If it had been a Republican doing that during a recession, you would have demanded his hide.
It's all political. Something that would make people livid if "their guy" did it is just fine if "our guy" does it. If I wanted to take the time, I could probably dig up angry posts here about how Bush was doing some leisure activity while somebody was suffering somewhere.
At least we can recognize the hypocrisy involved in such judgments. Or should.
It would be nice if Obama would at least try to set an example if he thinks emissions are such a big deal. As Glen Reynolds said, he'll believe there's a climate crisis when those telling us there's a climate crisis start acting like there's a climate crisis.