In one respect at least, George W. Bush will improve on the record of Ronald Reagan. By the end of next week, Mr Bush will have spent 430 days of his seven-year presidency on vacation at his estate in Crawford, Texas - almost a fifth of his tenure.

The famously laid-back Mr Reagan clocked up a 436-day modern record, mostly at his ranch in Santa Barbara, California. But that took eight years. Mr Reagan liked to spend a lot of his time on a horse: "There is nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse," he suggested.