Former President Obama and his family are permanent homeowners on Martha’s Vineyard, after completing the purchase this week of a large home in the coastal perimeter of Edgartown.
At 4:23 p.m. on Sunday, the helicopters took off from the Martha’s Vineyard Airport, bringing to an end President Obama’s week-long first vacation since winning office, spent on the Island.
As Mr. Obama, his family and entourage took off, the clouds which had dumped some four inches of rain over the previous two days finally broke, and they left in watery sunshine.
Vacation Interludes
If there is one lesson to be learned from the presence of the Summer White House on the Vineyard, it is this: Never trust press spokesmen who tell reporters not to expect news during a presidential vacation trip. President Obama reinforced the no news forecast with a specific set of intructions conveyed through a deputy press secretary. The relaxed vacation talk was reminiscent of similar White House talk during the 1990s, the Clinton years on the Vineyard.
To compare the Vineyard vacations of former President Clinton and current President Obama all you have to do is stop in an Island ice cream parlor. Once there, you will probably find a picture hanging on the wall of the former President eagerly peering over the counter to view the lineup of flavors, chatting with patrons or munching on an ice cream cone.
President Obama and his family arrived on the Vineyard on Sunday afternoon for a one-week vacation and received a typically warm welcome from Islanders, despite the fact that the arrival was closed to the public and surrounded by tight security.
Summer White House spokesmen yesterday blamed bad weather for the closed arrival — the first hurricane of the season was churning in the Atlantic far offshore — but suggested that Mr. Obama could be more accessible in future.
In sharp contrast to previous Presidential visits, the public will be shut out when Barack Obama and his family arrive on the Vineyard somewhere in a five-hour window on Sunday afternoon.
As the Martha’s Vineyard Airport and later a White House spokeswoman confirmed yesterday, there will be no chance for the media, or, more importantly, Islanders to see the First Family.
“It will be what’s called a closed arrival,” said the airport manager Sean Flynn.
The Obamas will miss what is generally considered the busiest week on the Vineyard, featuring Grand Illumination Night at the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, the Oak Bluffs fireworks and the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair in West Tisbury.
