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EXCERPT “I think she’s happy to go out and support folks who have stood up for things that she thinks are important,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “But I don’t think she’s eager to jump into the fray in a very political way, and I don’t think she will.” With her husband’s poll numbers sliding, and many Democrats distancing themselves from him, Mrs. Obama, political analysts say, is the White House’s best hope for exciting the party’s lethargic base. “Her favorability is the highest of anybody we’ve got on the Democratic side right now,” said Celinda Lake, a...

The New York Times reports First Lady Michelle Obama's aides cautioned against her going on the early August European vacation in which she stayed at a 5-star resort in Spain and mingled with royalty. The lavish trip, the aides reportedly argued, could result in harm to her image. "Aides say privately that they warned her there would be a cost to the trip, but she overruled them, insisting it was a rare chance to spend time with Sasha and with a friend whose father had died," the paper reports. "But the intensity of the uproar -- including accusations that she...

When images of Jean Paul Gaultier-clad First Lady Michelle Obama on a $75,000-a-day Spanish holiday hit the wires, controversy was bound to erupt back home. Her carefully crafted image as "everywoman" was blown. In addition to the high cost, the evolving justifications for the trip offered by the White House's flack were just as dizzying. (snip) That's why the Marie Antoinette comparison is apt: The trip evokes a similar contempt for the plebeians. We might expect such detachment from celebrities, but not public servants. A leader shouldn't be living like a monarch when the rest of the country feels like...

It's good to be the king. From US News: Obamas Plan Fifth Vacation Since July There they go again. For the fifth time since July, the first family has set plans to board Air Force One for a frilly vacation, a 10-day return trip to exclusive Martha's Vineyard where they are expected to stay at the 28-acre oceanfront Blue Heron Farm that rents for up to $50,000 a week. But first the Obamas will be traveling to the Gulf Coast of Florida for a mini-vacation as a way to encourage other vacationing Americans to head to the beaches that have...

WASHINGTON--Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha returned from Spain on Sunday, a vacation at a lavish hotel on the Mediterranean coast that triggered her first controversy since becoming first lady. I'm told she made the trip because she promised one of her closest friends, a longtime Chicago pal who just lost her father, she would spend time with her. (snip) So why did Mrs. Obama go to Spain at this time? She's not tone-deaf politically. What was behind the "mother-daughter" vacation? A White House source told me that Blanchard's father passed away and Mrs. Obama was not able to make the...

Are you dreading your personal financial situation? Are you making all of the sacrifices that President Obama and Vice President Biden are calling for but you still feel like you need to get away and clear your head from all of the pressures of no money and possible insolvency? Don’t fret we all have to face hard times together. As president, Barry Hussein Soetoro told us we all have to have some skin in the game. Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha returned from Spain on Sunday, a vacation at a lavish hotel on the Mediterranean coast that triggered her first...

Michelle Obama's recent vacation in Spain, described by the White House press corps as a mother daughter trip, that also included over 30 of Michelle's closest friends, has resulted in even more public scrutiny of the profligate spending habits of the Obamas and in particular a comparison of Michelle to Marie Antoinette. The oft quoted ambiguous sentence, wrongly attributed to Marie, has become legend, "If the people don't have bread, let them eat cake"; however, it will forever portray a public disgust with ruling Elites who manage to flaunt opulence and wealth while their citizens flounder in economic despair....

"Uncomfortable" was the word of the day at Morning Joe when it came to discussing Michelle Obama's decision to go on a luxurious vacation to Spain in the midst of a recession—and to miss celebrating her husband's birthday with him to boot. Chuck Todd didn't go into details, but NBC's clearly ill-at-ease political director suggested: that this was a "private decision" by the First Lady; that it wouldn't have made any difference what the Pres. Obama's political advisors would have said; and that "you get the sense here that there was something more to this" than pure politics. Joe Scarborough...