Lazy W Ranch

Bush is on track to be the laziest president ever.

We misunderestimated George Walker Bush, a man with the heart of a champion and the work ethic of a French civil servant.

Sunday marked the 335th day, or part of a day, that Bush has spent at his ranch in Texas since becoming president. According to figures compiled by Mark Knoller, CBS Radio's veteran White House correspondent, this ties a record previously thought to be unassailable: Ronald Reagan's 335 presidential ranch days.

More amazingly, it took President Reagan 2,922 days - two full terms - to amass his record. Bush caught him on only the 1,667th day of his presidency. Put another way, Reagan spent 11.4 percent of his presidency at his Rancho del Cielo near Santa Barbara, Calif. To date, Bush has spent a full 20 percent of his presidency at his place near Crawford, Texas.

As a connoisseur of the leisure arts, I find Bush's achievement to be far more remarkable than Reagan's:

No. 1 - McLennan County, Texas, is a much less hospitable venue than Santa Barbara, Calif.

No. 2 - At 59, Bush is 15 years younger than Reagan was in the fifth year of his presidency and, presumably, should need less rest.

No. 3 - Bush also overcame the rest-and-recuperation advantage Reagan endured as a consequence of being wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt.

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Bush is now on pace to shatter Reagan's all-time, all-locale presidential vacation record of 436 days, a mark that no one thought would ever be broken. At the pace he's loafing, by the time Jan. 20, 2009, comes along, Bush will be alone in his greatness and can devote himself full-time to goofing off at the ranch.