:(
This was Falcone's blog post on the 10th:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/obama-at-home-in-the-islands/#more-5856Tonight there's a very different story, in the Politics section:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/us/politics/15obama.htmlMcCain Displays Credentials as Obama Relaxes
By MICHAEL FALCONE
Published: August 14, 2008
HONOLULU — For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Only once, at the beginning of the week, did Mr. Obama discuss the fighting in public, when he emerged from his beachfront rental home to condemn Russia’s escalation, in a way that seemed timed for the evening television news. He took no questions whose answers might demonstrate command of the issue.
Mr. McCain and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, “We are all Georgians.”
It is as if the candidates’ images have been reversed within a matter of a few weeks. When Mr. Obama was overseas last month, Mr. McCain’s foreign policy bona fides seemed diminished, if only because he could not attract the news media attention received by Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Now, Mr. Obama’s voice seems muted at a time when much of the world has been worriedly watching the conflict.
-snip-
Obama needed this vacation. He'd looked exhausted.
But I wish he could have made time for some news conferences to take media attention away from McCain.