How many American’s skipped their annual summer vacation this year? How many are wondering how they’re going to make their next mortgage payment? After the better part of a week holding staged “listening” sessions, President Obama left today for his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, destination of the Liberal elite, while the stock market took another plunge and new applications for unemployment benefits exceeded 400,000.
No one can say that the president doesn’t deserve a vacation. One look at the exploding grey hairs on the president’s head demonstrate that the job takes its toll. Certainly Mr. Obama is entitled to take some time away from the rigors of the White House. Yet it’s a testament to Mr. Obama’s indifference that he didn’t reschedule this vacation until after a least a modicum of stability returned to the markets and unemployment was headed in the right direction.
By no means has Obama spent more time on vacation than his predecessors, so to nail him for excessive time away is a bit unfair, however timing isn’t one of his strengths. Much as the Congress hit the road after passing a pathetic debt ceiling increase, Mr. Obama, with plummeting approval numbers, chose a rather dubious time to decompress.
George H. W. Bush exemplified the disengaged leader when he took to Kennebunkport amidst the recession that had much to do with his failure to be re-elected. The Democrats butchered Bush for his “callous disregard for the suffering people,” but you’ll not hear a negative word coming from the left this time. Double-standard? You decide.
In 2005 George W. Bush was taken to task for a vacation at his Crawford, Texas home by the Dems. Josh Earnest, the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee led the criticism of Bush’s vacation. So, where is Mr. Earnest now? He’s now the top White House spokesman on President Obama’s nine-day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Earnest is the president’s lead defender against Republican critics who say Mr. Obama should not be vacationing on this elite island during tough economic times.
“The president understands that he has important responsibilities to fill, and it’s his job to fill those responsibilities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Mr. Earnest said when asked by reporters flying with the president Thursday to Martha’s Vineyard. At the same, he’s also a husband and a father and I don’t think the American people begrudge the president spending a little time with his wife and daughters, at the end of the summer, before his daughters head back to school.” Double double-standard?
In 2005 George W. Bush was into his second term, with no future elections to worry about, an economy singing along and yet the Dems couldn’t pass up an opportunity to admonish him. Mr. Obama has taken the miserable economy he inherited from Bush and buried it. With S&P’s downgrade and a stock market that has lost 17 percent of its value in the last 3 weeks, perhaps a morsel of disapproval from within his own ranks would be in order; but you’ll never hear a just assessment of Obama from the left.
The Republican National Committee issued a statement Thursday saying Mr. Obama’s ”high-class vacation during difficult economic times is a perfect example of an out of touch president.”
When the country is suffering, choosing the destination of the idle rich; you know, the ones Mr. Obama is constantly criticizing, shows just how tone-deaf this man is. While Mr. Earnest stressed that the president will remain engaged on economic issues the majority of the people (61 percent in a recent poll,) disapprove of Obama’s performance on the economy. Earnest claims the president will be preparing his post-Labor Day speech on jobs and the deficit, but very few inside the Beltway or out, believe he has a clue on either.
“This is an opportunity for the president to spend a little time away from the spotlight with his wife and two daughters, an opportunity for him to play golf, a hobby that he enjoys,” Mr. Earnest said. “It is also an opportunity for him to do some of the other things you have seen him do, go out and get ice cream and ride bicycles.”
Which brings us back full-circle: literally millions of Americans, with kids and hobbies, stayed home this summer because they simply could not afford a vacation. They’re more worried about losing their jobs, their homes or their health insurance. So what does Mr. Obama’s vacation say to them? Do they deserve a vacation any less? Obama’s call for sacrifice apparently doesn’t include himself.