I really don't understand why people get so upset when improvements are made to the White House, or to a City Hall or Courthouse for that matter. Those buildings belong to us. The White House does not belong to Barak and Michelle Obama. It belongs to us. They are merely tenants. Why would we want the White House and its furnishings to fall apart? What would that say to the rest of the world?

I really like Obama's rug. Reagan's, too. Not so much the dark ones with just a big, ugly seal in the middle.

I was disturbed to read that Eisenhower wore golf cleats in the office marring the floors. How rude is that?

Those who are unemployed and have lost all hope of ever being employed again want our president and all those Democrats that control this country to get back to work to get us back to work.

There is nothing wrong with fixing up the Oval Office. There is nothing wrong with Obama having his sixth vacation IF we are all working. From a PR view, both the above stink. Concentrate on getting us to work and forget all that other stuff.

My points are that the Democrats are enabling the Republicans to take back the House and perhaps Senate and in two more years the presidency. That is not good for this country and I am disappointed in this blown chance.

Fixing the Oval office is just a PR mistake, not a financial mistake.

I want the Dems to win in November. I want them to do the things necessary to win in November. Some of those things involve perceptions. But, even more require simply showing some balls and standing up to the stupidity of the low information voter drool that comes out of the Becks, Limbaughs, Hannitys, etc. One of them is "Obama takes too many vacations". It is simply not true.

From that bastion of liberalism and the lame stream media, Fact Check.org

According to one count, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush spent more time on "vacation" during their first year than President Obama did. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton spent less time on "vacation."

And, the money quote:

But no matter how much time a president actually spends away from the official residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Knoller says that the commander in chief is never really off the clock. "I have long held the view that a US president is never really on vacation," Knoller told FactCheck.org in an e-mail. "The job - and its awesome powers and responsibilities - is his wherever he is and whatever he’s doing."

On a political note, I could easily agree with you in that Obama should stop doing things the nutbars could use against him. But,they will always find something to use against him.

I could agree the Dems should do more of this or more of that. I'm not happy with everything that has been done and even more unhappy with some stuff not done. But, I sure as hell could not accept the alternative: John McCain? America barely survived the Bush/Cheney regime. She would have had trouble going backwards to McCain. AND, one hell of a lot has been done. The Dems are lousy PR folk.

I'm glad he is able to be the Commander-in-Chief... the Leader of the Free World... and still take some time every once in a while to run on the beach with his little girls or take his wife on a date. I think it's a good thing.

People are not working. These are exceptional times and we need to feel Obama is as anxios about it as we are. Exotic vacations are bad press to the unemployed. A year and a half later, what really has been done.

No matter who is in office during a hard recession, all effort has to be to get people to work. I personally did not get that impression nor, I am guessing here, do very many voters.

Health care is another tax, voters perceive. This occupied the full attention of the Democrats instead of jobs, voters perceive.

This administartion has blown it. The vacations and the redecoration do not set well with unemployed starving people.

And Democrats want the Republicans to stop gumming up the works with a record number of filibusters and private holds. Republicans are now talking about pulling a government shutdown, like they did in 15 years ago, during the Clinton administration.

The only people Republicans want to see back at work are the has-been hacks surviving on handouts from the Heritage Foundation and similar charities.

They never have. They never will. But, "no vacations or no redecoration" will not sit any better. Midterms and 2012 will be difficult unless the economy turns around. He could stay on vacation forever, and with a good economy and no 9/11 type attack and he's golden. Never leave the White House and work 23 hour days and a bad economy and/or a "9/11 type attack" and he and the Dems still in trouble.

In the big picture, I guess I agree with you. Peceptions matter because the Wrong Wing will throw it out to the low-info Beckopallooza voters. And, even though it's bull pucky, it sells.

We all do. That is why it seems so helpless right now and why incumbents are going to get thrown out in both camps. If these kids can't play well together, we will put some new ones in.

That is PR in a nutshell. You shape perceptions and right now the Republicans are winning and we are going to lose.

Well, I guess you could call it PR. I think it's propaganda. And, yeah, Republicans are better at it. Negative, scare tactics, unfortunately, appeal to the masses, even when there are no facts behind them.