Obama's just Living Large....he doesn't give a damn about what's best for America...he has no new ideas....he's blaming everyone BUT himself....IF he really gave a damn he would call Congress back into session and stay in Washington and get to work...What a pathetic excuse for a President Obama is...
Obama’s Vineyard retreat stirs criticism
By AMIE PARNES | 8/17/11 9:20 AM EDT Updated: 8/17/11 12:25 PM EDT
But President Barack Obama’s sojourn this week to Martha’s Vineyard — known as a playground for the wealthy and well-connected — comes in the wake of the nation’s first credit rating downgrade, with the economy sagging, the markets zigzagging and unemployment hovering at 9.1 percent.
Even before the first photos of Obama relaxing amid luxury hit the cable news shows, the president’s retreat during a down economy is providing grist for Republican attacks — and putting the White House on the defensive.
“Images of Obama fundraising, golfing and on vacation — especially in such a well-heeled location — undercut his message that the economy is his ‘singular focus,’” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist.
Last week, a few hours after the White House announced the president would head to Martha’s Vineyard Thursday for a 10-day vacation, the Republican National Committee sent out a press release querying, “And this is the same White House that says they are focused on the economy?”
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Obama “ought to cancel his vacation — period.” And before Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the presidential race, he also urged Obama to skip his trip, “call the Congress back into session and get to work.”
Even The Washington Post’s liberal opinion writer Colbert I. King opined last weekend that “this is no time for a president to dwell in splendid seclusion among the rich and famous.”
“No, Mr. President, Martha’s Vineyard is the last place in the world you should visit next week,” King wrote.
When reporters asked White House press secretary Jay Carney last week about the “impression” that a trip to Martha’s Vineyard might leave with the American people, he replied, “I don’t think Americans out there would begrudge the notion that the president would spend some time with his family.”
“There’s no such thing as a presidential vacation — the presidency travels with you,” Carney said. “He will be in constant communication and get regular briefings from his national security team as well as his economic team, and he will, of course, be fully capable if necessary of traveling back if that were required. It’s not very far.”
The president and his family plan to stay at a 28-acre estate where they have spent a small portion of their last two summers.
Tom Wallace, whose company rents the property to the Obamas, would not disclose the actual price of the rental, but local real estate agents estimate the weekly cost at $30,000 to $40,000. Wallace said the property includes various homes for the White House Military Office and the Secret Service.
The Obamas “have been nothing short of charming,” Wallace told POLITICO, adding that the family is “unassuming” whenever they are on the island.
The optics of presidential relaxation amid economic hardship are far different today than in the past. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the nation during the Great Depression, vacationed at his colonial mansion in Hyde Park, N.Y., and used U.S. Navy ships for fishing expeditions.
“No one ever voiced a strong, vehement objection,” said Lawrence Knutson, a former Associated Press reporter and author of the book “Escaping the Gilded Cage: An Illustrated History of Presidential Vacations and Retreats.” “It was completely different times. He wasn’t sending a message. He was doing what he needed to do for himself.”
But times have changed.
“Now, of course, presidents are under a microscope because of the 24-7 news cycle and the divisiveness in general,” said Susan MacManus, a professor of political science at the University of South Florida. “We’ve become an impatient generation and people have become very impatient with the horrible economic times.”
“People see this as another example of out-of-touch Washington,” she said. “We criticize presidents when they’re relaxing because we want them to be working 24-7, and anything that distracts them from the task at hand becomes an annoyance to some.”
“Making sure that the guy whose finger is on the button has time to recharge is a no-brainer,” Democratic strategist Phil Singer said. “Of course, the White House needs to be sensitive to the optics of opulence. There’s a difference between renting a house in Martha’s Vineyard and staying out of the public eye, and having five-course lobster dinners every night and extravagant clam bakes everyday.”
Supporters of Obama say the president should unwind wherever he wants to — provided the first family isn’t flaunting its wealth. Unlike Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Obama does not own a vacation home. Instead, the Obamas rent at the Vineyard property, a tradition the family started before Obama became president.
The president may head off some negative press by skipping a Democratic fundraiser that Sheridan Broadcasting founders Ron and Judy Davenport are planning on the island Thursday night. Obama attended a fundraiser at the Davenports’ Vineyard home in Oak Bluffs as a presidential candidate. But Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said he will not attend this time.
“The Vineyard vacation just, like the Hawaii vacation, is what their family does every year,” Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said. “The president’s opponents criticize his vacation locale every year, but Americans care more about where they can find work than where the president goes on vacation.”
He is not the only president to embrace the island. President Bill Clinton sought refuge there several times, mostly notably in 1998, after he admitted to having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He also returned several times after his presidency.
Mike McCurry, who served as Clinton’s press secretary, said Clinton received similar criticism: Martha’s Vineyard is “too posh and a bunch of liberal elites hang out there.”
“But there was no evidence that most Americans cared because most of them were happy to have their own vacations whenever they could get them,” McCurry said.
Sean Spicer, the communications director for the RNC, said much of the criticism of Obama stems from the president’s apparent ‘do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do’ attitude.
“It’s not that he’s not entitled to a couple of days away with his family — I think that’s fair,” Spicer said. “His constant press conferences talking about how hard he’s working doesn’t match the reality. Our economy is in a tail spin, and you’re not seeing any focus. This is a time to lead and to focus.”
President George W. Bush also came under fire for his summer vacations — in his case, for the amount of time he spent away from Washington.
In 2002, then-Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said Bush’s long vacations at his Crawford, Texas, ranch sent “clearly the wrong signal.”
“In times of financial crisis and international crisis, the public looks for hands-on, confident leadership. What we’re going to see is every-other-day photo ops from the ranch,” Glendening said at the time.
Bush’s vacations even became fodder for late night comics. “President Bush talked tough today,” comedian Jay Leno said in 2005. “He said he’s not backing out, he’s staying the course for as long as it takes. He’s in it for the long haul. Not Iraq — his five-week vacation.”
Tony Fratto, Bush’s deputy White House spokesman, said Bush “often delayed or canceled visits because — optically — it would look disconnected for him to be out of Washington while an important debate or foreign policy activity was underway.”
Fratto said Obama may have spurred some of the criticism about his Martha’s Vineyard trip this year when he “lambasted Congress for planning to take its traditional break after the July 4th weekend” during the debt ceiling talks.
“So the White House will probably get criticism and will find it hard to not look hypocritical,” he said. However, Congress, itself, is on its traditional recess through Labor Day.
McCurry said the real focus should be on what happens when Obama returns.
“I don’t think anyone will mind him getting away,” McCurry said, “so long as he comes back with some new ideas on how to get the economy going.”
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