The Delicate Politics of R & R

There’s no rest for the weary in politics – even in August.

President Obama and Governor Patrick are both about to learn that – but conventional wisdom is it’ll be a quick summer shower of pain for Obama while it could mean a three-week bitter blast for Patrick.

Obama is about to land on the Vineyard, hoping off Air Force One just ahead of a real life hurricane a couple hundred miles off the coast. And so begins the press and public hand-wringing about whether Obama should be taking time off in such perilous times.

Today’s Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal get things started with thumb-suckers about life on the Vineyard and past presidents on siesta. Naturally comparisons arise of former President Clinton – who famously holed up in the Vineyard with his family after news broke of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It’s also hard to forget President George W. Bush’s month-long brush-clearing exercise each August in Crawford, Texas – which he learned only after trying to mix work and play, with not so good results.

Expect more of this: Remember, it is vacation-time in Congress, the State House, on Wall Street, Main Street and in newsrooms across the land. Front page and lead story news in late August is hard to come by so film of Obama at the beach, on boats and grabbing an ice cream is guaranteed time- and space-filler for a week.

Things will only get juicier in newsrooms if we can get more rehash on First Lady Michelle Obama’s wardrobe, which gut the full scrub after she dared to wear shorts in the 100-plus-degree heat of the Grand Canyon. Despite the obvious fact that the pants-wearing President looked the oddest of the bunch, there was much media and public discussion of how appropriate Michelle’s shorts were. (Personal fav: The LA Times poll which had more people saying ‘you go girl’ and ‘don’t we have better things to worry about’ than concern).

Presumably the final analysis will be fair – that the President deserves a week off.

But there has and will surely be hand-wringing at the White House over how the press covers this respite, and there surely has been for weeks leading up to it. The questions are always asked by good communications pros, no matter how annoying to the First Family, Governor or any other senior official.

Should he go away? Should he have a staycation? Who’s going to pay? Should we bring security?

And it gets more complicated from there: What should they wear? (Hint: Summer casual is good. Going Vladimir Putin half-clothed on a horse is bad). Which restaurants will look ok to the public and which won’t? (Hint: Applebee’s, good. Anything more French than Au Bon Pain, bad).

Into this confusing and dangerous breach wanders Governor Deval Patrick, who took his lumps for his own extended stay at Sweet Pea Farm, his estate in the Berkshires.

The Governor’s taking some time off now but things will get really dicey for him next month when he takes two or three weeks to recover out west from September 1 hip replacement surgery.

There are several factors that will make Obama’s respite a lot more restful than Patrick’s – not the least of which is that Obama will be resting, Patrick recovering.

In politics, a week can be a lifetime; the wrong week can mean the difference between political life and death. With three weeks vacation at a time – when at least two major opponents are looking to gather steam – the odds of trouble for Patrick go way up.

Unlike Obama, whose popularity and health care reform plan could probably benefit from a week of the President out of the public eye, Patrick needs every moment he has to boost his sagging poll numbers.

There are a few tricks to play here and the Governor’s handlers are no doubt plotting them now (there’s no reason he can’t still make big news while recovering). But being physically that far away from power will make things logistically difficult – live shots from Milton would be a lot easier than from Richmond – particularly with that nice (and open) pool in the background.

And you wonder why there aren’t pictures of Governors and Presidents napping?