CNN: "Obama on less than 10 book-a-year pace, far less than the 100 Bush was able to finish"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Posted: 08:45 PM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

(CNN) — It appears President Obama has to step up his reading pace if he wants to beat his predecessor in one particular measure: how many books a president can polish off a year.

In an interview with the BBC Tuesday, Obama said he is currently reading Joseph O'Neill's 270-page novel "Netherland," a book Obama first said he began back in April.

If Obama is close to finishing the novel, that puts him on less than a 10 book-a-year pace, far less than the close to 100 books President Bush was reportedly able to finish in the same amount of time.

According to former top Bush aide Karl Rove, he and the former president engaged in a friendly wager every year to see who could read more books.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/02/obama-keeping-up-with-bushs-reading-pace/

[Kdillard]

1. Perhaps because he actually works, has kids that are young.

They are really stretching.

[L. Coyote]

44. Who believes the propaganda that Bush could read?

[chimpymustgo]

49. Contact CNN and call them on pumping Rove nonsensical propaganda:

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.pt.html?50

[L. Coyote]

50. Feedback link appreciated.

[YvonneCa]

62. "According to former top Bush aide Karl Rove"...

...well, THAT explains it. Why would anyone believe Karl Rove?

[Posteritatis]

2. Coloring books don't count, George (nt)

[CreekDog]

3. Not fair, Bush read this book TWICE!

[goclark]

10. And remember the Chimp reads with the book upside down

sometimes.

Either way the words are difficult for him.

Reading Level for the Chimp? Maybe 1st grade.

[Lex]

4. Picture books don't count, though.

nt

[Kaleko]

5. Can we get some comprehension along with all that reading, George?

[sandnsea]

6. I think Obama's working

something about inheriting the disasters of the worst President in history.

Maybe Georgie should have put a book down once in a while, not that I believe he read what he said he read anyway. He should have done a skit looking for the books he was pretending to read.

[CreekDog]

7. He cheated

He read them backwards! :rant:

[LAGC]

9. Ha! Beat me to it! (n/t)

[Born_A_Truman]

60. Book named "America" upside down?

Is that a distress call?

[LAGC]

8. Its easy to skim them while reading them upside-down.

[Marr]

11. Are they still pretending that piece of Karl Rove propaganda wasn't absolutely laughable?

I mean really.

[Vickers]

12. My kids go to a school that uses "SRC Points"

If you're unfamiliar with that, check this out:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/readingcounts/management.htm

It stands for "Scholastic Reading Counts!" and basically it is this: a kid reads a book, takes a simple quiz, and is awarded points depending on (a) how long/difficult the book was, and (b) how many questions were answered correctly on the quiz. One of my kids made almost a thousand points in one year (a book can be anywhere from 5 points or so up to around 40).

Not a perfect system, but useful to see how well kids are comprehending their reading, and if they are in fact reading the books at all.

I'm not as interested in how many books Wee Cowboy "read" but rather how many SRC Points he would've earned...

:eyes:

[shanti]

20. i remember

a reading program something like this back in the mid-60's, in new york. the reading levels were color coded.

[Ms. Toad]

46. Me too! n/t

[Z_I_Peevey]

61. Is this it?

SRA. I seem to remember the purple level as the top one.

https://www.sraonline.com/about_history.html

[WCGreen]

13. I just finished that one a few weeks ago...

A wonderful book about an estranged couple living apart, one in London and one in New York. 9/11 sets the backdrop but it really is, to me at least, about how the melting pot of New York City Americanizes all new comers, sometime for the better, sometime for the ill.

[rocktivity]

14. .

:boring:
rocktivity

[MrModerate]

15. The 100-books-a-year figure coming from the world's leading apostle . . .

of truth and accuracy.

Get three more cartloads of that and we can fertilize the entire north forty.

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. There's 100 different "Dick & Jane" books??

BTW, if Dumbya woulda spent more time presidentin' and less time making reading wagers with Rove we might not be in the situation we're in today...

Between reading and vacations, when did he do any real work?

[shanti]

17. oh good lord

is this the best they can do?? :eyes:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

22. Yep. It's like "Where do I begin with this one?"

My first reaction was that Bush should have read only 99 books in 2001 to allow a little extra time to digest "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S."



President Bush at his ranch in August 2001 with Ms. Miers; Stephen E. Biegun, left, national security aide; and Joe Hagin, deputy chief of staff.

[Stephanie]

18. Obama is actually reading the PDB's and the NIE's

Unlike his predecessor, who was too busy with fiction to be bothered.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Those Jack Chick tracts count as "books"?

:shrug:

[Golden Raisin]

21. Considering that Bush

left office with this country in ruins I suspect Obama's workload of trying to stem the bleeding from Bush's many disasters has cut into his available book-reading time.

[anonymous171]

23. Love how the media combined Obama-bashing and pro-Bush historical revision

into one piece.

