Q: I’ve seen nothing about Camp David in a long time. Is it still a secluded presidential retreat?
—Ray Prior, Newnan
A: Camp David is still the "President's country residence," as it states on whitehouse.gov, but President Barack Obama rarely goes there. He had taken 35 trips there through mid-September, CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller, who tracks presidential trips, told the Washington Times. "By this point in his presidency, (George W.) Bush had visited the retreat 104 times, more than three times as often, and spent all or part of 329 days there," the article states.
Political reporters have theorized that Obama prefers other locations, such as Hawaii, large cities or vacations spot with a full golf course. “I’ve been told that as an urban man, a guy from Chicago, he doesn’t take to Camp David and its rural setting as much as other presidents have,” Ken Walsh, the chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and author of “From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats,” told the paper. “That’s another part of it.”
Bush took 150 trips to Camp David, which is in Frederick County, Md., and spent at least some of 491 days there in his two terms. President Dwight Eisenhower named the retreat after his grandson David, and it was used by President Jimmy Carter to host Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for the Camp David Accords in 1978.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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