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East Coast Earthquake Felt On Martha’s Vineyard As Conservative Media Connects It To Obama

» 61 comments

According to Politico White House press pooler Carrie Budoff Brown, the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Virgina minutes ago was felt on the Martha’s Vineyard golf course where President Obama was playing when it hit. Meanwhile, Media MattersOliver Willis observes that the conservative media are already pointlessly pointing out that the President was on vacation when the quake hit, tweeting “Conservatives Can’t Decide If Obama Was Too Busy Golfing Or Biking To Stop The #Earthquake.”

From Carrie Budoff Brown’s pool report:

The president is golfing today with Marvin Nicholson, Eric Whitaker, and Vernon Jordan, the Washington power broker, lawyer, business exec, friend of Bill Clinton and seasonal island resident.

An aside: The earthquake centered in Virginia was felt on Martha’s Vineyard minutes ago by your pooler and AP’s Mark Smith. Inquiring about whether the president felt it as well.

Conservative blogger Jim Hoft was quick to weirdly conflate the President’s vacation with the quake, posting a quickie item that noted the quake with the headline “Earthquake Rattles Washington DC – Obama Goes Biking.”

The body of the post reads, simply, “A 5.8 quake hit Washington DC this afternoon. The Obama family was biking this afternoon.”

It’s hard to know what the subtext is supposed to be. Should the President have been back at the Blue Heron Farm perusing a memo entitled “6.0 Quake Determined To Strike Within US?”

Meanwhile, less pointedly, The Drudge Report posted several earthquake-related headlines, finishing with “Obama Was On Golf Course.”

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  • Anonymous

    Hope it didn´t screw up Obama´s handicap…

  • Anonymous

    Hope it didn´t screw up Obama´s handicap…

  • Michelle

    It would appear Tommy and his fellow libs are regretting that they blamed absolutely EVERYTHING on Bush now that that chicken is coming home to roost.   Sucks doesn’t it Tommy!?

  • Michelle

    It would appear Tommy and his fellow libs are regretting that they blamed absolutely EVERYTHING on Bush now that that chicken is coming home to roost.   Sucks doesn’t it Tommy!?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dronetek-Bulk-Vanderhuge/100000918732763 Dronetek Bulk Vanderhuge

    Better run to Obama’s defense! I wonder if you’ll do the same when a Republican is president again. I’d bet on no. 

  • Anonymous

    What earthquake ? Obama was tied up monitoring an ice cream cone .

    Has anyone checked on King Obama’s illegal alien Aunt Zeituni in the Boston public housing project where we all pay her rent?

  • Anonymous

    Tommy, you been taking your meds lately?

  • L_Salazar

    TC writes:  “Meanwhile, less pointedly, The Drudge Report posted several earthquake-related headlines, finishing with “Obama Was On Golf Course.”

    Sorry TC no words like this exits at this time on Drudge…unless he has multiple web sites.

  • Anonymous

    All of that is just about as fair as Tommy’s story .

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000152902441 Jeremy Volkens

    Turnabout is fair play. I love how liberals purposely refuse to take a joke!

  • Greg

    If Obama avoided reflexive attack it would mean the rapture had advanced to completion.

  • Dredayz

    Maybe I don’t understand the role of the president.  It seems more and more that he is just the punching bag for everything and anything.  The people of “less government” sure expect a lot of the president.  What was he suppose to do?  Put on a cape to fly over and assess the damage 1 minute after the quake, use his lazer beam eyes to seal the earths crust, and save scared grannies? 

    Conservatives are dangerously close to putting party over country.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1275435195 Dennis Chimelis

    I think he was supposed to assess the damage while flying over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in Air Force One.  He still has a few days…

  • Anonymous

    I just saw the same thing written by the AP Washington. It’s hardly just conservatives pointing out where and what the pres was doing during an earthquake in DC.

  • Michelle

    You must have slept through the Bush years.  The whole reason we are mocking Tommy is because liberals blamed everything, including the weather on Bush.  Now liberals are “outraged” that the same is done to Obama.  Get over it!

