Obama: Vacationing too much?

The Republican National Committee, reports The Washington Post, would like Americans to ask themselves whether President Obama really "deserves" a vacation. Pointing to the sputtering economy and other looming issues, the RNC calls the First Family's 10-day trip to Martha's Vineyard, on top of recent jaunts to Maine and Florida, an affront to hard-hit Americans. Is Obama, as the RNC claims, becoming the "Clark Griswold president" (a reference to the Vacation movies), or are Republicans, rather absurdly, forgetting Bush's renowned love of leisure? (Watch a report about Obama's vacation)

The GOP should be wary of glass houses: After George W. Bush, "does the GOP really want to start a discussion about who qualifies as 'The Clark Griswold president'?" asks Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. Sure, Obama has taken 48 days off so far, but at the same point Bush had taken 155. "I haven't the foggiest idea" if Americans care about Obama's Vineyard retreat, but the GOP's decision to make it an issue is just "bizarre."

"Of all the things to whine about"

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It's the attitude, not the Vineyard: "The issue is not any particular vacation but the larger lackadaisical approach to the presidency we've seen from Obama," says RNC spokesman Doug Heye, via U.S. News. By going on vacation now, Obama "essentially told Americans, 'I know we have hard times and jobless claims are up, but let me be clear: I have to get to Martha's Vineyard and play some golf.' That's not a message voters want to hear."

"GOP divided on attacking Obama vacation"

Both parties play politics with presidential vacations: This faux outrage on the RNC's part clearly belongs in our "ever thickening Political Hypocrisy File," says Joe Gandelman in The Moderate Voice. But this particular hypocrisy is not exclusive to the GOP. Though Republicans didn't say squat about Bush's record number of vacation days, "Democrats, who criticized Bush, aren't complaining about Obama" now, either.

"More political hypocrisy: Republicans criticize Obama's vacation time"