Obama continues New England tradition

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama is continuing a long history of presidents visiting New England when summer gets hot in Washington, historians say.

Obama is to visit Martha's Vineyard Sunday in the latest example, The Boston Globe reported.

"Historically, it is a summer playground," Barbara Kellerman, public leadership lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, told the Globe, adding that New England is "a totally non-controversial choice and authentically welcoming."

The newspaper cited other examples of presidential getaways to the region, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, who established a Summer White House in Newport, R.I.; William Howard Taft, who summered in Beverly, Mass.; and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who one summer took a cruise along the New England Coast from Massachusetts to Maine. Bill Clinton also was known to vacation there.

Thomas Whalen, a Boston University social science professor and presidential scholar, told the newspaper there were health reasons for escaping to New England in days past.

"You had to get out of Washington for practical reasons," he said. "It was so hot. You had malaria, mosquitoes carrying diseases. It was in your best interests."