  • Anonymous

    The writers on this site aren’t actually paid, are they? I mean, it’s a volunteer gig or maybe just kind of a “sandwich, place to crash for the night or ride to the methadone clinic” sort of arrangement, right?

  • Anonymous

    THIS JUST IN: Correction in earlier report. Michelle just farted at that exact moment leading all affected parties to assume what they felt was actually from the Virginia quake other than the fog and that god aweful smell.

  • Chrisg

    I don’t recall ever blaming Bush for weather…

    I think we blamed him for getting into a costly and unneccesary war…and then mismanaging it from the start…

    For screwing up the economy with bad fiscal policies…

    For general incompetence (for example, the Katrina response)

    But whatev…

    If it makes you feel better to engage in such petty and ignorant sniping, have at it!

    Makes me feel kinda sorry for ya tho…

  • Nature Freak

    Stay Classy Conservatives!

    Please tell me that most of those who post here are 19 year olds. (I apologize to those 19 year olds who actually have a clue. There are 19 year olds who do)

    There is nothing wrong with Tommy Christopher’s article.

    America is obviously in decline. Some here need to look in the mirror.

  • http://twitter.com/AaronBarulich Aaron Barulich

    NEWSFLASH – incident happens.  bloggers and twits make snarky jokes.  libs freak.

  • Jooce

    damnit, did President Obama forget he has the power to stop natural disasters again.. Hey Barack don’t forget you have that hurricane to stop at the end of the week.

  • Anonymous

    Who is blaming the president? Tommy the instigator Christopher writes a ridiculous article and then you have the audacity of accusing people of putting party over country. Cry me a river.

  • Anonymous

    When I heard he was out golfing this is all I could think of after the earthquake hit.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r95a3p8Os-w

  • Anonymous

    The “stay classy” meme is only applicable when a comment is vile, slanderous and/or threatening, not lazy in trying to be a tad overly political.

    Please treat it with respect or it’ll be taken away from you.

  • Anonymous

    Liberals are humorless. they are only happy when they are angry and calling people names.

  • Anonymous

    youre an idiot!!!!…i suppose your dumb ass thinks obama caused the earthquake when he mashed on a golfball huh???…there you go blaming the insidious stupidity of the right-wingers on the left……MAN  UP HOBBIT

  • Anonymous

    dude that story is deader than your brain…..better dig in your bag o tricks for something else

  • Anonymous

    wow tommy you are the oliver stone of mediaite, and by the way we all know what caused the earthquake…..two words…..global warming lol

  • Anonymous

    Media Matters is a political action committee disguising itself as a tax payer funded 501c3.  Why source them for anything, let alone this nothing story?

  • Chris

    Most of these are jokes…as I’m sure would have been made by Dems if a Republican prez was on the golf course.

    And Drudge did have an item about Obama playing golf but it was more of an alarm.  It was taken down shortly after it was determined BO felt nothing.

  • Anonymous

    Is Media Matters wrong about the President being on vacation? Like you are about it being taxpayer funded?

  • Anonymous

    ‘ I wonder if you’ll do the same when a Republican is president again?’……interesting comment….A Republican President started the ‘down-fall of America’….’A Democrat, continues it’…change of control from Dem-to-Republican Congress, backs up the B.S.and ‘the People are providing the side-show…….cant beat this ‘Screwed-up-Reality-Show!’

  • Hugo Daun

    Try as you might, you just can’t seem to grasp the funny…good for you that you’ve got a solid lock on the stupid!

  • Owl22

    Conservatives are just plain nuts.

  • TXarc

    All the Palinbot anti-science lunatics have become the face of the Republican Party. The only question now is when it implodes, where will the pieces fall?

  • Michelle

    Sorry it’s you libs that blame the weather on Presidents.

  • Hugo Daun

    Pffft!

    Knock it down before it falls and hurts someone.

