9 Most Embarrassing Presidential Vacation Shots (PHOTOS)

Presidential vacations -- the timing, the location, the length -- have long been a source of scrutiny for the media. Critics even got in on the action when Michelle Obama went to Spain for a long weekend earlier this month.

The First Family is off to Martha's Vineyard for their seemingly annual trip starting Thursday. While so far President Obama has, for the most part, dodged unflattering photos of himself while on vacation, the same doesn't necessarily hold true for his recent predecessors (the early '90s were cruel to a lot of us, and Bill Clinton was no exception).

Yet it seems the American public didn't have the same obsession with first family vacations before then (with the fair exception of Kennedy, but he always looked good). With that in mind, we give you 10 of the most embarrassing presidential vacation photos.

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George H.W. Bush walks the wintery streets of downtown Kennebunkport while on vacation in 1989. We know it's cold in Maine in the winter, but this hat has got to go. (AP Photo/Tonee Harbert, File)

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George H.W. Bush walks the wintery streets of downtown Kennebunkport while on vacation in 1989. We know it's cold in Maine in the winter, but this hat has got to go.

(AP Photo/Tonee Harbert, File)

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Photo

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Not so bad. Pretty silly.

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Comments

[Conk]

10:05 AM on 08/24/2010

What's embarrassing is that any of these goobers were ever president. The picture of the two Bushs is enough to make a person gag.

[davemartin7777]

04:49 PM on 08/20/2010

Why the heck is President Obama bodysurfing embarrassing??

Give me a break, every ocean loving person over six years old in Hawaii knows how to bodysurf.

It takes skill and coordination to bodysurf.

Here's a bodysurfer on a giant wave at Newport Beach's Wedge, watch it and ask yourself if it's "embarrassing."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUNOLeJjLVE

[Bev Ashley]

01:42 PM on 08/20/2010

W lied and said he would not play golf until the troops came home. First picture shows him playing golf with dad well after he said that. Actually Rush Limbaugh told the same lie about W last week. Trying to show up our current President, he said W never played golf again. Isn't that funny????? Satire you know.

[ziggrl]

07:22 PM on 08/20/2010

Bush didn't play golf after the war started. That picture was before that.

[Bev Ashley]

10:01 PM on 08/20/2010

SO SORRY NOT! He played plenty golf after his statement. I saw it on Olberman.

[WeCanDoMore]

12:08 PM on 08/23/2010

You're a fan of on purpose fake intelligence that led to war? For Profit? Halliburton, Cheney, C Street funding them and Blackwater too, who than turned around and donated to the C Streeters campaigns? The corruption and spin of the repubs is EPIC. To not see it is the height of denial.

[Linds West]

02:19 PM on 08/21/2010

Sorry, the caption right under the pic says August 1990, are we looking at the same pic?

[Bev Ashley]

03:35 PM on 08/21/2010

Nope the deer in the headlights pose was on the front page. You are missing BECK.

[beerent]

12:48 PM on 08/20/2010

These lists get worse by the day.

[Halsey]

12:46 PM on 08/20/2010

That's all they got?

[the964kid]

12:46 PM on 08/20/2010

Any picture with Bush in it is an embarrassment.

[Velvettazz]

12:01 PM on 08/20/2010

#7 One Gerald Ford in the White House is one too many.

[janie@atthelake]

01:05 PM on 08/20/2010

Pretty sure that is Bush2. Look at the pup...its Barney. Ford had a golden retriever.

[Velvettazz]

11:59 AM on 08/20/2010

#6 Where is Barbara's pool boy when you need him to push a wheelchair?

[inkongirl]

11:58 AM on 08/20/2010

I like the one of Obama in the waves. It seems symbolic of all the chaos he seems to be surrounded by these days.

[the964kid]

12:44 PM on 08/20/2010

If you say so...

[Velvettazz]

11:57 AM on 08/20/2010

#5 Tiger Woods shouldn't feel lonely. Presidents who don't know how to play golf should probably test out their skills on putt putt games.

[quiet sunset]

11:56 AM on 08/20/2010

Obama has decent form in a closeout wave. To the author of the article, it's body surfing, not board surfing. There's a different and a whole different look and feel.

[Velvettazz]

11:53 AM on 08/20/2010

Mutt and Jeff!

[ReadItNWeap]

11:37 AM on 08/20/2010

Pick #2 could be a poster for "Oops! I crapped my pants!"

[sugarmoes]

11:35 AM on 08/20/2010

now watch this drive! heh heh... heh heh... cain't git fooled agin!!! heh heh... right unka dick? i told 'em a big ol' lie but no one will sus... sus... no one will think i did cuz we sent men to their deaths and no one would expect a liar like us about that... riiiiight unka dick?

[DocHuff]

11:31 AM on 08/20/2010

Clinton looks like he is undressing the voluptuous ice-cream in his mind and thinking "Oh, the fun I am going to have with you". Hillary, of course, remains clueless of the infidelity being committed right in front of her eyes.