Good to know where the Patch's loyalty lies. President Obama's vacation at a secluded Martha's Vineyard estate is expected to cost between $35000 and $50000. It is one of ththe most expensive places to stay in America. Who needs a budget. He needs a(nother) vacation.

What is a vacation?

Funny cartoon. I wonder how much whining there'd be from Republicans if President Obama took as many vacation days as Bush did?

Since when does anyone that is running a business (that would include the USA) get a vacation? Everytime I take off, all it means is that I don't necessarily report to the office and I don't respond to email immediatly. Most American's work very hard, even during vacation. I suspect our President is no different.

Just as a reminder: Comics are opinion pieces and are the opinion of the author, not of Patch as a whole. We always welcome letters to the editor in response to anything that runs on the site.

Christine is right the patch is a big Obama supporter everyone would really know that if you ran with your real name who your run by AOL HUFFINGTON POST!

its a working vacation. Give it up. Everyone needs a break once in a while. Republicans take more vacations than Democrats when they are in office. Republicans, even while working on coming up with a candidate to run against Obama can't find anyone decent. The only possible contender they have is Ron Paul.

Someone implied that somehow Obama spending money on a nice vacation for his family is related to the budget. Sorry, but that's ridiculous. The Obama family are millionaires. They can afford to go where ever they wish.

Second, at this point in his term, GWB had taken 211 days of vacation.

So let's not sweat the small stuff eh?

Do your own home work people look it up all these patch sites in all the nation are run by AOL Huffington Post if you reasearch it you will find out this is true.

Spencer/Kevin,

We are completely transparent in the fact that our parent company is AOL, which also owns the Huffington Post. You are correct, Spencer—Arianna Huffington doesn't know what's going on in Lemont, nor does she dictate our content.

Patch, like any other responsible news organization, strives to be unbiased, fair and accurate in our reporting.

Which makes the Patch better then the biases reporting on Fox and CNN

All of this because he wanted to spend some time with his family...lol

Never, never, in my lifetime has this country been as divided as it is today. People who disagree, who have different values, need to be able to get together and have a conversation about what is good for this country. That is not happening, and that is very, very sad, IMO.

President Obama deserves a vacation with his family, although with daily briefings I'm sure it's not much of a break for him.

Most Americans can't afford any vacation (and many are having a hard time affording their mortgage and food), but our President is at one of the most elite vacation spots in the country. It looks bad any way you slice it.

Why should politicians care how bad it looks as long as they get what they want, they all have minimal or no morals when it comes to others who are struggling, congress left on vacation when this country needs them most. I guess it's true morals and politicians should not be used in the same sentence!

The person who mentioned Ron Paul has a point. He has never signed up for the Congressional pension or medical plans. As a practicing physician, he worked birthing babies for a discounted rate or free instead of accepting Medicare or Medicaid. I'm not supporting anyone at this point, but I do like most of what he believes.

It's ridiculous how people get all worked up about someone taking a vacation when everyone is expected to have one if they work or do not work. We all know that when the President takes a vacation, regardless of his party affiliation, it's a working vacation. It's just like all of us who take our lap tops, cell phones, etc on vacation with us. We use them to take care of priority things related to work, be it answering phone calls, emails or even having informal meetings.

When it comes to the problems of this country we are severely divided on how to handle them. What I do know is that the party system has failed us and by adding another party (TEA PARTY), it will just get worse. I personally believe we need to vote out most of our current elected officials and vote on INDEPENDENTS, who vow to work with their newly elected colleagues to do what is best for the United States and not what is best for their party.

I'm the one who mentioned Ron Paul. He has some great ideas but he would need a congress, independent of parties to evaluate them and put into place those which are best for this country.

It's ridiculous how people will give politicians a free pass to do whatever they want to. The Tea Party is not a third party. It isn't even a political party. It's a grassroots movement. The intent of the Tea Party is to co-opt the Republican Party, then the Democratic Party. We've had a pretty good start, but there's plenty more to come.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is planning to nearly quadruple the size of his $12-million California beachfront mansion....................seems a little out of touch and insensitive.

@ Christine, all who are without sin cast the first stone?

Jackie, I certainly do not take extravagant vacations while the world is falling apart. So, I'm good.

Not sure if the story about Romney expanding is California property is true or not. I'm not sure why that matters. We are supposedly a capitalistic society. If you earn it, you can spend it as you like. If it is within his personal BUDGET to do this, then what is the problem. If you want him to share his wealth, and change the US to a socialist type of society, then say so.