  • Anonymous

    Remember when Obama said he could stop the oceans from rising?…lol I guess he was on the back nine when Japan had their little ocean rising incident.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jimhunt James Hunt

    To make a connection between Obama & the earthquake is nonsense. The fact that this site made the connection that the conservative website was making a connection to Obama, prove that they have absolutely no time on their hands. Most people are aware that he is in Mass, where earthquakes rarely happen. What you should be reporting is how some people were connecting the earthquake to racism, because of the opening of the MLK statue. Try reporting something of substance, Mediaite.

  • Bob

    The only problem with your statement is that Bush policies caused all of those problems.
    Rushing into a war of choice led to the Iraq debacle, putting an unqualified Horse association guy like Brownie in charge of FEMA led to the Katrina mess, deregulation caused the Wall Street disaster, etc.

  • Bob

    guess you never listen to Limbaugh then? If he couldn’t call people names, his show would be three minutes long.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Todd-Scheller/100000832449863 Todd Scheller

    Earthquakes usually have little mental impact, oh wait, you were talking golf.

  • Anonymous

    More brilliance as Tommy poses as a journalist while sourcing Media Matters.  All I read was reports saying the earthquake hit near DC and then announcements where the President was at the time it hit.  Naturally TC and MM found a political motive afoot.

    If the follw up has said “the WH says the President was uninjured” Tommy would accuse those as rooting for Obama to be harmed.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, just now saw a report on the earthquake on The Weather Channel, and they too mentioned Obama on vacation and played footage of him golfing.  This conspiracy is getting out of control!

  • http://twitter.com/Good_Lt Good Lt.

    Boy, the Obamabots so outrageously outraged on here sure were yucking it up ripping on Chimpy McHitler and Darth Cheney every day.

    But God help you if you so much as cast a disparaging glance in the direction of their Lord and Savior Barack H. Obama.

    Why so serious?

  • Ralph-NY

    Thank god liberals didn’t whine about everything with Bush and blame him for everything

  • Anonymous

    I agree, liberals can be very hypocritical. However, this is ridiculous. it doesn’t matter where obama was, it was an earthquake, he couldn’t do anything about it, and it wasn’t even a big deal so we really didn’t need his leadership to get us through it. Also, Bush and Cheney mislead the country into believeing saddam was building WMDs and protecting members of al-qaeda, which turned out to be blatant lies. They lead us into a war most of us didn’t approve of and Americans are still being killed there. They justified the war by saying we were going to end terrorism, but how do you end terrorism?You can kill all the terrorist you want (which is a good start) but trying to destroy terrorism itself is impossible. Its like trying to end racism, you cant kill an idea. But anyway, I agree with your point about liberals being hypocritical, but you cant play it off like liberals were only hating on bush and cheney because they were conservatives. They were really terrible leaders

  • Anonymous

    So all this complaining about O is just getting even.  How sad and childish.  How old are you?  Do you teach your children to do this?

  • Anonymous

    Mediaite previously posted a piece that showed CNN reporting that the President was golfing during the earthquake and running video of him on the links – however rather than criticise CNN the write-up was a pre-emptive criticism of upcoming Conservative spin on the issue.  I take it this report is the fulfillment of that never-arriving story.

  • Anonymous

    Mediaite previously posted a piece that showed CNN reporting that the President was golfing during the earthquake and running video of him on the links – however rather than criticise CNN the write-up was a pre-emptive criticism of upcoming Conservative spin on the issue.  I take it this report is the fulfillment of that never-arriving story.

  • Anonymous

    GOP…Putting party over country since the black guy took the White House.

  • Rio

    It was Colin Powell that decided to make WMD the centerpiece for the speech at the UN, not Cheney.  Cheney’s team already had a presentation worked up that would last 2 or 3 days at the UN that included high-lighting every UN Resolution lodged against Saddam.

    Powell spent four days at the CIA working up the WMD threat and cross checking everything with the agents for his presentation.  We all know how that information worked out, but what he eventually presented was vetted by the CIA.  The Senate Select Committee had something to say regarding those findings…..much later, didn’t they, all the other investigations as well.  Powell remained unscathed.

    Both Cheney and Powell presented their information to the President and his aides, Powell won and later went on to moan about what he had to present to the UN leaving Bush and Cheney in the lurch while giving the impression of his innocence in the whole matter.  What a guy!

