This is what I mean!

As we wait for Santa to arrive I surfing the Internet and I came across this article about President Bush and VP Cheney sending personal letters and privately visiting the families of fallen troops and visiting with wounded troops.

For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.

The First Lady on why these meetings were kept private:

The first lady said that many of the meetings have been kept private because "these are such personal times when people grieve. And we grieve with them. And these are not times when you would want a camera in the room or other people around. They are very emotional, personal times.

I like this story, love how the President took the time out of his day to just sit around with these two soldiers and just talk to them and visit with them beyond what was scheduled.

Some private meetings with soldiers have been publicized at the request of the soldiers themselves. When Mr. Bush met with Spc. Max Ramsey, who lost his left leg in 2006 while serving in Iraq, and Sgt. Neil Duncan, a double-amputee injured in Afghanistan in 2005, it was Sgt. Duncan who asked for news coverage.

"I wasn't sure my buddies would believe me," Sgt. Duncan said, joking with the president. When Mr. Bush had visited him at Walter Reed, the sergeant had vowed to run again, and did so on the White House South Lawn's jogging track in July 2007.

Although it was a Wednesday, Mr. Bush - who had scheduled a brief run - pulled the two soldiers through the trees to the White House pool after their jog.

"The group of us just sat there for like two hours maybe and chatted. On a whim, he just took two hours out of his schedule. ... We talked about personal things, how he feels about the war, what's been hard, what it's like being the president, some of the most difficult times for him. It was very, very cool - priceless."

When I read this article all I could think about was Obama and how he scraped his trip to visit wounded troops at Landstuhl when he found out the media couldn't follow him.

Speaking of Obama, he's on vacation in Hawaii staying at some multi-million dollar place but each morning he has taken the time to Marine Corp Base Hawaii. Are they there to meet with the Marines and their families? Are they there for a morale visit? Well that depends on whose morale we are talking about. They have been going there every morning to work out. After the workouts it's back to the multi-million dollar pads. What, you didn't actually expect them to stay there did you?

Obama and wife, Michelle, made their early morning trek to Marine Corps Base Hawaii just northeast of Honolulu as they had done during the last three days. After about an hour at the base on Wednesday where he went inside a gym for a workout, he walked over to greet more than 60 people who waited for him. The president-elect shook hands while onlookers took pictures with their cell phones and digital cameras.

The only reason these people got this impromptu photo-op with him was because they happened to know he was there and waited outside for him. Had they not been there then Obama wouldn't have been bothered to meet with anyone on that base. Once again he cares more to hit the gym than visit with the brave men and women that serve on the base. So much for a cause close to their heart. What's really sad is that only about 60 people bothered to show up.