Obama heads to vacation as economic woes deepen

US President Barack Obama heads to
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, for an
11-day family vacation
© AFP Saul Loeb

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama headed for the well-heeled resort island of Martha’s Vineyard Thursday, prompting a round of the annual bipartisan sport of bashing US leaders for taking vacation.

With the stock market tanking on new fears of a double-dip recession and with the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, critics said the president should be staying in the White House rather than taking 10 days off.

Obama aides, like those of presidents before him, however insist that he never truly gets to disconnect because the cares and duties of the commander-in-chief follow him wherever he goes.

“I don’t think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the president would spend some time with his family,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said earlier this month.

“There’s no such thing as a presidential vacation. The presidency travels with you. He will be in constant communication and get regular briefings from his national security team, as well as his economic team.

“And he will, of course, be fully capable if necessary of traveling back if that were required. It’s not very far.”

But Obama’s critics enjoyed the chance to poke fun at the president, suggesting that his decision to recuperate on the resort island off Massachusetts amounted to a dereliction of duty.

“If I were president today, I wouldn’t be looking to go spend 10 days on Martha’s Vineyard,” Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told WLS 980 Radio in Chicago on Wednesday.

“If you’re the president of the United States, and the nation is in crisis, and we’re in a jobs crisis right now, then you shouldn’t be out vacationing.”

The Republican National Committee meanwhile debuted a new website at Obamagetaway.com featuring mocked-up postcards of Obama in various pursuits, including biking, playing basketball, surfing and carrying a beach towel.

One card featured a famous picture of a barechested Obama walking out of the Hawaii surf with the slogan “It’s hot outside, heading to take a double dip,” playing of renewed fears of a slump back into recession.

In what some commentators saw as an effort to forestall criticism of his trip, Obama embarked on a high-profile bus tour focusing on the economy in three midwestern states between Monday and Wednesday.

He also pledged to unveil a major jobs and deficit-cutting package when Congress returns to Washington after the summer recess in September.

Obama also rejected calls by some Republicans for him to recall lawmakers immediately to discuss measures to jolt the stagnant economic recovery, saying the last thing Americans want is more political bickering in Washington.

Taking vacation is often a dicey undertaking for political leaders, especially at a time of national crisis. Critics slammed British Prime Minister David Cameron for staying abroad for too long as riots broke out in English cities last week.

And Democrats frequently lambasted former president George W. Bush for the time he spent on his Texas ranch.

At comparative stages of their presidencies, Bush had made 26 visits to the ranch lasting all or part of 180 days, while Obama has taken 61 days’ vacation, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS News White House correspondent who keeps detailed records of presidential schedules.

This is the third summer in a row that Obama, who stays in a luxury farm compound with his wife Michelle, daughters Malia and Sasha and close friends, has journeyed to Martha’s Vineyard as president.

He also travels to his native Hawaii over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

His vacations have sometimes been interrupted by events that pull a president back into the public eye, even when he is trying to recharge his batteries away from the cameras.

Two years ago, he left Martha’s Vineyard to attend the funeral in Boston of senator Edward Kennedy, his political mentor, who died of brain cancer.

In Hawaii in 2009, Obama was criticized for responding too slowly to an alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to bring down a US airliner over Detroit with explosives sewn into his underwear.