Barack Obama is back at his post in the Oval Office.
He’s making decisions, doing things that presidents do during the course of their regular work day.
Welcome back to the People’s House, Mr. President. But I am not going to ding you for spending some time away from the place with your wife and daughters.
Presidents don’t take “vacations” the way you and I do. They do not “get away from it all.” The “all” follows them wherever they do. The guy with the “football” — the briefcase containing the nuclear launch codes — is never more than a few yards from the commander in chief. The president gets national security and domestic issue briefings daily. He’s never off the clock.
Now, I say this having already said that the president needed to go to Louisiana to tour the horrific flood damage. He could have taken a day from his “vacation” to hug some folks in trouble.
He chose not to do that, going instead to Louisiana after returning to the White House. Well, no harm done.
All this yammering about the president’s “vacation” ignores the point I’ve tried to make here. I’ve never — ever — made presidential vacations an issue. President George W. Bush spent many more days away from the White House than his successor. Big deal, man! President Bush had the same security briefings while he was cutting brush at his Central Texas ranch. Same with Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
So, let’s stop carping about presidential “vacations.”
They don’t exist the way you and I experience them. That’s because the president of the United States occupies the most demanding job on the planet.
