It is a little secret that most political insiders have known for years: reporters generally prefer Republican presidents because they choose better holiday spots. They know how to splurge.
Ronald Reagan had his ranch in Santa Barbara, California, an affluent seaside community with lovely hotels and restaurants. George Bush the elder took the family to Kennebunkport, Maine, another idyllic locale, where Mr Bush would fish and sail. Gerald Ford went golfing in Palm Springs, California, and even Richard Nixon split his holiday time between San Clemente, California, and Key Biscayne, Florida.
Bill Clinton did not have a regular holiday home, but he could be counted on to enjoy life, golfing or sailing with friends in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Alas, those sublime days of the summer presidential holiday are over. It's not that George W. Bush is not taking vacation; to the contrary, he is presently taking a 30-day holiday, the longest time a president has left the White House since the Nixon days. But he is taking his leave at his Texas ranch, a stretch of some of the driest, flattest, hottest real estate in the US.
Mr Bush's 1,583-acre Prairie Chapel Road ranch is located in Crawford, a central Texas farming town of 700 souls. Mr Bush bought the former pig farm two years ago. It is a 4,000-square-foot one-storey limestone house. There are no hotels, a single traffic signal that only blinks, and a lone coffee shop "downtown" that doubles as petrol station, grocery and restaurant serving chicken, steaks and fried jalapeno peppers.
And there is the heat. The temperatures are normally in the 100 F range in summer. Mr Bush says 'the heat doesn't bother me in the least". Mr Bush likes to go jogging before 8 a.m., returning with a layer of dust on him, then shower and drive off in his all-terrain vehicle on to the trails, where he says he enjoys cutting brush.
"It's important for people to get outside and work," Mr Bush told a gaggle the perspiring reporters. "I'm making a lot of improvements on the ranch, and I find that to be a good part of keeping me a balanced person." Because there are no facilities in Crawford, Mr Bush's staff and press corps are staying 30 minutes away in Waco, Texas, a city of 108,000 people.
Russian President Vladmir Putin will visit Mr Bush in a few weeks and he, too, is expected to stay with his entourage in Waco.
The White House has billed this holiday as a "working vacation", rejecting criticism that the President is taking too much time off. To make the point, they unveiled a new logo and banner during Mr Bush's televised address Thursday night concerning his decision on federal funding for stem cell research.
The new logo is centered on the familiar presidential seal. It shows an American eagle clutching an olive branch in one talon and a bundle of arrows in the other. The oval is emblazoned with large letters reading: "The Western White House - Crawford, Texas." White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "I think it is natural and really fits where we are and the president liked the idea. This is his home and he will continue to come here and he will continue to spend a good proportion of his time here working."
Lest any political capital be squandered, aides have dubbed this holiday the "Home to the Heartland Tour". Mr Bush will use the ranch as a base to visit Colorado, New Mexico and Wisconsin this month. In the past, polls have shown that Americans like the idea of their presidents vacationing in the West.
During Mr Reagan's tenure, the White House often released photos showing the president astride his horse in full cowboy regalia. This week, the White House released a photo of Mr Bush on his way to meetings with aides in what they called "Crawford casual" - jeans and a belt with a large silver buckle, button-down shirt and cowboy boots.
All this may constitute good political spin. But it is of little consolation to the sweltering reporters who are remembering the good old days . . . the breezes of Martha's Vineyard, the green golf courses. Perhaps Mr Bush is just keeping his campaign promise. He is indeed a different sort of Republican.