Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   12/29/2015

         Christmas habits of Presidents 

You might not have given much thought to what America’s Presidents have done and do for Christmas. The current occupant of the office understandably gets the most attention in any given year—Obama’s Hawaiian trips have become his norm.

Someone took a look back at the chosen locales for past presidential sojourns on the 25^th of December. I recall a fairly consistent pattern, for those of both parties, of gathering together their respective families for the day. Recent presidents, up to George W. Bush, usually spent the day either at the White House or Camp David, the presidential retreat.

Wikipedia provides a history and photos going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s initial conversion of a Naval and Marine installation, about 62 miles outside of Washington near Maryland’s northern border, “to a presidential retreat and renamed it ‘Shangri-La’ (for the fictional Himalayan paradise). Camp David received its present name from Dwight D. Eisenhower, in honor of his father and grandson, both named David.” As with Fort Knox, America’s gold repository, it is not found on maps of any kind.

Here’s the thing: From Carter to Reagan to Bush 41 to Clinton and through George Bush’s terms, the selection of a Christmas location for the President’s family, as well as the many staff and security attendant thereto, has predominantly benefited those hundreds of staff and their families.

An interesting snippet of an interview with then-candidate Barack Obama showed up in August of 2014, under Aaron Bandler’s byline at The Daily Caller (dailycaller.com). “Weasel Zippers has revived an old video of Barack Obama promising not to take vacations if he were elected president.

“The video features then-Sen. Obama discussing his book, ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ with New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in 2008. The future president was talking about how those running for president need to be prepared to ‘give their life to it’…The bargain that any president strikes with [voters] is, you give me this office and in turn my…need for sleep, family life, vacation, leisure is gone.’” It seems to this writer that that “bargain” had an expiration date early on in Obama’s first term, when it came to his own family’s Christmases.

According to journalist Joseph Curl, who previously covered the White House for the Washington Times, former President George W. Bush went on Christmas vacations in a way that stands in direct contrast to President Barack Obama. “Here’s the thing: in December, we never left Washington, D.C., until the day after Christmas. Never. Mr. Bush and his wife, Laura, would always depart the White House a few days before the holiday and hunker down at Camp David,” Curl wrote in a 2013 column.

After a few years, curiosity finally got to the reporter and he asked a low-level administration official why. “I still remember what she said,” Curl wrote. “So all of us can be with our families on Christmas.”

“Who was ‘us’? Hundreds and hundreds of people, that’s who. Sure, the reporters who covered the president, but also dozens and dozens on his staff, 100 Secret Service agents, maybe more, and all of those city cops required whenever the president’s on the move in D.C.,” Curl added in his column.

“For me, that one-day delay was huge. My kids were 6 and 8 years old when Mr. Bush took office. When he went home to Prairie Chapel that last time in 2009, my girl was driving, the boy was 6 foot 1. But in the meantime, I was home for eight Christmas mornings, playing Santa, stoking the fire, mixing up hot chocolates. That was President Bush. And every year for the past five, I’ve thought about what that meant to me.” Even for the day-after trip to Waco, Texas, a press plane was available with a nominal charge of $100 for reporters’ family members. “So sometimes, the family went along. For the kids, it was an adventure; for me, we were all together.”

However, things changed when Obama took office. “No more press plane. Reporters are on their own—so taking the family is, say, $1000 a pop. Not likely. And this president would never delay his trip to his island getaway. He’s off every year well before Christmas. Hundreds and hundreds head off with him, leaving family behind,” Curl wrote. “No Christmas at home,” he added. “Instead, the Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. Nice, but not exactly home.”

Personally, I don’t begrudge any president and their family time to escape the White House. The Beltway news media have, as I recall, consistently reserved their faux criticism for Republican presidents and their getaways. From Eisenhower’s golf courses, to Nixon’s and Reagan’s California homes, to Bush’s Texas ranch—Democrats with bylines have sneered at the Republicans and issued nary a peep over Democrats.

Let’s not kid ourselves, however, when it comes to the pinnacle holiday for most people and their families: Christmas. Most recent presidents have acted with care and consideration for the multitude of attendants and public servants, their lives and families; not Barack Obama. God forbid he should adjust his holiday plans for the benefit of those laboring and serving below him on that day. Look up “Why George W. Bush never left DC until the day after Christmas.”

Curl’s column was appropriately titled, “At Christmas time, George W. Bush was Santa, Obama is Scrooge.”