If there was one thing that the Obama campaign did superbly well, it was to control the image of the candidate. The campaign portrayed Obama as sensitive to middle class needs. Remember that photo of Obama with his feet upon a desk and holes in each of his soles? What about Joe Biden commuting daily on Amtrak? Who can forget Michelle Obama with her simple frock on The View? Also remember how the Obama campaign mocked John McCain and his wife for their excess wealth and multiple homes?
What a difference a year makes.
Gone is any pretense to avoid the elitist label. Today it is Waygu steak dinners at the White House, date night in New York City, $600 sneakers, shopping in Paris and expensive handbags, all in the face of a worsening recession.
To be fair, under normal circumstances, such things for a president are inconsequential. No one would or should notice. Presidential travel, White House dinners and displays of personal wealth are all part of the job. However, these are not normal times.
As job losses mount daily and inflation is barking at our door, Americans everywhere are tightening their belts, doing without and curtailing their excesses. Given these circumstances, it would be nice to know that our president shares in our discomfort. Image counts!
It isn’t like Obama did not know he would be a "Recession President". So why be so obvious with the elitist image? Where are those media savvy people who worked on his campaign? Is there no one there to tell Obama and Michelle to tone it down a tad?
To make matters worse, it isn’t just the personal displays of conspicuous consumption. The Obama administration has displayed carelessness with the spending of our tax dollars. For example, the New York City flyover photo op that cost almost $400,000, expanding the size of his cabinet with the excessive use of czars, spending heavily on communications despite have an extremely cozy White House Press Corp. Just today we learned that $18 million is being spent to redesign recovery.gov!
As polls are starting to show that disillusionment with Obama is starting to set in with the electorate, these images of excess during a time of recession will only add fuel to the fire.
My advice for Obama is to return to the carefully crafted images of being middle class. Instead of date night in New York, how about a simple picnic on the White House lawn eating the vegetables Michelle planted in the garden. He only has to pretend to be austere until he fixes the economy like he promised!
What a difference a year makes.
Gone is any pretense to avoid the elitist label. Today it is Waygu steak dinners at the White House, date night in New York City, $600 sneakers, shopping in Paris and expensive handbags, all in the face of a worsening recession.
To be fair, under normal circumstances, such things for a president are inconsequential. No one would or should notice. Presidential travel, White House dinners and displays of personal wealth are all part of the job. However, these are not normal times.
As job losses mount daily and inflation is barking at our door, Americans everywhere are tightening their belts, doing without and curtailing their excesses. Given these circumstances, it would be nice to know that our president shares in our discomfort. Image counts!
It isn’t like Obama did not know he would be a "Recession President". So why be so obvious with the elitist image? Where are those media savvy people who worked on his campaign? Is there no one there to tell Obama and Michelle to tone it down a tad?
To make matters worse, it isn’t just the personal displays of conspicuous consumption. The Obama administration has displayed carelessness with the spending of our tax dollars. For example, the New York City flyover photo op that cost almost $400,000, expanding the size of his cabinet with the excessive use of czars, spending heavily on communications despite have an extremely cozy White House Press Corp. Just today we learned that $18 million is being spent to redesign recovery.gov!
As polls are starting to show that disillusionment with Obama is starting to set in with the electorate, these images of excess during a time of recession will only add fuel to the fire.
My advice for Obama is to return to the carefully crafted images of being middle class. Instead of date night in New York, how about a simple picnic on the White House lawn eating the vegetables Michelle planted in the garden. He only has to pretend to be austere until he fixes the economy like he promised!
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6 comments:
Great piece and I totally agree! Not so common anymore...:)N
i agree!
Nikki:
Yeah, whatever happened to Leading by Example?
It's Me:
Welcome to ABC. I am little surprised you agree. Most of my liberal friends say I am being petty when I mention the image thing.
It's not so much the high-on-the-hog lifestyle during a recession that bothers me, it's the other point you make: that Obama's supporters blasted McCain and his family for their wealth and yet say nothing about ostentatious displays from the Obamas. That goes for the press, too, of course.
I would like to say "Amen" to Deuce Geary's comments. I don't like hypocrites, especially when they are the POTUS. He complained about the McCains (although her money came from inheritance and further good investments and not the taxpayers' dime), but he spends our tax dollars on nonsensical shopping trips and date nights in another city.
The press is so outrageously biased that I cannot bear to watch it anymore.
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