Posted on 08/09/2010 1:06:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There’s a lot of talk about Michelle and Sasha Obama’s mother-daughter trip with 40 friends to a ritzy resort on the coast of Spain, and some of the commentary is a little harsh. Andrea Tantaros of the New York Daily News calls the first lady a “material girl” and a “modern-day Marie Antoinette”--but she also brings up a valid point about the cost to taxpayers of taking an estimated 70 Secret Service agents and Air Force Two on an overseas vacation. Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post writes that the attacks are unfair and that it’s not reasonable to expect the first family to have a “stay-cation” in Washington, cleaning out closets at the White House.
Maureen Dowd’s column on this in the Sunday New York Times quotes Obama adviser David Axelrod saying that “not everything is political theater.” Axelrod continued, “Folks in the public eye are also human beings ... If you have the ability to show your kid a part of the world and you can do that together before they get to the age where they don’t want to do anything with you, I don’t think it’s right that you have to defer it because of the politics.”
He makes a good point, and I’m a big fan of foreign travel for kids. I’m also all for mother-daughter trips together. But surely the Obamas have enough foreign travel coming up--to places other than five-star resorts--where the girls can see how people from other nations live and what it’s like for kids who aren’t as blessed as they are. The president’s canceled trip to Asia hasn’t been rescheduled yet, but why not take the girls along, even if they have to miss some school? The only time I ever got to travel to a far-off place when I was a kid was when I accompanied my dad on a business trip. I suspect kids who can do that learn a lot more than they would have in the classroom.
Part of the problem with the trip to Spain is that Mrs. Obama was photographed wearing clothes by Jean Paul Gaultier, an expensive haute-couture French designer. Glamour magazine’s coverage (with photos) calls her “an ambassador of total glam when she travels.” Of course we all want the first lady to look great, but choosing way-out-there expensive designers like Gaultier might be feeding the narrative that there’s a disconnect between the White House and the rest of the country. I think Mrs. Obama does a great thing when she chooses up-and-coming American designers--as she did when she asked Jason Wu to do her inaugural gown--or when she mixes edgy American designs with J. Crew standards.
[See photos of Michelle Obama.]
If I were first lady, I’d have two rules: When out in public, I’d only wear clothes by American designers, and when on vacation, I’d only go to towns inside the United States.
Think of the excitement if Mrs. Obama had convinced her 40 friends to stay at an expensive resort (and there are plenty) on the Gulf Coast or in Florida. Or if they’d gone to see the Tetons or the Grand Canyon or Santa Fe or Macinaw Island. How about taking over a luxury resort at Half Moon Bay? The California economy could certainly use the business. The Obamas are already scheduled to go to Martha’s Vineyard, which is great. They need to have more vacations like that: an opportunity to have fun with friends while also sending a strong message of support for America’s small businesses and small towns.
Just waiting for the drumbeats urging Hillary to run start coming up.
“Let’s Hear it for the Rainbow Tour...”
Unbelievable.
First, the assumption that it is the US taxpayers' responsibility to enhance the mother-daughter relationship between the First Lady and her youngest child.
Second, the idea that this is an accurate description of what is going on here: a multimillion dollar boondoggle involving an entourage of more than 100 people on the taxpayers' dime to an exclusive European resort known as one of the playgrounds of the world's wealthiest hedonists.
This is the First Lady treating her husband's office as a winning lottery ticket, not as a serious responsibility.
Its so frickin' weird and the comparison to the constant bashing and nit-picking of Bush is 20 stories tall.
“Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post writes that the attacks are unfair and that it’s not reasonable to expect the first family to have a “stay-cation” in Washington, cleaning out closets at the White House. Maureen Dowd’s column ... quotes Obama adviser David Axelrod saying ... ‘If you have the ability to show your kid a part of the world and you can do that together before they get to the age where they don’t want to do anything with you, I don’t think it’s right that you have to defer it because of the politics.’ He makes a good point, and I’m a big fan of foreign travel for kids. I’m also all for mother-daughter trips together. But surely the Obamas have enough foreign travel coming up—to places other than five-star resorts—where the girls can see how people from other nations live and what it’s like for kids who aren’t as blessed as they are.’”
I’ve got an idea for the jet-setting mother-daughter team: how about a trip to Kenya to stay in one of the huts the Obamas live in there? That will allow the daughter to meet some of her relatives her idiot father is so proud of and will allow—in Axelhead’s words—the daughter to “see how people from other nations live” and see how she’d be living if she were in a third-world Marxist country (like her idiot father is trying to turn the U.S. into).
I remember when bubba said they hitlery and chelsea were gong to India because chelsea wanted chicken tandoori.
I think the trip was all about the Indians reneging on a deal they made with Enron. That deal ultimately helped destroy Enron.
Brilliant! a new beer guy has been born! Thanks for the laughs and keep em coming!
Love those!
ya...
The Obama’s are simply following the advice of the late Jim Morrison:
“I’M GONNA GET MY KICKS BEFORE THE WHOLE SHITHOUSE GOES UP IN FLAMES”
Mrs. Obama’s vacation to Spain will cost taxpayers well over $400,000... probably money borrowed from China. With record spending and $1 trillion deficits, federal debt to GDP at 61% and climbing and the national debt interest payment of $1.1 billion per day, do the American people really need to have this lavish expense added to our dismal fiscal plight? Perhaps Mrs. Obama will bring a large dessert filled “doggie-bag” back from Spain for the 25 million unemployed Americans who wonder if they have enough money for bread... then she can simply say to them: “Here... let them eat cake!”
I saw Axelrod saying he thought she deserved it. It might look like I’m bowing down. But I’m really just making sure my powder is dry.
Reminds of the story of when Anwar Sadat doubled the price of bread in Egypt. Then went to stay at one of his villas. He went out on the balcony and was concerned by all the black smoke coming from the nearby town. So he sent someone to check it out. Seems like the ENTIRE country was rioting. Looking for his head.
Obama is ensuring his place as a one term POS POTUS. Let him have at it. This is another straw on the camel’s back. I’m ALL FOR them piling on the straw. When the back breaks I’ll be ready. Are you?
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