President Obama, his wife, and two daughters are leaving Washington, DC for a ten day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and the political attacks are beginning.
The argument that is given is that the country is in economic crisis, and that many people are not taking vacations and cannot afford them, and therefore, the President is not entitled to any vacation break.
What hypocrisy this is, when one considers that President George W. Bush took month long vacations regularly at Crawford, Texas, and President Ronald Reagan spent inordinate amounts of time on vacation at his ranch in California, but that is alright because they are Republicans, and the Republican House Speaker John Boehner is not in DC, and neither are his House members! If indeed, the President is not entitled to a vacation break, then neither are the GOP members of Congress!
The fact that Obama has more stress and tension than any President since Franklin D. Roosevelt, a lot of it engendered by the refusal of Republicans to be patriotic enough to cooperate with him on any matter or issue, is enough reason for Obama to have the right to a vacation break!
The President needs some off time to recharge his batteries, so to speak, and it is important for mental health and stability. And besides, it is not as if he will be out of the loop in dealing with issues and crises that might arise when he is away from the White House!
In a sense, the President is NEVER away from his job, just in a physical sense, not being in the building. What is more important is that he be aware of what is going on, and the commitment to avoid being lazy, such as George W. Bush being too lax to read the memos about Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden being an imminent threat to the United States in August 2001!
President Obama is always up to date, and more committed and dedicated to his job, than George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan EVER were, so give him slack and stop complaining that he has a vacation break, and in the process, is promoting “family values”, which the GOP claims to wish to promote!