Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton: He left Washington in the midst of an economic crisis in the country. The stock market was plummeting. The jobs picture was worsening. And he started his vacation by playing golf.

No, not President Obama, although he started his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard Thursday.

House Speaker John A. Boehner, the nation’s top Republican, left Washington on Aug. 2, literally moments after Mr. Obama signed the debt-limit deal into law.

Since then, some courses and a series of fundraisers for him and his fellow Republicans, but not a moment in Washington, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for the office of Mr. Boehner, said that "the President issued a few days ago Ohio right after the agreement of personal debt, which has been and will be on the road the rest of the month a group of friends on the Republican side. Of course, being the speaker of the House is not the same as holding the White House, and presidents of both parties are often subject to criticism for the timing or location of their vacations Mr. Obama has been receiving a great deal for both. His summer trips to Martha’s Vineyard have come under attack for the past two summers, as did Bill Clinton’s visits there. And George W. Bush was often criticized for the amount of time he spent away from the White House. And Mr. Boehner has not been one of the Republican voices criticizing the president’s annual vacation. A scan of Mr. Boehner’s tweets from his speaker’s office and his campaign office finds no snarky asides about how Mr. Obama should stay in Washington rather than relaxing by the beach. But neither has there been any indication that Mr. Boehner is satisfied with the organized effort to embarrass fellow Republicans, Obama is about to become fashionable on the island for 10 days.