The Florida Sun

Starting August 19, 2010, President Obama and the first Family took a 10 day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. The family expected a low-keyed vacation so the president could re-charge his batteries. Finally with the oil leak plugged and the last of the troops coming home from Iraq the president could relax. Eventhough he receives briefings everyday, he can still take a break. He has been playing golf and reconnecting with his family. This is the end of a summer break and in the next two months, the president will be going non-stop with the election, campaigning and engaging in the healthcare debate. This month the US government released figures showing the numbers of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped unexpectedly. The figure over 500,000 claims is the largest in nine months and is threatening the administration’s hopes of a recovery. The economy is front and center and Americans are judging the effective-ness of the Obama administration based on an improvement of the economy and the creation of more jobs. The report on the housing market is dismal and troublesome and many experts are predicting another recession or deflationary period. During this deflationary period hous-ing will continue to decrease in value and wages will decrease. Companies will continue to lay off more employees and workers will be expected to do the work of one and a half or two employees. Even though this is a vacation the president is still working with his White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, his deputy press secretary Bill Burton, and his national security advisor John Brennan. The president is receiving daily briefings every day from his advisors in Washington and his security division and communications division is always ready to move. Shortly after the president arrived at his vacation compound, he announced a series of recess appointments, because Congress is also on recess. He filled four diplomatic and agency jobs, because he has the authority to fill these positions when the Congress is on vacation. The president has been waiting for 18 months to fill these positions and the Republicans are holding up these appointments. The appointments are Winslow Sargeant, chief counsel for the Small Business Administration, Richard Souar, assistant secretary at the Health and Human Services, Maria del Carmen Aponte, mission chief at the US Embassy in El Salvador and Elizabeth Hagen, undersecretary for the Agriculture Department. This may be a vacation but the president is always working, planning and strategizing. He is probably still having late night meetings with his advisors and communicating to his aides back in Washington. It appears that there was no critical event or emergency so I guess the president did relax during this vacation. As the president you learn that you have to live each day and you pick and choose what needs an urgent response. A working vacation is a restful vacation because he has gotten away from the pressure and frustration that goes with the city of Washington. As the vacation ends the president has an intense week as the pace begins to speed up. It is great when the president can complete his entire vacation and returns home with everything is the same without more bad news.