All Good Things Must End, President's Vacation Winds Down

President Obama and his family wrap up a 17-day vacation on the Vineyard this weekend. The Obamas are scheduled to depart the Island sometime on Sunday; at press time Thursday the time had not been announced by the White House.

The President, First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha arrived on the Vineyard on August 7, a day earlier than planned. Daughter Malia joined the family separately. This marks the sixth time the Obamas have vacationed on the Vineyard during his presidency.

For the second year the Obamas have been staying in a rented house off North Road in Chilmark owned by summer resident Joanne Hubschman. The vacation this year has included near-daily golf outings by the President along with a handful of beach and dinner outings.

Michelle Obama has lunch with Valerie Jarrett and friends. — Mike Levin

Farm Neck and the Vineyard Golf Club were the President’s place of choice to play golf this year, while dining out included old and new spots: State Road restaurant in West Tisbury, Alchemy in Edgartown and Beach Road in Vineyard Haven, the new restaurant owned by Jackson and Mary Kenworth who also own State Road. Mrs. Obama and her daughters had lunch one rainy day at the Atlantic Chop and Fish House on the Edgartown harbor.

The President and First Lady also joined former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other guests at Farm Neck last weekend to celebrate the 80th birthday of Democratic adviser and civil rights activist Vernon Jordan. The evening included dinner, dancing and toasts. Mr. Jordan’s birthday party was part of a weekend of high political wattage on the Vineyard. Earlier Saturday, the former President joined the current President on the links at Farm Neck. Later in the weekend there was a private fundraiser Sunday for Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic candidate for president.

On Thursday this week the Obamas had a day at the beach with Japan ambassador Caroline Kennedy at Red Gate Farm, her Atlantic-facing waterfront estate in Aquinnah.

But for the most part the First Family has stayed well below the radar at their own secluded compound in Chilmark where there are walking trails and sweeping north shore views of the Elizabeth islands. The White House released reading lists and Spotify music playlists for the President.

Also in a departure from recent years, as of late this week there had been no national press briefings by the President.

I cant wait until this nightmare is over, and I dont just mean their vacation here!

What a miserable existence you must have. Negative thoughts are aging you - inside and out!

Calm, intelligent, gracious, inspiring, this visit from POTUS and family, like his Presidency. We will miss his leadership and sincerely hope our next is as good as him.

You must be kidding.

Please stop. Eric, You have been isolated on Chappy too long and evidently have no touch with reality. This guy and his staff have done more to harm our country than is imaginable. He will go down as one of the WORST Presidents in our history and an architect of our recent demise. Stop and really think what Obama has really accomplished in 6 1/2 years. Next to Nada is being gratuitous ! If our next President is anything like Obama we are out of business period. Does your Chappy Internet get any news services ?

I will certainly miss him as well Eric. He and his family are wonderful and it's been such a pleasure to have an intelligent and articulate President.

You must live on Chappy as well with no TV or internet connection to the real world.

I agree with Eric and Deborah. Plus I think his recent actions to protect the environment and move us on to more sustainable fuels has been so needed. Also his actions to protect our national parks please me. But, in truth, just the presence of the first family on the island makes me smile.

It is interesting that Eddie Mac can really be serious. Ogden Nash said, "The door of the bigoted mind opens outward so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly." The accomplishments of the Obama administration have been remarkable considering the degree of opposition he has faced including a number of Republican leaders who shamefully announced that their main purpose was to cause him to fail. How can Eddie Mac deal with the fact that President Obama took over the reigns of government when the country was in the middle of an economic crisis and not only saved us from disaster, but put us on a course that has resulted in the USA being the only country in the world with a growing economy. When he took office, we were losing 2 million jobs a month, but since then every month--60 straight months--has seen jobs added. The unemployment rate as fallen from over to 11 per cent to about 5.5 per cent. The Republicans advocated allowing General Motors to collapse, but President Obama said no. Opponents may not like Obamacare, but that is their personal opinion; they cannot deny the fact that every president since FDR tried for a health care plan for everyone, but failed. Your personal opinion might be opposed to his foreign policies, but the fact remains that he extracted us from two wars meaning that the nightly news no longer presents us with a list of American soldiers killed each week. Americans wanted to see Bin Laden dealt with, and that is what the President Obama delivered. The Republican Robert Gates said that Obama's decision to bring Bin Laden to justice was the bravest thing he had seen a president do. Bin Laden is no longer walking among us: that is a fact. Health care for everyone is a fact. The ending of two wars is a fact. The remarkable employment successes of the current administration is a fact.

Thank you, Tom. And for the negative responses..... if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing. God bless everyone!

What fascinates me about the president's vacation is the lack of protesters. No one wants to hold up placards about Iran? Or sending the last Gitmo detainees to SC and Kansas?? Perhaps it's the difficulty and expense of camping out on MVY versus the ease that Cindy Sheehan and hordes of press had in Crawford Texas making their daily waves in the media haranguing about Bush. Bottom line, the media and the protesters have gone soft during this administration, not because there isn't anything to protest. Who wants to guess why?

I'll guess. The party of NO is now focused on stopping Hillary.

Jasmine, Hillary is doing a great job of that all on her own!!!

What's an Obama hater doing on Martha's Vineyard? Gotta be a hard luck life for someone of that persuasion. Will join the others in the praise for the President. Can't imagine that we'll be able to follow him up with anyone half as good. The fact that he continues to vacation on the island tells you the man is wise.

Hope the Obama family enjoyed their vacation.

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Comments (15)

`Marine` 1

August 21, 2015 - 3:08am

PD, Buffalo, NY

August 21, 2015 - 9:40am

Eric, Chappaquiddick

August 21, 2015 - 7:08am

Scott, Boston

August 21, 2015 - 7:56am

Eddie Mac

August 21, 2015 - 9:35am

Deborah

August 21, 2015 - 9:44am

Bob, Edgartown

August 21, 2015 - 10:24am

Ginny, Oak Bluffs

August 21, 2015 - 11:53am

Tom, West Tisbury

August 21, 2015 - 12:54pm

Margaret, Vero Beach

August 21, 2015 - 2:09pm

Caroline, New York

August 21, 2015 - 1:02pm

jasmine

August 21, 2015 - 3:50pm

August 21, 2015 - 6:00pm

SAM, NY

August 22, 2015 - 10:01pm

anniebellie

August 23, 2015 - 4:23pm

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