You Can Work From Home

Sometimes perception is reality, and sometimes the numbers don't lie, yet once in a while, these two ago old sayings are at odds with one another.

Bush hosting Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon while on Vacation

The President is taking far too many vacations. That is to say, that not only is he away from the White house often, but to clarify with stating that he allows the affairs of state to come secondary to the his personal needs of relaxation and personal retreat.

Bush Vacationing
w/ Saudie Arabia's
Crown Prince Abdullah

I am not the first to come to this conclusion, and unsurprisingly, there are many who are quick and ready to defend the President by pointing out the numbers provided by Mark Knoller as the unofficial but widely trusted chronicler of data on Presidential travels and other day-to-day White House goings-on. The claim is, in summary, that Bush took many, many more vacations to his home ranch in Crawford Texas during his Presidency then Obama has taken during his. The numbers seem to tell us Bush, in direct comparison to Obama, is more at home wearing flip flops and squirting some SPF 50 on his schnoz.

By this logic, Gilligan and the Skipper should have been very well rested up after taking their three year vacation to an island.

Bush on Vaca with NATO General Jaab

Just because you are away from the White House does not put you on vacation. Sometimes this is obvious, say, when Nixon went to China back in 1972, it wasn't because Panda Express hadn't opened yet in the States. When Roosevelt went to Yalta, it wasn't cause he heard Russian beaches had better parties then the ones at Normandy. You can attend to the affairs of state from any location were and when the key players are present, and when people see you performing the duties of the President, their perception is that he is working, not playing golf (hypothetically of course.) I present to you several of the many available photo's of foreign heads of states being hosted by George W. Bush while in Crawford, scattered about this blog post. There are a dozen other hosting events not depicted. That does not include hostong dignitaries that are not head of state, Like NATO commander General Jaap. Or dragging along his entire cabinet for a week or two at a time.

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi
visiting Bush while he's on Vacation

Show me the photo of the President putting with President Putin, or chipping with Chancellor Merkel and maybe you can start to excuse the fact that Obama has not surrendered one of his golf outings while American Troops and even an American General are killed in the line of duty. Or in the wake of an American being beheaded circulating the news channels. When Bush was chastised for simularly playing golf as families of veterans came home in caskets, he (almost) stopped golfing, and was chastised heavily when he got caught getting one more game in.

United Kingdom PM Tony Blair
checking out Bush's Vacation digs

Were are the pictures of Obama hosting the Ukrainian President at his ranch, or his villa, or his house, or his apartment. Unlike Bush, Obama doesn't have a singular location in which he goes to so he can be more himself. He was raised in Hawaii, Indonesia, and Chicago, yet only seems to return to most of those places as little more then a tourist. The only property he owns as an established living quarters is his Chicago home that is a mess of barricades that would be about as easy to secure from a potential threat as a high school cheerleaders virtue at a frat party.

And speaking of parties, now that we've looked a little closer at what Bush did on Vacation, let's take a closer look at what Obama does 'on the clock'...

Obama, while not on Vacation

• He far exceeds his predecessors on the number of fund raisers.
• The first sitting President to appear on a Late Night talk show.
• The first sitting President to visit a daytime talk show.
• The first President to make a live appearance during Super Bowl coverage.
• He has set the record for travel expenses, even accounting for inflation.

These appearances and fundraisers are what he considers to be part of his job. It's hard to justify their frequency with any other rationale. Take that the photo of him there with David Letterman occurred while Obama was in New York just before a UN general assembly where he met with exactly zero heads of states. But, of course, had time for another fundraiser with Jay-Z and Beyonce. Also, not considered a vacation.

Go ahead and say all that Bush did was go on vacation. Personally, I would look to a leader who got something done while on vacation over a leader who thinks it's his job to travel around and meet celebrates on the tax payers dime.