Posted on 08/08/2010 7:59:21 AM PDT by Schnucki
What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain, which has prompted a New York Post columnist Andrea Tantaros to dub the First Lady a contemporary Marie Antoinette. As The Telegraph reports, while the Obamas are covering their own vacation expenses such as accommodation, the trip may cost US taxpayers as much as $375,000 in terms of secret service security and flight costs on Air Force Two.
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.
While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
I for one strongly believe that Michelle doesn’t give a crap what Americans think. Her hubby thinks he can do whatever he wants because he is President.
As a descendant of French (and Prussian) ancestors, I resent the comparison of Michelle to Marie Antoinette. Marie was given a bum rap by history. Read “To the Scaffold” and see for your selves.
I slept late & just got up. While I was waiting for my hot tea to steep I flipped on MSNBC & they were finishing a piece about the trip & it was not positive! They seemed to be talking about the anger it is generating & why it was inappropiate & also how she is not a private citizen.......
This story has some legs......... such a stunningly bad move that it makes you wonder........
The commoners will forgive The Kenyan and The Wookie in time for their Aug 19- Aug 29 vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. Remember, they are are betters.
/Sarcasm off
A truly excellent article
I think it's more than that. He thinks can do whatever he wants because no one has ever told him "no"! And, that still goes on today. He simply tunes out the people that tell him "no" and listens to the "yes" men.
Like the encroaching stains of the Gulf oil spill, this ‘vacation issue’ has now reached the international press and pressing into the American consciousness at the peak summer month of August when MANY in America are foregoing family vacations or simply cannot take even a day trip.
The Obamas are PAST beyond ‘ideological’ - they are just plain STUPID!
Obama is just one of many:
1) media,
2) academia
3) Hollywood
4) bureaucrats in DC
5) wall street MBA’s
Too many are serially out of touch with main stream America.
That’s why people like Sarah Palin scare the hell out of them.
“This story has some legs......... such a stunningly bad move that it makes you wonder........”
Indeed — one a couple of possibilities: 1. They (the O’s) are politically inept; 2. they are not planning on running for a 2nd term; 3. they are pretty sure that there will not be another presidential election in the US; 4. they are counting on their buddies in the MSM to cover for them.
My sense is that Barry wants to do his damage and jump.
“The commoners will forgive The Kenyan and The Wookie in time for their Aug 19- Aug 29 vacation in Martha’s Vineyard”
When it rains, it pours. Doubly delicious when the First Couple are their own “rainmakers.” Is Michael Steele channeling these two some behind-the-scenes bribes to get them to keep up this unending string of missteps to improve Republican electoral chances in November?
Maybe Obama really does want a Republican Congress to battle against so that with the blame-Bush excuse running out of steam, he’s got a built-in excuse for any policy failures (”Obamacare woulda worked, but the Republican Congress repealed it”). He and Michelle seem to be doing their best to make this happen.
The French revolutionaries had one good idea.
She is an Angry Person and to the extent she perceives that she is not getting the respect she thinks she deserves, she will become more and more angry.
As a Recovering Angry Person, I understand the process more than most, I think.
Over the years, she has developed a set of rules for how others are to behave toward her, and if they break one or more of her rules, she becomes upset and angry toward them.
Call the list of rules, Michelle’s Rules. For the most part, the rules are irrational. Every Angry Person’s rules are mostly irrational, at least to the extent that the Angry Person thinks they are allowed to become angry when someone breaks one of their rules.
IMO. FWIW. Your mileage may vary.
RE: #13
If you know an Angry Person, try filtering their angry outbursts through the filter I spelled out in #13 and see if it fits.
The Telegraph is printing the news the U.S. Lamestream media won’t. Excellent article that sums up Zero’s Regime quite well.
Here comes the Sun (King)...
I wonder if they will still vacation later this month? That’s gonna go over realllly well if they do..
She's actually just another Michelle Duvalier, a crass third world thugette.
You're right, but I suspect there is a little more to it. Obama has clearly lived a life of privilege, which included successful grandparents, political connections and the benefits of affirmative action. Many on FR wonder who financed his education and travels. Michelle is a Harvard graduate who moved up quickly by virtue of the Chicago Machine.
Lacking from their resumes is real life work experience while in college or in their early lives. The Obama's are strangers to farm work, factory work, construction and burger flipping. John Edwards was right when he said there are two Americas, but wrong about the nature of those two nations. One America is all about work, values and self sufficiency. The other America is about handouts, affirmative action and political payback. Can you guess which America the Obama's live in?
The only reason Michele and Barak campaigned with such intensity is the unlimited entertainment they would have. They can now put on airs beyond their wildest dreams.The Obamas only complain about public scrutiny when such scrutiny places them in a bad light.
Well said, and bears repeating.
It could have been anyone of his group that got elected and we would have the same results. Obama would probably in their cabinet.