    Terrorists, Bush made no distinction,  as many of the various terror groups associated under the umbrella of Al Qaeda, Zarqawi being one that was affiliated with, but did not belong to al Al Qaeda and we know he was there…….before us.   Al Qaeda means the base, btw.  Saddam did indeed host terrorists in country he also participated in the  planning and funding of terror activities that occured,  out of country.  He even hosted a terrorist convention a year or so prior to the war.  My nephew met Saddam, he was one of his guards, got to walk him to the chamber as a matter of fact and later guarded his body.

    war most didn’t approve of……….Ah, the revisionists.  Back track a bit here and go look at the vote for the AUMF, then read up on the regime change speeches made by democrats prior to (Clinton admin) and after Bush.  So, I guess that gives us two “terrible leaders” and a “terrible”  Congress as well.

    Al Qaeda had many thousands of foot soldiers and a tight leadership that had been allowed to form unabated for years.  Afghanistan had no security services, neither did Iraq after the fall of Saddam.  What Saddam had prior to OIF provided hell on earth to the citizens of Iraq.  After the bi-partisan Comgress willingly signed on and GWB took us to war, Iraq would then need to have security services stood up to protect their new Iraq from the terrorists that would then filter back in country.  Iran and Syria would certainly help the various terror groups return……to Iraq, along with al Quds and their Guard forces.

    So, you may not end terrorism, but you can decimate what forces are/were amassed and trained and help provide training for the police and military so that they have the capability to prevent and protect.

  • Anonymous

    And to add to that, there is a reason the claim that Bush duped everyone into going to war is a farce: the reason 95% of Congress agreed on the war, as well as nearly three dozen of our allies, is because a number of intelligence agencies from other nations shared the info that Saddam had WMDs and needed to be ousted.  To say that Bush rode into Iraq cowboy style ignores that he had the backing of the international community.

  • Rio

    I know, but all that has been rewritten and we aren’t supposed to be remembering any of it.  Here we are, sticking little pins in their bubbles, shame on us.  heh, I’m a quilter, got lots of pins.

  • Richardk

    Gee Tommy, it was Ok when you liberal bastards were blaming everything under the sun on Bush.  I guess it doesn’t feel as good when the shoe is on the other foot?

  • Anonymous

    if this was under Pres. Bush, this post would have been about the pres golfing while an incident happened, not about the reporting of it.  All presidents need working vacations, but the story is that the mass media only care about it when it’s a repub.   

    I love the media bias, its so transparent and pervasive.   

  • Anonymous

    very funny.  Leave it to the weather channel to more unbiased that the major networks AND CNN/MSNBC.   

  • Anonymous

    honestly, every president has an exhausting job and needs a vacation.  I just can’t help but be annoyed that the Pres of the US has more time for golf than I do.  That’s regardless of which party their from…  

  • Anonymous

    First, the fiasco in Tripoli, Libya, where Obama attempts to claim a “controlled” mission accomplished.  LOL!  Then, the earthquake on the East Coast that reaches from Washington, DC, all the  way up to Martha’s Vineyard.  Next, comes the hurricane that will head straight for Obama and Martha’s Vineyard.  I would say a dark cloud of disaster is stalking Obama. In my opinion, I believe God is trying to tell him something.  If I were he, I would listen.

    Isn’t it interesting that every vacation that Obama takes, disasters occur that require him to pull away from his golfing, basketball playing, dining, and other such useless activities.  He is usually forced to get back to work even while on vacation!  He needs to be put on a permanent vacation come November 6, 2012.  So let it be written; so let it be done.

  • Anonymous

    He is a freaking traitor to the Repugnant Party and a closet progressive who supported the loser Obummer. Who will he blame for that blunder?

  • http://www.sarainitalyblog.blogspot.com/ sarainitaly

    I don’t see the reason for the criticisms on the reports about what/where Obama was during a DC earthquake. 

    In what scenario would an earthquake hit, and reporters wouldn’t address where the POTUS was and what he was doing, during said earthquake?

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