Vacation Pads

President Obama, even as the country continues to slump into serious malaise territory, is going off for another vacation. To Martha's Vineyard. And on cue the literatti who defend Obama unto someone else's death is trying to deflect things by mentioning George W. Bush and his vacations. Sounds almost reasonable until you get into the details and compare each president's vacations.

Bush vacationed at two places during his eight years. Usually he and Laura stayed at Camp David which is a short hop from Washington DC, so in case things really hit crisis mode he could be there in a flash. Another plus is the fact Camp David is government owned and in the budget, it and its security are already paid for and in place. The other place Bush went was his ranch in Crawford Texas. Crawford is somewhat isolated and not too many neighbors to inconvenience to ensure security. Plus Bush owned his ranch in Crawford.

Now lets look at where President Obama vacations. He seems to avoid Camp David, which means all our taxpayer money is going to support a presidential retreat for no purpose. So where does Obama and family go? Well he has visited Hawaii over Christmas and New Years. But Obama does not own a house there, so he had to get a rental. He likes Martha's Vineyard also and again he does not own a house so again he gets a rental. Obama has a perfectly serviceable house that he owns in Chicago, but he does not spend 10 day vacations there. Instead he causally drops tens of thousands of dollars on rentals.

After this comparison, one conclusion can be drawn. Bush is a far more responsible person than Obama. With all his faults, I sure do miss Bush in the White House.