A conservative group is spending $4.5 million to run an ad attacking Obama for going on vacation to Martha's Vineyard, reports Politico. The ad mocks Obama's trip and also pressures him to drop the public option from health care reform. Judging from the reactions, The Atlantic Wire thinks that Obama is perhaps not alone in needing a bit of time off.

• Tantamount to Sept. 11  That's what Marcy Wheeler suggested of the ad. "In 2001, terrorists capitalized on George Bush's inattention and extended vacation to strike at America," she wrote. "Now, Rich Scott's Conservatives for Patients' Rights believes it can adopt al Qaeda's tactics by attacking our country while the President is on vacation." Wheeler criticized the media as having "enabled" the "terrorist tactics" of conservative groups.

• Bush Vacationed More  More reasonably, Wheeler compared Obama's vacation time to Bush's. "Mocking Obama for taking the first week of vacation he has had all year will only invite comparisons with Bush, who spent 977 days at either Camp David or Crawford during his presidency," she wrote. On Twitter this week, Wheeler has found myriad opportunities to jokingly reference Bush's habit of "clearing brush" while on vacation.

• Ad Could Backfire  Greg Sargent wrote, "'Dogging' Obama on vacation smacks of a stunt designed to get national TV play, which it undoubtedly will, but it risks making the anti-reform forces look like they’re hounding Obama while he’s seeking private time with his family."

• Who Cares?  Political analyst Larry Sabato sees the hoopla as a bit absurd. "Every summer papers waste space on supposed implications of POTUS vacations," he tweeted. "There aren't any. No one cares." Don't tell that to Walter Shapiro, who managed to eek 1,500 words of analysis out of the vacation, because why the hell not.

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