[pansypoo53219]

24. obama doesn't have

cheeney to do all his work for him.

plus the shitpile georgee left him with. plus he isn't reading picture books.

[EFerrari]

25. I left a comment hours ago (Did you guys lift this straight out of The Onion?)

and it hasn't been posted yet. No comments have been posted yet. lol

[Tangerine LaBamba]

26. These aren't books................

[MidwestTransplant]

27. People who don't work have more time to read.

[dorkulon]

28. Difference? Obama is actually reading them.

George Bush hasn't read 100 books in his entire life.

[NC_Nurse]

29. Bush must've read the cliff notes. Too bad he didn't actually DO anything

worth a damn.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

30. I don't care if Obama finishes ONE book since he actually reads the PDB every day of the week.

Unlike Bush.

[fishwax]

31. bwahahaha

:rofl:

Yeah.

Right.

:rofl:

[Doctor Cynic]

32. How many of the 100 books were from the Kid's Section?

[ContinentalOp]

33. OMG, you just brightened my evening.

Without even reading the post or the rest of the thread. Just that headline!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[ContinentalOp]

34. OMG "And if that's not impressive enough, ...

Rove also said Bush found time to read the Bible "from cover to cover" every year."

Lemme guess, on his Christmas vacation?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[uppityperson]

35. Shit, next thing they'll say is Obama is taking less time off for vacations also

why oh why did I ever vote for such a slacker

[ecstatic]

54. somehow... I doubt that will be mentioned nt

[Bodhi BloodWave]

36. Gee, wonder if Bushes 2 hour workdays had anything to do with his freetime to read :p n/t

[ejpoeta]

37. bush had tons of time to 'read' because he didn't fucking do anything!

He spent a good deal of time on 'vacation'. Maybe obama doesn't have time to read ten books a year because he's fucking busy fixing dumbass bush's mess. Though, i bet obama COULD still read ten books a year on top of that. but, again, he's quite busy.

[zbdent]

38. I didn't know they counted comic books as "books" ...

bet they aren't even graphic novels ...

of course, all the time that Bush took as vacation, and the fact that Bush inherited a relatively stable economy (that they talked into a recession so they could pass the unnecessary tax cuts), relative peace, and a kiss-ass media covering up his failings.

And now, the media is smearing Obama because he's too busy saving the U.S. to read books???????????????????????????????????

[zbdent]

39. how the FUCK do you contact this "reporting" asshole???

I really want to fire off a note to him or CNN on how this is such a FUCKING STUPID story ...

This is a prime example of the "liberal media bias" that goes out of its way to smear a Dem ...

"Obama's not reading as many books as Bush did during his pResidency ..." OBAMA'S GOT A HELLUVA LOT MORE ON HIS PLATE THAN BUSH DID! Maybe if Bush wasn't reading "Dick and Jane Go To The Store", he might have read the PDB which said that Osama bin Laden was getting ready to strike the U.S.!

[KG]

40. this is bullshit. it's pretty fucking obvious the chimp never read a book in his life.

[frylock]

51. he read them shakespeares..

three of em

[distantearlywarning]

41. Well, yeah, but Obama reads books with words, not just pictures

:evilgrin:

[stray cat]

42. Were any lonter than my pet goat?

Also Bush supposedly spent a year studying the book of ACTs with a group and yet he couldn't answer the most basic questions on it.

[spanone]

43. Obama is honest, bu$h* lied

[ShortnFiery]

45. You must be joking? IMO, any book that's not mostly composed of pictures is read to

Dubya or put on his IPOD along with his historical treasures such as "My Pet Goat." ;) :P

[Stinky The Clown]

47. Bush read comix, not books

Report the number of pages read.

[alarimer]

48. Bush was a lazy ass who didn't do anything.

Maybe that's why he had time to read books (although I highly doubt he actually read 100).

Read "My Pet Goat" 100 times does not count as 100 books.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

52. Kick because Bush Haz the Smrtz that must be recognized!

[ecstatic]

53. Quality over quantity. Wow, CNN can't be serious!

What did Bush learn from his reading? What is the point of reading anything if you don't grow from it?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

56. He learned about the Saggy Baggy Elephant!

[Arkana]

55. Well, I think "My Pet Goat"

probably takes less time to read than something Obama would read, even if you are George W. Bush.

And fuck CNN. Obama's got a ton of work to do--if he spent his time reading the wingers would just have another excuse to excoriate him.

[Reterr]

57. a) Obama isn't on vacation for ~1/2 of the year

b)Dora The Explorer books are easy to breeze through...

[Flying Dream Blues]

58. That liar! Maybe it's because when asked what he's reading/read, Obama

tells the truth and doesn't carry a bunch of "prop" books around. Anyone who knows Bush knows he doesn't read a lot of books. FFS.

[rvablue]

59. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.

:eyes:

[MiniMe]

63. There is a big difference between "finishing" and comprehending

[GrantDem]

64. Too bad he didn't read the one on August 6 2001...