It's hard work - Bush has taken 418 vacation days, that's nine weeks a year - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

It's hard work - Bush has taken 418 vacation days, that's nine weeks a year - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth:

"On Thursday, Bush left for a weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, and his family's
summer compound, Walker's Point. On Monday, he heads to his Crawford retreat,
where he has spent all or part of 418 days of his presidency, according to Mark
Knoller, a CBS News White House correspondent and meticulous record-keeper.
...The presidential vacation-time record holder is the late Ronald Reagan, who
tallied 436 days in his two terms. At 418 days, and with 17 months to go in his
presidency, Bush is going to beat that easily"

I am in a place where I don't like to find myself, defending Bush. It isn't fair to say that Bush spent any number of days on vacation, in fact it could be said that he is never on vacation. Even when he is not in the White House, he is still the president and there are still matters that require his attention and decisions. Just because he is not in the White House, does not mean that he is not working, in a modern world the president is able to work from his ranch, or from Maine.

A second point is that I don't think it is fair to count days where congress is also on vacation. What is Bush going to sit in the White House with nothing to do, if congress is not in session it isn't going to be sending up bills to be signed.