The Only Thing More Zen Than The H-Man's Status Updates

[wwwes]

...are the Obama Press Pool reports on these slow news days.

December 4, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama left his house at 7:59 this morning, headed toward his regular morning workout at the nearby Regents Park luxury apartments complex gym. He arrived there at 8:04, with a small group of spectators looking on in 14-degree weather beneath clear Chicago skies and with a light dusting of snow on the ground. The pool waits inside a nearby coffee shop.

After a morning workout of about 60 minutes, the president-elect stepped into his black SUV at 9:17 and headed back to his family's Hyde Park home. He's expected to remain there for about an hour. Then, he'll go to his transition team office in downtown Chicago, where he is scheduled to spend the rest of the morning and afternoon. Obama is scheduled to meet with a group of his Illinois fundraisers during the early evening.

December 2, 2008
News was minimal: Barack Obama wore a new hat on his first gym visit outside of Chicago in more than a month.

Your pool boarded van at 7:42 a.m. for POTUS-elect's expected workout.

A John McCain "NOPE" flier (in the fashion of the blue and red Obama "HOPE" image) was plastered to a telephone pole next to our van.

At 8:01 am, the SUV with Obama inside emerged from the hotel's underground garage.

We drove less than a mile to the Philadelphia Sports Club, a big brick building with a glass window.

About seven agents and Marvin went in with Obama, who was wearing a new cap. Normally he sports a White Sox hat, but today he was wearing what appeared to be a Secret Service cap with a large star on the front.

Some passersby engaged in the usual rubbernecking.

One woman told another on the street: "He's working out? Oh darn! I wanted to see him!"

Another woman spotted the pool and started laughing. "You're covering him going to the gym?" she asked, sounding incredulous.

As she walked away, she said something to her male companion about liberal media only covering things that make Obama look good.
The only entertainment was watching about five city bus drivers and a recycling truck attempt to squeeze by the motorcade.

Two agents stationed at the gym door greeted gymrats with what appeared from our perch outside to be a 90-second bag check and hand wanding.

At 8:46 a.m. Obama emerged, iPod and newspaper in hand. He had taken the jacket and hat off, and was wearing a gray thermal long sleeved shirt.

He seemed a bit surprised as loud cheers erupted from the crowd that gathered in the nearby Whole Foods parking lot and the gym's garage entrance. He gave a slight smile but did not wave as he got back in the car, though looking at photos later he waved as he walked out the door.

At 8:52 am we were back at the hotel so POTUS-elect could get ready for his meeting with the National Governor's Association.

For those who want to keep track, it was Obama's first gym visit in a city other than Chicago since Nov. 3, when he hit the Gold's Gym in Jacksonville.

As a flashback, here's a snippet of Margaret Talev's pool report from that day:
.
"8:40 a.m. Motorcade departs the Hyatt for a short ride to Golds Gym. Obama emerges, in a ball cap and black sweats with a white stripe, and heads in to the building. Reggie Love and Eric Whitaker are with him. Perhaps two dozen local workers gather outside their offices by the gym and across the street over the course of the next 45 minutes to await his exit. At 9:25 a.m., he emerges, and those locals cheer and clap. He is smiling wide and waving to all. Oh, hes so cute! shouts out one woman in her 20s or 30s who appears to work at the bank a couple doors down from the gym entrance. Then she and her female coworkers start squealing and laughing. No interaction with the pool. Return to hotel 9:28 a.m."

[<<<<<]

He's like our de facto president now and W doesn't even seem to care.  Such a hilariously odd way to finish off the Bush era.  Never would have foreseen Bush going out in such a fit of political apathy.

I guess this election was his "mandate" to not care anymore.

[wwwes]

Can you blame him? He knows what a nightmare he has created. He's the most hated man in Washington and I wouldn't want to be there either.

[Fido]

When Bush told Charlie Gibson that he will exit the presidency with his head held high, I thought this is a presidency that's ending in a whimper. How sad, this misbegotten presidency -- a man who shouldn't really have been inaugurated in the first place.

Ending in a whimper is probably a relatively good thing, since if it ended in a bang, that would probably have been even more cataclysmic for the country, ending two terms that have been disastrous enough already.

[Trembling Eagle]

I bet he over does the cardio
I would love to get him on a weight routine         

[John Junk 2.0]

if it ended in a bang, that would probably have been even more cataclysmic for the country,

It ain't over yet.