Aides say the president will stay out of sight at his Crawford, Texas, ranch from Friday evening until the Democratic convention concludes July 29. He's expected back on the campaign trail the day after the convention.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/07/21/stay_the_course_bush_says/

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President Bush has spent the last three Augusts at his ranch in the scorched flatlands of Crawford, Tex.

But this year, the 2004 campaign has ruined Mr. Bush's Texas vacation. Or put another way, if Mr. Bush doesn't give up a lot of his summer holiday, the fear at the White House is that he could be on a permanent one after the first of the year.

Final details are to come, but the bottom line is that Mr. Bush will spend only two weeks at the ranch compared with his usual four. He will be there the last part of July, when the Democrats are at their convention in Boston and the Republican candidate traditionally lays low. He will also be there for less than a week in late August, around the height of the Olympics, when the White House expects Athens to drown out the bleat of the presidential campaign.

"It's one final opportunity to have a little down time before the final sprint to the finish line," the adviser said.

As with all decisions at the White House, politics was paramount. In a summer when Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" is attacking Mr. Bush for spending 42 percent of his first eight months in office on vacation instead of worrying about Al Qaeda , the image of Mr. Bush lazing away August on his 1,600 acres was not one that Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, particularly relished.

Still, there was debate over Mr. Bush's vacation within the White House. One group argued that the president should do whatever he wanted, while another, including Mr. Rove, said in essence that he should not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/politics/campaign/19letter.html