Americans speak with their vote. If we vote an idiot into office, then we get what we ask for. It's unfortunate that good, intelligent people, who could make a difference do not want to run for public office because of the money needed to run a campaign, but more importantly the scrutiny not only the candidate must go through but family members as well. We all have flaws, but the media enjoys making it look like a candidate is week because of the flaws.

Sad to see the ignorance of the suburban cake eaters that can't stand the thought of a Black Man in the White House...blaming him for all the RepubliKlan's economic mismanagement that has ruined our economy.

Get used to the thought he's gonna be in there for FOUR FULL TERMS once we do away with the silly term limits !

Jack, I believe you're incorrect. AOL purchased Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington is the editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group. Just want to clarify so there's not any confusion about the facts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/business/media/07aol.html

My boss/editor's name is Cari Barcas. Her email is cari.brokamp@patch.com if you'd like to confirm.

LOL, I do know a few people that still use AOL for their email addresses. If all the tea party supporters get behind AOL and use them for their internet services they may have resurrection.

I hate to break it to you, but I'm also interested in Herman Cain. He happens to be a black Conservative. Oh, wait. According to Janeane Garofalo he's being paid to run! You people are hilarious. But seriously, a troll? Is that the best you can come up with, Joshua? You can also see from my history I live here and am consistently Conservative/Libertarian and I'm active in my local Tea Party as a volunteer (that's pretty obvious). know very few people interested in funding the nanny state, so I'm certainly not alone in my views. The sarcasm, slights to character and general malcontented attitude from the liberals is pretty consistent. When they have no argument they shift the subject, ignore the facts and namecall (thanks Herman!)

"Dear People Who Think Obama Should Not Go On Vacation: Are you out of your ever living mind?!?!?! Have you not seen what destruction on our economy and morale this man has wrought for three years?!?! And you want him to go back to Washington, D.C.? Congress too? You are out of your mind.

The correct answer is STAY ON VACATION ALL OF YOU. The stock market tends to do better when Congress is gone. The world tends to run fine when this President is on vacation. Our freedoms cannot be further encroached while Obama is in Martha’s Vineyard.

Please, stop asking this man to come back to Washington where everything he touches tends to break down. When he comes back in September he says he will have a plan to create jobs. The last several plans he had to create jobs killed or destroyed more private sector jobs than even the most radical leftist could have hoped for. Please, please, please stop saying he needs to come back to Washington.

Mr. President, you take as much vacation as you want. In fact, if you want to leave the country and go visit your relatives in Kenya or just go for a safari or go see your old stomping grounds in Indonesia or, heck, take the family to see penguins in Antarctica or even go to Bora Bora, I’d be glad to have you take say . . . the next twelve months off. And even better, I’m sure we can find some people to fund your vacation other than the American taxpayers who you’ve been using to fund your political campaign bus tour."

HumanEvents.com

Wow Christine, you blame all of this on just one man. Obama must be someone very powerful to get all this done with a heavily divided congress who can't agree on anything. Get real. The President can't do much but suggest legislation that he or she feels would be best for the country, or veto legislation that he does not agree with. When it's all said and done, the predicament our country is in today has been a TEAM effort, with all branches and levels of government working together to put together a PATCH (no pun intended) WORK of legislation that has created this mess. This mess is not just Obama, but the two Bush's before him. Say what you will about Clinton, but when he left office, things started to go down hill from there.

The HumanEvents.com website you referred us too is so full of propaganda it makes Fox News look like an Obama supporter. We criticize our leaders, but we put them there. I was at least listening to your opinion and evaluating your writings with an open mind. By going off on your tirade above, and then referring us to the HumanEvents page, just caused me to lose all respect for what you have to say Christine.

No, I certainly don't blame this all on one man. I'm no fan of Bush. I actually agree with you in several areas.

And I'm confident you know just how much your respect means to me.

—Prior to his current Martha’s Vineyard trip, Obama had taken 10 vacations of varying lengths — spanning all or part of 61 days.

—At the same point in George W. Bush’s presidency, he had made 26 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 180 days.

—At the same point in Bill Clinton’s presidency, he had taken two vacations on Martha’s Vineyard spanning 26 days and was starting a 21-day stay in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

I would say 180 days is pretty oppulent no matter where you go! I wish I had that much vacation over a 2 plus year span.

Again, I'm no fan of Bush.