The Annual Vacation Brouhaha

DailyKos and other loony lefties (who I admit I read, though only for the amusement value and the opposite point of view) are once again up to the annual "Bush leaves lets complain" left-fest. Yes, he has spent (thus far, and this according to Kos, so beware), Bush has spent 319 days on vacation. His pere, in contrast, spent 543 days over one term - this while a nuclear armed and existential enemy was coming apart at the seams, and with Saddam Hussein invading Iraq - yet the Kos et al. don't seem to care.

Further, no less a war-time leader than Winston Churchill spent about 1/4 of World War II out of the country and it doesn't seem that he got heavily slammed for it! Now admittedly, Churchill's time off cannot be construed as "vacation" per se, but if we consider how much transporation and technology have evolved since 1941-45, I'd say we're nearly on par in terms of productivity and accessability. Further, let's be honest - Bush doesn't just sit there and chop brush all day. If you consider getting briefed regularly and meeting with world leaders as vacation then I don't know what you consider work. Anyone who wants this vacation should just sign up, I doubt it's much of a vacation at all.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Crawford is the true center of power in this administration. Bush's administration is one that seems highly uncomfortable with formality, as witnessed by the paucity of state dinners he's hosted (far fewer than WJC, I might note); I would suggest that this extends to the White House in general. If you've noticed, he does a lot of politicking out on the ranch, especially with foreign leaders. The man, even