Vacations are rarely very peaceful for the US Presidents!

Barrack Hussain Obama, the first Black President of US is going to take some days off from his work. He will be spending his vacation with his family at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. But will it be an enjoying and peaceful holiday? I doubt because history says vacations of US Presidents have always been marred by controversies.

People of the country have already started discussing about Mr Obama’s vacation. May be because he is taking days off when the country is going through its worst ever financial crisis. Recently a poll suggested that Mr Obama’s popularity has gone significantly over the first 100 days of his tenure as the President. The poll also suggests that people are loosing faith in him and do not think he is going to take the right decisions for the country. Another reason why people are not taking his vacation plan in good spirit is because of the spot that he has chosen for his vacation. Martha’s Vineyard is among the costliest resorts in entire US.

But I don’t agree with the US citizens in this point because the vacation is going to be sponsored by the Obama family itself. The President is not utilizing the government fund for his enjoyment. Besides, he is not going for a long vacation that could effect the country’s administration. Mr Obama isn’t the first US President to go on holidays. Most of his predecessors did the same thing. George Bush holds the worst vacation record among all US Presidents. He spent 166 days at his Crawford, Texas ranch during his tenure as the President. Later he went for the Presidential retreat at Camp David and at Bush Family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine where his vacation was 250-day long. He faced heavy criticism from his countrymen for being on holiday at the time when Hurricane Catrina created havoc on the country in 2005.

Getting surprised? Then hold on, because the story is quite long. Senior Bush is the record holder for spending 543 days of his Presidency at Camp David and Kennebunport. Ronald Regan is not too far away either. He spent 335 days of his Presidency at Santa Barbara, California during his eight years in White House.

Bill Clinton, who is often termed as ‘workaholic’ had spent 152 days on vacation in his two terms as the President, which is quite an impressive figure, as far as office attendance is concerned. Perhaps he is the only US President who even cut his holiday short for his office works. Among the recent US Presidents, Jimmy Carter is the record holder for taking the least number of days off. He just spent 79 days of his Presidency away from the White House.

So Mr Obama is not doing anything unprecedented. As the head of the nation he too deserves some relief from his hectic work schedule. But still his vacation planning has lead to anger among his countrymen. May be it is not because he is going off to a vacation but because of the situation when he is going off. His decision has hurt the US citizens because they had a tremendous faith on him. They had the confidence that ‘yes, this man is different and he can make a difference’ but now with his decision to go off when the country is struggling to turn around, Mr Obama has simply joined his predecessors.