More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
On Monday's NBC Today, fill-in co-host Tamron Hall asked incoming Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd if all the criticism of President Obama's vacation in Martha's Vineyard amid numerous crises was "just politics as usual." Todd replied: "Yes, it's politics as usual, but in this case, this is optics, this was stuff they should have seen coming. This is not new to them."
Todd noted "backtracking" from former Obama adviser David Axelrod: "You know what? Maybe Democrats are too hard on President Bush when they used to beat him up for his vacations in Crawford." Todd concluded that Obama "wanted his downtime" and "guards his downtime," "But, you know what? It's something they should have been more aware of."