle, visited wiggly
second-graders at a local public school because, Obama explained, "we
were just tired of being in the White House." The first lady chimed in:
"We got out! They let us out!"
