WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s summer getaway to Martha’s Vineyard has awakened a seemingly annual debate: Is there ever really a good time for the president to go on vacation?
Given the demands of the job and the always-looming possibility of an unexpected crisis at home or abroad, t
he political perils of the presidential vacation never seem to go away. This summer, the vacation dilemma is compounded by the country’s urgent demand for jobs, the debt crisis that’s left Washington with a hangover, and the public’s frustration with political gridlock.
The president has prom
ised that new jobs initiatives are coming soon. But the American people won’t hear details of those proposals, or any other solutions to the nation’s economic woes, until Obama returns from his summer sojourn in Martha’s Vineyard, the wealthy island enclave off the Massachusetts coast where he and his family will vacation for the third straight year.
Obama is due to leave Washington Thursday for his 10-day trip.
And the president isn’t the only one taking a break this summer. Most lawmakers left town in early August, right after reaching a deal with the White House to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a potentially catastrophic government default. Congress isn’t expected to get back to work until early September.
With the lawmakers away, there’s probably not much Obama could get done on the economic front even if he did cancel his trip. And even if Congress stayed in Washington, too, there are no quick fixes for the country’s deep economic problems.
“They don’t have anything to act upon,” Rich Galen, a Republican consultant, said of both Obama and Congress. “If anyone knew what the answer to this was, they’d do it.”
Then there’s the issue of perception. Obama will be vacationing at a rented multi-million dollar estate on an island known as a haven for the rich and famous at a time when millions of Americans are out of work and countless more are financially strapped.
Bill Clinton’s aides were so concerned about vacation perceptions that they polled the public before deciding where he should go. While Clinton preferred trips to Martha’s Vineyard, polling sometimes pushed him toward the more rugged Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Former President George W. Bush was criticized for spending nearly 500 days at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, during his two terms in office. He was there in August 2001 when he received a CIA briefing paper warning him of al-Qaida’s intentions to strike the United States — just over a month before the Sept. 11 attacks would occur. And in 2005, he remained on vacation after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans and devastated the Gulf Coast. His presidency suffered from his response to the storm and his decision to not immediately return to Washington.
Some of Obama’s prior vacations have come under fire as well. Last summer, he was chided for not taking his family on a Gulf Coast vacation following the BP oil spill. When he finally did travel to the Florida Panhandle for a weekend, his attempts to soothe public concern about the safety of the region’s beaches were tainted when the White House released a photo of the president and daughter Sasha swimming in water that turned out not to be the Gulf.
Perhaps mindful of the president’s image, the White House booked Obama on a three-day, economy-focused bus tour through the Midwest right before the start of his vacation. He also traveled to Michigan last week to speak at a factory that makes batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said he doesn’t think the public begrudges the president a break to recharge and spend time with his family. Besides, Carney said, the president is never really off-duty, since White House advisers go with him and he still receives regular briefings on national security and the economy.
“The presidency travels with you. He will be in constant communication,” said Carney, also noting that Martha’s Vineyard is close enough to Washington that Obama could make it home quickly if needed.
Two of Obama’s counterparts on the world stage had to cut their vacations short this summer because of pressing events at home. British Prime Minister David Cameron came home from Tuscany early to preside over the response to riots spreading across England. And French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended his Mediterranean vacation early amid fears that his country’s credit rating could be downgraded.
Short of an unexpected crisis, Obama seems determined to follow through with his Martha’s Vineyard plans. And he has adamantly rejected the notion of calling Congress back from its break.
“The last thing we need is Congress spending more time arguing in D.C.,” he said during a speech in Michigan last week. “What I figure is, they need to spend more time out here listening to you and hearing how fed up you are.”
Political analyst Thomas Mann said that would be all well and good, if that were actually how politicians spent their time away from the nation’s capital.
“Most members of Congress go home and see people who think just like they do,” said Mann, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. “It would be wonderful if people in Congress actually had to confront citizens who disagreed with them.”
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Associated Press writer Julie Pace can be reached at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
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