Over-thinking his leisure

COME hell or high water, the New York Times is determined to divine meaning out of Barack Obama's Hawaiian vacation. Stating the obvious, Times reporter Sheryl Gay Strolberg wrote, "If there is one thing President Obama craves during his leisure time, it is privacy." She noted that after Air Force One deposited him in Oahu Wednesday night, "the most visible man in America promptly dropped out of sight. Mr. Obama’s disappearance behind the palm trees reveals much about his presidential style." No, it doesn't. It's been a grueling year for the White House. So it is not a revelation that our president wants some down time without the Krieg lights. That's it. End of story. Why is this so difficult for the press to grasp? As for privacy, the president is among those souls aptly described by English poet Abraham Cowley: "Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity." Members of the press need not apply to Club Cowley.