Now that President Obama is cloistered in his vacation on Martha’s Vinyard, the cratering S&P notwithstanding, Peggy Noonan gives voice to something I’d already wondered:
What with his flaccid bus tour rallies followed by his present “Island Retreat,” do you think he’s just starting to have a feeling of “to hell with this?” And what will this mean for the election?
I’m sure all presidents have those moments of thinking “I don’t need this crap”. That’s what vacations are for. And there’s never been a particularly good time for Obama to go on vacation - there’s always some crisis or another going on these days. But he’s got a long way to go before he comes close to the last president’s number of days “clearing brush” and I’m not going to begrudge him a little time off.
Ever since the right-wing talking heads had a go at him for taking fifteen minutes to fill out his March Madness brackets I pretty much ignore any talk of “he’s shirking his duties!” in the media.
This seems to be the new talking point du jour for the righties this morning.
I’m reminded of a Doctor Who episode- when The Doctor said that it would be easy for him to get the Prime Minister out of office. All he had to do was say, “Doesn’t she look tired?”
He’s about to enter an election year in which he will probably have zero time to spend with his family. Taking a few days to spend time with them is a reasonable thing for a husband and father to do.
If you look at how many vacation days recent presidents have taken, Obama isn’t doing anything extraordinary.
Let’s also remember Presidential vacations aren’t the same as vacations you or I may take. They are still connected 24/7 and if something goes down that requires their attention, they will definitely be able to address it.
If Obama had been on vacation when we were getting ready to move on Osama bin Laden I can guarantee you his being at Martha Vinyard would not have interfered with him taking an active role and ordering the operation be conducted.
The Federal government does not require “active management” from the Presidency, it has a massive bureaucracy that handles that. Presidents may essentially be always on the clock, but the truth of the matter is that’s because most of them are highly strung type A personalities. The country wouldn’t suffer any real consequences if we had a more “hands off” chairman style President at the helm. It doesn’t require constant attention to dutifully support key policies you think are important and to respond to major issues of national importance.
Sounds like media hype’s plat du jour.
Obama vacationed on the Vineyard last year and the year before. Now he’s doing it again. Only in the mind of a WSJ editorialist would this be classified as anything more than an annual vacation.
Christ, could the OP have been more biased in the first place? “Flaccid bus tour” and “island retreat”? Bush spent so much time on his ranch you would have thought he might have actually learned something about ranching while he was there. The market is wobbling like a drunken sailor because investors are reacting to anything like panicky schoolgirls. Its up, its down, its up, its down, its gown through a wormhole to another dimension.
Rather than the muslim socialist black president giving up, how about we see a father spending a few days away with his kids at the end of the summer before the school year gets going again? Of course, like any high-powered exec. these days, Obama is still in touch through these nifty devices called telephones and computers. Plus, I kinda think the cabinet knows where to find him. The planes, helicopters, motorcades, and secret service might give it away.
I will also point out that our faithful OP has put up a quote from an article behind a paywall. Thanks for that. I don’t give my money to any branch of the Fox news org.
Congress is taking a month off so it stands to reason they’ve given up 3x as much.
His vacation time is far less than Bush and Bush senior. He has not taken a lot of time off. More than Clinton and Carter though. Seems the Dems work more.
At this point in his admin. , Obama has taken 70 days off. Bush was at 225.
That breaks down to just about 28 days a year. Hardly excessive. Heck as a small cog in a corporate machine, I get 25 paid days off year, counting holidays.
Bri2k
Yeah, it may be a bit more than I get, but at least when I show up to work in the morning, I don’t have 40 million dimwits calling me the worst computer programmer evar.
Nothing about Obama’s choice of vacation is newsworthy or reason for comment. Now going on vacation overseas would’ve been kinda stupid (& involve alot of complicated issues), but not Martha’s Vineyard.
The Bush number isn’t really accurate, because it counts all his time at the Ranch. Some of that was vacation, but a lot of world leaders requested to meet him at the ranch because they liked it there. Bush met Putin at the ranch several times.
Separate all the trips to the ranch that were really no different than flying to Geneva for a meeting, then tell me what kind of total you get.
That said, I think it’s stupid to bust a President’s balls for taking a vacation, whether it be Obama or Bush. Those guys are on 24/7 no matter where they are. They still get their daily briefings, they still have to attend to state affairs, and they’re still on call for emergencies.
Presidents of both parties have a hell of a workload, and it’s all carried out under incredibly stressful conditions. If they need a bit of a break, give it to them. I’d rather that than having them make bad decisions because they’re frazzled.
At this point means in his 3rd year. Redo the math and get back.
Bush was noted for all the time he took off. But Cheney was in charge anyway.
Fox and Fiends are really dredging up the dirt on President Obama: “He’s riding a bus! He’s taking a vacation! He’s wearing black socks with a blue suit!”
I’m glad the poor guy is getting a break before he has to deal with Weepy Boehner & Co. again.
I think Noonan’s point isn’t the the number of days on vacation, but the defiant note he seems to be taking in taking a highly visible 10 day vacation (1) now and (2) at that particular rich peoples’ resort. If he needs a rest, he could spend time at Camp David and call it a policy retreat or something. But (IMO) he gives off a bit of a sour note of “stuff it, I’ve earned some ‘me’ time for having to put up with all this shit.” Fine, his opponents are unfair, boo hoo. But why does he keep setting up headlines? “Joblessness Up, Perry On Fire, Obama On Posh Vacation!” “Joblessness Up, Obama Will Address In ‘Major Speech’ – After Coming Back From Vacation!” Even if he personally has the worst tin ear for politics of any president so far, he’s got to have advisors telling him how this is going to look. Noonan’s point was maybe he just doesn’t care anymore.
Since when is MV a rich person’s resort? I’ve stayed there. I’ve stayed there as a grad student. It’s a bit pricey in a tourist-trap sort of way, but we’re not talking otherworldly expense. Yeah, there are million dollar estates on the island, but basically it’s a middle to upper middle class summer getaway.
It looks like Obama is doing nothing if you compare him to his Republican counterparts in the election cycle. But he’s in a different situation - they’re all competing for the nomination and he’s already virtually guaranteed that. Once the Republican field settles down and they pick a candidate, his campaign kicks in.