Give the guy a break, he deserves it. That was Katie Couric's message a week ago in her Notebook blog entry about President Obama's 49th birthday (emphasis mine):
The job has aged him, as it did his predecessors. Dr. Michael Roizen at the Cleveland Clinic stated constant stress can age the Commander in Chief two years for every one year in office.
So I guess that means he's really turning 50.
President Obama has enough stress to last a lifetime... and as he blows out his birthday candles, war, recession and a giant oil spill won't magically disappear.
But I hope he's able to take a break tonight, forget his troubles and spend time doing something he loves.
But as Paul Bedard of USNews.com noted in an August 11 blog Washington Whispers blog post, Obama has not exactly been lacking in the R&R department:
There they go again. For the fifth time since July, the first family has set plans to board Air Force One for a frilly vacation, a 10-day return trip to exclusive Martha's Vineyard where they are expected to stay at the 28-acre oceanfront Blue Heron Farm that rents for up to $50,000 a week.
But first the Obamas will be traveling to the Gulf Coast of Florida for a mini-vacation as a way to encourage other vacationing Americans to head to the beaches that have been shunned by tourists worried about oil-slicked sands due to the Gulf oil spill. They are expected to travel to Florida this weekend, return to Washington for a few days then it's off to the Massachusetts island August 19.
[...]
For a recap, here is this year's Obama Travelogue:
-Full family Christmas and New Years in Hawaii.
-March spring break-first lady Michelle Obama, mom Marian Robinson, and both daughters hit Broadway.
-Memorial Day in Chicago with the family.
-Three days in July in Maine, primarily tony Bar Harbor.
-Last week, the president traveled to Chicago for a birthday party with Oprah and others.
-Michelle and Sasha spent much of last week on Spain's southern coast, ending it with a trip to Majorca to meet the king and queen of Spain.
-Florida this weekend for a night on the Gulf Coast.
-August 19-29 on Martha's Vineyard.
Of course, every president faces unimaginable stress from the weight of responsibility from the job, but the media never ceased to remind us of how many days President Bush spent in the summer telecommuting to work from his Crawford, Texas, ranch.
Yet when it comes to President Obama and his penchant to jet off on vacation every few weeks, Couric and company tell us Obama deserves a break, even as he's taken care to do that plenty of times already.
