When the going gets tough, take a vacation, play golf, spend thousands a week on a mansion .... don't run in circles or scream and shout .... to hell with the world and everyone else ......
Four hours later, he offered an altogether different tableau: a golf game with friends at a lush course on Martha's Vineyard, the upscale Massachusetts island where the president and his family began a two-week vacation.
The contrasting scenes, which quickly sparked some hostile commentary from critics, illustrate the dilemma of taking time off when you are the most powerful leader in the world and, by definition, handling major issues all the time.
Part of the problem is dealing with appearances, or 'optics' as Washington pundits like to call it.
With crises boiling in Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine, Obama - like his presidential predecessors in similar circumstances - proceeded with plans for a summer break, but only after making his Iraq statement against the very presidential backdrop.
Administration officials made clear he would continue to do his job even while getting some time off, and a phalanx of aides, including national security adviser Susan Rice, came along to ensure that a virtual Oval Office was never far away.
"The president will be traveling to Massachusetts with an array of communications equipment and national security advisers and others to ensure that he has the capacity to make the kinds of decisions that are required for the Commander-in-Chief," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Friday.
"And if there’s a need for the president to return to the White House, it’s not a long flight from Martha’s Vineyard back to Washington, D.C."
White House officials go to great pains to show Obama is on top of world events even when he is on fundraising trips or family vacations.
