Report: Obama won't visit Martha's Vineyard this summer

US President Barack Obama (C) walks out of Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, on August 19, 2011 with his daughter Malia (R) and Sasha (2nd R). AFP PHOTO/Jim WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

/ JIM WATSON

(CBS News) If you're headed to Martha's Vineyard this summer, it looks like you won't have to dodge the president's motorcade.

The Boston Globe reports that President Obama and his family won't be headed to the Vineyard this year, after vacationing there the past three summers.

"The word I have is that they are not coming this year," State Police Sergeant Thomas Medeiros told the Globe, adding that word came down from the Secret Service.

The past three summers, the Obamas stayed at a 28-acre waterfront estate in Chilmark; the estate was sold in November for $21.9 million.

Still, "I think the fun and the curiosity and the buzz that comes with this will be missed, quite frankly," Nancy Gardella, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, told the Globe.

Gardella added the White House had booked accommodations for August but canceled those plans in May.

Last year, the president was criticized by Republicans for vacationing among the elite. They said he should have been in Washington dealing with the ailing economy.

The White House didn't comment Monday on the president's vacation plans.

[bogey2511]

He's had enough vacations on our dime to last a lifetime. All while destroying the economy.

[lextender]

Here's why the Obama Team isn't giving a reason. The owner of Thames Bank in the UK purchased the property last year and will not be leasing it to King Obama, or anybody else.

[marychgo]

Do the Obama-haters here REALLY think their constant kvetching is going to convince independents to vote for Romney rather than Obama? No one's forgotten how much time Bush spent in Crawford, TX. It's hard to imagine a single independent who's going to change his/her vote because the Obamas spent a few weeks in Martha's Vineyard (or Hawaii) over the past four years!

[edpipkin]

well now, I happen to have voted for obama.... my shame, my mistake, after all the damage he has done to this country, after all the millions they have spent vacationing on my (our dime), after all the damage he has done, after all the division, they should be in hiding....which brings up something... michelle must have been sent to the oloset... haven't seen her for a while... not that I miss her

[sspunout]

... time Bush spent in Crawford? You mean in his own home? How does that correlate? Was his house payment billed to the government?

[dvrghost]

THE REAL QUESTION IS "WHY HE IS VACATIONING AT ALL??? 30 VACATIONS IN
THREE YEARS, AND HE SHOULD BE IN THE WH DEALING WITH THE DEPRESSION
HE BROUGHT US!!!

[retmw2]

Why is congress vactioning? They take more time off then the President. How about all they're fact finding junkets to places like the Carribean.

[rtyurty]

Why he would go anywhere but Hawaii escapes me.

[bobnjersey]

[Last year, the president was criticized by Republicans for vacationing among the elite. They said he should have been in Washington dealing with the ailing economy.]
------------------------------------------------------
when and where are the republicans going to be dealing w/ the ailing economy?

[Nocults]

On December 11, 2008, the House of Representatives buckled under to the demands of GM and Chrysler, voting (largely along party lines) in favor of a $14 billion bailout. The next day, however, the Republican Senate voted down the legislation.
A week later, lame-duck President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson intervened. Announcing that the administration would offer the automakers loans with terms similar to the ones Congress had voted down, Bush gave GM and Chrysler three months to develop restructuring plans and prove they could become viable companies.
To help the automakers through that phase (and a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy), the administration extended them $17.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which had originally been set up to buy assets and equities from the financial sector in the wake of the mortgage crisis

[Nocults]

Source: Brookings Institute
"I try to balance my job with my desire to win four more years"
George W. Bush, August 2004

[Nocults]

In an effort to place the Bush data in context, we compared his travel during the first three years of his administration to that of his predecessor, President Clinton. The comparison revealed that President Bush has both out-traveled and out-targeted his predecessor. In a continuing study of presidential travel, new data examine the fourth year of the president's term, a point at which the campaign is in full swing. Our data reinforce our earlier findings. From January 1 through May 31, 2004, the President racked up 75 visits within 29 states. Of these 75 visits, 56% have been to swing states. By this point in the Clinton administration, President Clinton had made 58 visits in 25 states. Of these visits, 47% were to swing states.

[Bojax39]

"Obama won't visit Martha's Vineyard this summer"

That's okay. He can spend his vacation in the fantasy land we like to call Washington DC. May not be as relaxing, but is probably much more entertaining. :-)

[matt6052]

Anytime I hear Obama talk informally about government and politics, it always sounds like chit-chat at a Martha's Vinyard summertime social event.

[Nocults]

So far, President Obama has taken 68 vacation days after 37 months in office. At this point in their presidencies, George W. Bush had spent 190 days at his ranch where his staff often joined him for meetings. And Ronald Reagan had taken 122 vacation days at his ranch.

[rainbowroosie]

Doesn't have to do with the Great White sightings does it?? Something about "professional courtesy??"

[Nocults]

March, 2008
McCain noted that Bush's "busy schedule" would probably keep him from campaigning for the Arizona senator.

No, really. You know, the "busy schedule" that has room for 879 days down on the ranch - which, if you're into arithmetic, works out to around 30 percent of eight years.

Maybe Bush's legacy will be "the 70 percent solution."

[JWinATL]

Nocults - put a cork in it.