Now that President Obama has returned from his two-week summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard—that is to say, now that life in political Washington is back to normal—we may put this annual media ritual in some perspective. Or put another way: If you’re an admirer of Obama, you will regard this brief interlude as a much-needed respite from the burdens of the presidency; if you’re not an admirer of Obama, you will consider this a prolonged taxpayer-subsidized holiday from responsibility. Take your pick.

Presidential vacations, naturally enough, tend to reflect their times and particular presidents. A century ago, and more, presidential “vacations” were not so much holiday excursions or seasonal breaks as reflections of the political calendar. Congress was typically out of session more than it was in, and before the invention of air conditioning, Washington, D.C. in the humid summertime was essentially unfit for habitation. (I can attest to this personally, having grown up in the Washington area in a house without air conditioning during the 1950s and ’60s.)