"1921 Upon learning that President Calvin Coolidge had been out of Washington on vacation in Marion, Ohio, for a week, Dorothy Parker's less clever sister is reported to have remarked, 'How could they tell?'"
—Since everyone is FREAKING OUT about Barack Obama going to Martha's Vineyard on vacation, here is a brief history of Presidential vacations. The best is that everyone's all upset about how ELITIST his vacation choices are. The dude grew up in HAWAII. And also, it's not like he owns a 1500-acre ranch in Texas? Also am I going to be the one to point out that Martha's Vineyard, much like Cape Cod, is pretty much populated by white trash who've just been here a few hundred years longer than most of the rest of us? (Oh apparently I am.) I mean, these people were whalers! And angry white people! They almost seceded from Massachusetts!
Oh Choire. Am I going to have to take you aside and explain the difference between the summer set and the yea'-roundahs?
@jolie I met a kid the first week of freshman year, and when he told me he lived on Martha's Vineyard, my immediate reaction was "Wait, people are from there?"
@boyofdestiny They are! And they're almost as weird as people from Maine.
@jolie: jesuschrist people from Maine… EVERY SUMMER.
@jolie Easy folks. Some of them walk amongst you.
@tomme You thought I was using the word 'weird' as something that you should get tetchy about? I mean seriously… BRING ON THE WEIRD. Come now.
Hate to be that person, Alex Pareene, but Harding was president in 1921, not Coolidge.
pwned
@drufus there goes my Mark Lynton History Prize bid
I hope our President will at least have the decency to clear some brush.
Also, and I swear I said this to liberals who griped about Bush and his dumb fake ranch, everyone knows that the President on "vacation" is not REALLY ON VACATION RIGHT??? Like, the entire apparatus of government travels with him, he's making decisions all the time, etc. I suppose he's probably doing less work than usual but he's not just on the beach all day reading Jodi Picoult books or anything. Since Congress is on recess (which, side note, means not "they are playing on the swingsets" but "they're back in their home districts listening to constituents and town hall meetings and also fundraising") one of the big incentives for physically being in DC is also removed.
@jfruh Yes. This. All of this.
@jfruh Plus, if he stayed in Washington Republicans would say that he's spending too much time in the "bubble" of the Beltway. Also, if Republican's hate him so much you would think they would want him to be on vacation not working to turn this country into the socialist-athiest-muslim-dictatorship that they are always scaremongering about.
@jfruh Most of the House Republicans are going to Israel for their summer break, right?
How DARE our socialist muslin preznit take a VACATION from BRINGING ABOUT THE DOWNFALL OF AMERICA?!?! Get back to work, Kenyan Hitler!!!
Hey, if traditional summer retreat of the African American elite Oak Bluffs, etc., was good enough for our first black president, I don't see the problem with Obama taking the family there for sun, surf, and some history lessons.