VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. —President Barack Obama, on pace to log 40 hours on the golf course during his two-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, is making sure to show people that he’s still at work.
Amid three golf outings and a trip to the beach in his first four days on the Massachusetts island, Obama has stepped before the microphones to talk about the upheaval in Iraq, and made six calls to world leaders about that and other global crises.
Each call merited a press release, and he’s also issued a statement on the death of actor Robin Williams and another urging calm in Ferguson, Mo., where rioting broke out after police fatally shot an unarmed teenager.
The last three mornings this week, White House spokesman Eric Schultz let it be known that the president got briefings on global hot spots from National Security Adviser Susan Rice. A picture of one such meeting was posted on Twitter by White House photographer Pete Souza.
The flurry of activity is as much a part of any president’s vacation as is the inevitable criticism from political opponents, no matter which party is in control of the White House. As Obama was beginning his fourth full day on Martha’s Vineyard, the Republican National Committee released a YouTube video poking at Obama for golfing “despite the crises going on around the world.”
“That’s why even when presidents are on vacation the staff goes out of its way to show photographs of the president getting briefings,” said John Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in California.
Obama’s staff rejected criticism of the president taking a break from Washington. When a president leaves the capital, they said, he brings along advisers and all the equipment he needs to carry out his duties. A helicopter and Air Force One are always on standby.
“The president is the president wherever he goes,” Schultz told reporters Wednesday. “He travels with a wide array of communications equipment, and we also travel with a staff that allows us to have robust operational capabilities.”
After enumerating the meetings and phone calls Obama has had during the trip, Schultz said, “There’s never a perfect time for the president to take some time away with his family, but I think we can also all agree that it’s valuable to recharge your batteries.”
By comparison, George W. Bush at the same point in his presidency had taken 58 trips to his ranch in Crawford, Texas for all or part of 381 days and seven trips totaling 26 days to his family’s Maine compound, according to Knoller’s figures.
