{"id":3233,"date":"2013-08-13T01:14:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T01:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2013-08-13T01:14:53","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T01:14:53","slug":"presidents-never-take-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3233","title":{"rendered":"Presidents never take ‘vacation’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Presidents of the United States of America do not take vacations the way you and I take them.<\/p>\n

Got that?<\/p>\n

Thus, it was with some dismay that I heard Michael Smerconish — sitting in for Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball show this afternoon — chronicle he number of days recent presidents have taken time away from the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

President Obama is spending a few days in Massachusetts with his wife and daughters. He’s playing a little golf, showing his girls a little attention and in general acting like a husband and father. He’s also receiving national security briefings and is being told constantly about developments around the world and in the huge country he governs.<\/p>\n

Smerconish ticked off the number of so-called vacation days Obama has taken this far in his presidency. He noted that President Clinton took fewer days at a similar stage in his presidency and also noted that Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush took far more days away during their time in the White House.<\/p>\n

Big bleeping deal!<\/p>\n

Smerconish did say that he, too, never has begrudged presidents for taking time away. Good for him.<\/p>\n

None of this matters not one bit as far as I can tell. Oh sure, some of Obama’s critics have needled him for taking time away to play golf. I believe they need something — anything — with which to gripe about him.<\/p>\n

And remember how White House reporters complained about George W. Bush’s vacations at his ranch in Crawford, Texas — in the middle of the summer when the heat was unbearable? I reckon they aren’t complaining now about covering Obama’s vacation in posh Martha’s Vineyard.<\/p>\n

Whatever. As Smerconish noted, presidents deserve some time away from the grind to stay sharp and remain grounded in things that really matter — such as their families.<\/p>\n

Even when they’re “vacationing,” presidents are on the clock. Always.<\/p>\n

Enjoy yourself, if you can, Mr. President.<\/p>\n\n

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Presidents of the United States of America do not take vacations the way you and I take them. Got that? Thus, it was with some dismay that I heard Michael Smerconish — sitting in for Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball show this afternoon — chronicle he number of days recent presidents have taken time away … Continue reading Presidents never take ‘vacation’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[540,631,788,1899,2930,3727,4017],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-bill-clinton","tag-bushs-ranch","tag-george-w-bush","tag-marthas-vineyard","tag-presidential-vacations","tag-ronald-reagan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}