Obama goes on holiday – but not for long
HIS healthcare reform plan is stumbling, the economy is still sputtering and violence is up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who wouldn’t want a break?
President Barack Obama is officially taking one next week when he heads to Martha’s Vineyard. But his long “to do” list – two wars, worldwide recession and a host of legislative battles in store when he gets back, most notably the struggle over reforming the US health system – will make it hard for him to relax and disconnect.
Obama is the best salesman for healthcare reform, economic stimulus and other domestic agenda items, and his absence could hurt, analysts said.
But they note he will be gone for only a week, never be far from the issues, and will likely speak out while he is away.
Some critics have questioned whether the president should take a break at all, especially given the country’s stubborn economic problems and the vehemence of opposition to the $1 trillion healthcare plan.
Others have slammed him for heading to a Massachusetts resort island known as a haven for the rich and famous.
“The American people are looking to you, Mr President. They’ll follow your lead,” said Robert Guttman, director of the centre on politics and foreign relations at Johns Hopkins University. “Why not lead them to the places that need your help the most, instead of to an already financially stable and prosperous New England island? America’s heartland is calling, Mr President, won’t you answer their call?” he wrote on the liberal Huffington Post website.
The administration says Obama is doing only what other presidents, and many other Americans, do: taking a needed break during a busy year in a place the suits his family. The White House stresses that Obama is footing the bill himself – estimated at $25,000 or more – for the 28-acre Blue Heron farm he is renting for the August 23-30 trip.
Officials have said Obama planned to spend much of his time relaxing with his family. But he will keep the healthcare message moving while he is away, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
“Obviously, we’ll have some scheduling updates for you throughout the week on events that may or may not be added on healthcare,” Gibbs said this week.
“Obviously, there will be a certain point in which the president will largely be down enjoying his vacation, just like millions of other Americans,” Gibbs said.
Obama has said he does not think the public will begrudge him the time off with his daughters, despite the bad economy.
Historians note that every US president wants to leave Washington for at least some time in August, and say Obama is spending far less time away than most of his recent predecessors, who would leave the White House for weeks in the summer.
The public usually doesn’t balk if the vacations are not too long and if the president is not on holiday when there is a natural disaster. President George W. Bush was often assailed by critics for his long stays at his Texas ranch, and never more so than when he was seen as remaining there too long after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.
Presidents never actually leave their jobs, and travel with big entourages of staff, security and the press, noted Stephen Hess, a former presidential adviser now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“Their ‘vacations’ do not disconnect them with the presidency. Nor, for that matter, do they look an awful lot like our vacations,” Hess said.
While national leaders feel obliged to take a certain type of holiday – recent Republican presidents such as Bush and Reagan were regularly photographed at their ranches clearing brush and riding horses – most Americans do not fault them for taking some time off.
Commentators say Obama has had a very busy first seven months in office, pushing through a massive economic stimulus package, fighting for healthcare and travelling to Europe, Africa and Mexico.
“The basic proposition that these are bad times, and shouldn’t the president stay back at the White House, I don’t think is really one that troubles Americans or the world,” Hess said.
Martha’s Vineyard, the renowned Massachusetts island where President Barack Obama is spending his holiday, is a favourite vacation spot for the rich and famous, including many Democratic presidents and politicians.
Here are some facts about Martha’s Vineyard:
* The Vineyard has about 20,000 year-round residents, but its population swells to 100,000 in the summer, with another 25,000 people coming and going by ferry every day.
* Once a centre for whaling and farming, the island’s economy is now based mainly on its status as an upscale tourist destination, where celebrities such as musicians James Taylor and Paul McCartney, author David McCullough and actors Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson have homes.
* Politicians have come to Martha’s Vineyard for centuries. At least six US presidents have visited while in office – in 1874, Ulysses S Grant became the first sitting US president to make the trip – or before or after their terms. The very first was said to have been John Adams, in 1760, years before he became the second US president.
Most recently, Bill Clinton visited repeatedly during and after his eight years in office, fuelling reports, which have been denied, that his daughter Chelsea would be married on Martha’s Vineyard during the Obamas’ visit.
* The island is strongly associated with the Kennedy family, whose family compound is in Hyannis Port on nearby Cape Cod. The associations are both happy – President John F Kennedy visited often, and his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had a home on the island for years – and tragic. Their son, John F Kennedy Jnr, died with his wife and sister-in-law when his plane crashed as he was flying to Martha’s Vineyard in 1999. And the late president’s brother, US Senator Edward Kennedy, was driving a car that ran off a Vineyard bridge in 1969, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the accident.
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