Any day now, George W. Bush will set the record for having taken more days of vacation than any other Oval Office Occupant in history.
Back in the Reagan era when that guy was setting the old record, I wrote an article I can no longer find for a local magazine. It said basically that Presidential Vacations were just plain a bad idea from all standpoints. I mean, if you think you have a great guy in office, you oughta be ticked off that he isn't working harder. Fewer days off might mean he could pass a couple more items on your agenda. He's going to end his term without doing a number of things you hoped he would accomplish. Maybe less vacation would have made one or two more come about.
On the other hand, if you think the current prez is inept, maybe working harder would make him a bit more ept. Or if you think he's dishonest, putting in more hours might mean fewer instances where he hides behind the claim that he didn't know what his aides were doing, hadn't addressed some vital problem yet, etc. Bad presidents tend to cower a lot behind the excuse that they're busy tending to more important matters…and then they go fishing.
This isn't a slam at Bush so much as it is a bewilderment that anyone in any career of choice needs that many days off. I always liked Jay Leno's old line about how if you keep needing vacations from your job, you picked the wrong job.