Obama was picked precisely because he is half black - half white. I would not be surprised if his mother and father did it on purpose knowing that in the future such a mix of races would be, at some point, impossible to question knowing that the race card could be thrown no matter which side did the questioning.
With all that we have learned through Beck's continuing exposure of the progressive movement I bet there are several constructs of Obama running around out there just waiting for the opportunity to come to the fore.
Nutty conspiracy theory? Maybe. Maybe not. They have been quietly absorbing every institution in the U.S. for decades. Who says they didn't plan something like this.
“Let them eat cake.” And use it for shelter. And currency. And then get taxed to death for being so greedy with the darn cake!
“The Obama(o) presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancient Regime: extravagant and out of touch”
Socialism has always been a trip backwards, and Obamao is heading for the stone age. Of course this seems ancient, pre enlightenment, pre reformation, back to a time when the ruling class didn’t worry about what the serfs thought. Michelle has no sense of our history, no sense of her duty to America, no sense of right and wrong. She is an ignorant pop star. Let her eat cake.
I forgot about her and her old man. You make a better comparison, or perhaps Emelda "I don't have enough shoes" Marcos.
Yes. And, even apart from the Marie Antoinette angle, which is considerably, just on the personal level, there seems to be something unsettling about this trip.
Why would the First Lady chose the President’s birthday week to go to Spain — it’s not as if her schedule was driven by any official events? This also is an “image” problem, it seems to me.
I agree.
I noticed how most of the articles on this subject point out that every year Laura Bush also took a vacation apart from Dubya. Ever hear about those vacations? I didn’t.
Turns out Laura has a group of long-time girl friends she gets together with regularly. Her vacations consisted of meeting these friends at U.S. National Parks for camping or hiking trips.
What a difference.
And I’m pretty sure Laura never planned to be out of town for Dubya’s birthday. Just sayin’.
I think this is some good insight.
Wasn’t the Obama Presidency a 1970’s sitcom named The Jeffersons?
Yes, I don’t see how they can change their announced vacation schedule now — at least not without attracting even more criticism. But they’re pretty poor politicians, so I have every expectation it’ll be full-speed ahead anyway.
That’s the thing about this Spain trip. The furor won’t even have a chance to die down. When M gets back, she and the fam will deign to do a token trip to the Gulf of Mexico — whatever symbolism they hoped that trip would provide, M just screwed it up by pointing out that the *real* beach vacations are in $3,000 a night rooms on the Med — and then ten days in . . . wait for it . . . Martha’s Vineyard.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Obama: The Ultimate Liberally-Used Black Man.
And, yes, Bob Parks happens to be black.
They sure are whole heartedly trying to revive an old sterotype that had long since fell away. They seem to enjoy greatly spending lavishly like they have a money tree to pick from. I will remember in November.
I do have to agree......I would not be away from my husband on his birthday unless it was completely unavoidable. Good point!
And it’s even worse for a public figure, I think. It seems to me a wife is trying to send some kind of message to do this when she knows it will be reported on over and over again all over the world.
Agree. Apart from everything else, Marie ANtoinette was beautiful and charming.
The difference being thst Marie Antoinette was a virtual prisoner at Versailles due to the court etiquette and customs of that time, had never been to other parts of France, let alone traveled to other countries (since leaving her native Austria as an adolescent) — there were no television shows with 24 hour news updates on what was going on around the world...
What bothered people was not what Marie Antoinette did, but who she was. Previous kings had all had mistresses who spent extravagently about whom they complained — and the people would love the (virtuous) queen. Louis XVI adored Marie Antoinette and never even thought of having a mistress, so the love/hate split that the people usually experienced got short-circuited. Apart from that, she was hated from her arrival in France simply for being Austrian — the Austro-Hungarian empire having been an enemy of France.
Probably too late but they could still mitigate the damage they've done to their image and party. Not a lot but some.
On an earlier thread someone pointed out George actually worked for and earned his “move up”.
The atmosphere at Versailles was poisonous--all sorts of false stories were spread about Marie Antoinette. She had become very unpopular with the French people before the Revolution even began.
As a Far Side cartoon once made clear, what she should have said was "Let them eat cake and ice cream."
In 1977 Michael Bilandick (sp?), the then mayor of Chicago, went for a winter vacation to Florida, which he apparently paid for himself. Shortly after he and his wife arrived in the Sunshine State, Chicago had a 500 year blizzard, one I personally experienced. Bilandick, et al, stayed in Florida rather than return to help while everything, including the CTA, broke down. When Bilandick ran for mayor again, the Chicago voters took revenge, booting him out of office because of his conduct during the blizzard and electing Jayne Byrne.
Looks like the Obamas are crassly doubling down on that very kind of arrogance.
I think she bitterly hates America and Americans. Hence, this mostly taxpayer financed, unbelievably, obscenely crass and expensive trip in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression is her way of giving us all the finger, spitting in our faces, and following up with a thumb to our collective eyes.
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