Republicans go home, but Democrats cash in and get the hell out of Dodge.
For the last 30 years, Republican presidents have served their nation and then gone… home. Democrats? Nuh uh.
After eight years in the White House, Ronald Reagan returned to Rancho del Cielo, a 688-acre ranch atop the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, Calif. He lived out his days there at the magnificent tract of land, also known as Heaven’s Ranch.
Four years later, George Herbert Walker Bush returned to his boyhood home at Walker’s Point, which juts into the Atlantic Ocean just outside the sleepy resort town of Kennebunkport, Maine. He built a retirement house near the Houston home he lived in when he was a congressman from Texas, not far from his presidential library.
And his son, George W. Bush, also went home after eight years office, returning to Prairie Chapel Ranch, a 1,583-acre tract in Crawford, Texas, about 25 miles from Waco. He and wife Laura also bought a house in Dallas, close to his presidential library (and, more accurately, his favorite golf course).
But Democrats don’t go home. After eight years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Bill Clinton and his wife bought a house in New York for the prime purpose of setting up a carpet-bagging Senate run for Hillary. They also bought a $5 million mansion in Washington, D.C., not far from the vice presidential residence. Bill spends some time in a loft in his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. (which features a replica of the Oval Office, where Bubba no doubt plays when the cat’s away), but not much time.
And now, Barack Obama is abandoning his so-called hometown of Chicago. “According to sources, the Obamas have purchased a house in Rancho Mirage, Calif., not far from Sunnylands,” the New York Post reported on Monday. According to Page Six, “the Obamas have been reported as buying a home in Rancho Mirage for at least two years, but the White House has denied previous reports.
“Michael S. Smith, who also has a home in Rancho Mirage, is believed to have the task of designing the home along with a vacation home in Hawaii that the Obamas also bought recently, Page Six said. Smith helped the Obamas decorate the White House and the Obamas have visited his home as well.”
And there’s good reason for Obama to stay away from Chicago, even though his presidential library will be located there. Although he helped his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel win the mayor’s post there (through some highly shifty shenanigans), the city has since turned in to hell on earth. Some 762 people were killed there in 2016, the deadliest year in two decades.
So Obama will split his time between a mansion in Cali and a mansion in Hawaii. He’ll jet in for the opening of his library in Chicago, but just like when he was president, he won’t be staying in the city for long.
So it’s true what they say, at least for Democrats: “You can’t go home.” But that means it really wasn’t ever home, doesn’t it? Republicans can’t wait to get back to their roots, while Democrats can’t wait to run from them. We’ll leave it to you to decide just what that really means.