Stop Turding On President Obama's Vacation

Turd [vt]: when used with the preposition "on," means "to harshly and unfairly criticize someone's actions or work." Example: My boss turded on the report I wrote.

My ten year-old great-nephew taught me that "turd" is not only a noun, but a verb. It is a verb that applies to the press and the public's criticism of President Obama's vacation in Martha's Vineyard.

It seems that people, most of whom I would hazard to guess aren't Black, seem to have a problem with President Obama taking a vacation in Martha's Vineyard, either because of the timing or the location. To them I say, "Stop turding on President Obama's vacation."

For starters, before President Obama was a president, he was a father. As any parent can tell you, family vacations are often driven by children's school schedules, not their parents' work schedules. Most parents try to squeeze in a family vacation before their children return to school, and that's their business, even if they happen to be the Leader of the Freakin' Free World. The recession isn't going to get any better if President Obama doesn't take his family vacation right now for two weeks or so.

Second, Black people have been vacationing and -- gasp! -- living on ostensibly wealthy Martha's Vineyard since time immemorial. If the public has a problem wrapping its mind around this concept, I would commend to their reading Jill Nelson's "Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on An Island." Heck, among Black folks on Martha's Vineyard, President Obama is, well, nouveau riche. That said, his vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, an option not available to the vast majority of Americans, is no different than President George H.W. Bush vacationing at his family's estate at Kennebunkport (also during a recession), President George W. Bush vacationing at his ranch at Crawford, or President Kennedy vacationing at his family's estate in Hyannisport. All these locales are pretty much unavailable to the vast majority of Americans because they can't afford to rent or buy in these areas. Think about it -- when's the last time we had a broke-ass President, white or otherwise? I think the real issue is that out-of-work whites and Right Wingers desperate to retake the White House don't want to see a wealthy Black president vacationing in a wealthy area, even if he is nouveau riche.

Finally, press reports state that President Obama's immediate predecessor had taken far more days of vacation at this time in his first term than has President Obama by a factor of 3 to 1. In fact, of Presidents Bush (41 and 43), Reagan, Clinton and Obama, the only president who had taken fewer days of vacation at this point in his first term was President Clinton, another Democrat. Seems like Republican presidents like them some vacation, moreso than President Obama and President Clinton, both Democrats, I might add. I guess this means Democrat presidents just work harder, right?

I raise all this to say that the rules shouldn't change for President Obama, whether we're talking about vacations, debt ceilings, or whatever. But somehow, they always do.

America, stop turding on President Obama's vacation. In fact, just stop turding on President Obama, period.