Obama on vacation!

[K.Ingraham]

..wish he'd take more vacations, much longer and more frequent. And further away.

[Rangerguru]

The rent on his vacation home is only costing the taxpayer $35,000 a week.

[Ranger Bill]

The rent on his vacation home is only costing the taxpayer $35,000 a week.

Money well spent. The more the president and congress is not at work, the better off we are.

[RANGER513]

Vote to ban Obama.

[Black 6]

Vote to ban Obama.

I second the motion.

[Bcosniper]

The rent on his vacation home is only costing the taxpayer $35,000 a week.

No, he is paying for it himself.

You don't really believe that do you?

[rgrokelley]

This was from Wall Street Journals "Best of the Web". It is one of those sites I read each day:

Here's a blast from the past. The New York Times, July 9, 2001, reports on George W. Bush's first summer vacation as president:

On Friday, as new unemployment figures painted a newly troubling portrait of the American economy, Mr. Bush placed himself in the same scenes--golfing and fishing in a New England paradise--that once caused his father electoral grief.

Simply amazing.

Here's the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, dated July 6, that "painted a newly troubling portrait of the American economy":

The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.5 percent, five-tenths of a percentage point higher than the average for 2000.

As Barack Obama embarked on his first summer vacation as president last week--also in a "New England paradise," Martha's Vineyard--the most recent unemployment rate was 9.4%, more than double the summer 2001 figure. Covering the Obama jaunt, the Times offers no hint that there's anything wrong with a president taking a vacation during a time of genuine crisis. Indeed, it offers this justification:

Mr. Obama, whom aides described as being amused by all of the gloom-and-doom prognosticating over his health care agenda, did not even consider skipping his vacation. Last year, he talked about the importance of taking a break to avoid "making mistakes."

That makes sense--and in any case, it's not as if the president actually escapes his responsibilities when he goes on "vacation." But the Times's coverage of Obama is a useful contrast to the paper's petty partisan sniping against Bush.