Friday, August 6, 2010

Queen Michelle’s Spanish Holiday



You know Michelle Obama crossed the line when the liberal New York Daily News says she is acting like Marie Antoinette!
Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.
But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing  summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.
Reports are calling the lodgings of  Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.
To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny. […] 

Instead, Michelle Obama seems more like a modern-day Marie Antoinette - the French queen who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects' plight - than an average mother of two. While she's spent her time in the White House telling parents they should relieve their chubby kids' dependency on sugar and stressing the importance of an organic veggie garden, hopping a jet toEurope to meet with Spanish royalty isn't the visual the White House probably wants to project. Perhaps they've forgotten the damning image of John Kerry, on the eve of the 2004 election, windsurfing off the coast of Nantucket?

Everyone expect POTUS and FLOTUS to take a few vacations while in office. However, the problem with the Obamas vacationing is both quantity and quality. The Chicago Sun Times details the excess. 
Mrs. Obama’s U.S. Air Force jet landed at Malaga on Wednesday; she skipped celebrating her husband’s 49th birthday with him. (Daughter Malia, 12, is at overnight camp.) Mrs. Obama pays for personal expenses — as do her friends who arrived on their own — but that only covers a small part of the expense. Taxpayers pick up the tab for staff and security at the exclusive hotel and most of the expenses for the plane.
First ladies often go on vacations, with and without the president. An issue for Mrs. Obama may be how many: New York in March; Chicago, over Memorial Day; Los Angeles in June; Camp David — sort of an extension of the White House — in July; Maine in July, to highlight Acadia National Park, and now Spain. Mrs. Obama is glamorizing Spain’s coastal resorts before her Aug. 14 first family weekend visit to Florida’s Gulf Coast, to encourage tourists scared away by the oil spill. Starting Aug. 19, the Obamas will spend 10 days in Martha’s Vineyard. 
I have mentions in several past posts that since taking office the Obamas have become tone deaf to the images they put out. I think it is time to revise that from tone deaf to simply not caring. How could the Obama's not realize how unseemly this excess looks, especially given the weak job numbers out today.

When Obama asked for the job, he knew his would be a recession presidency.  As such some of the usual glamour of the job would have to be curtailed (at least until the economy showed strong signs of recovery).  Yet once in office, just like with his economic policies, Obama does exactly the opposite of what is called for. He even steps on the accelerator when going the wrong way.

Via: CNBC

6 comments:

Angie Lee said...

They're just stimulating the economy, Clifton.

Granted, it's the economy of SPAIN, but still...

Jenny said...

I answered a phone survey the other night. The last questions was "How do you think Michelle Obama is doing her job? excellent, good, fair etc" I said "I have not idea, but she sure knows how to vacation."

Kelsey said...

As a stay at home Mom of 2, and my husband being a small business owner, a vacation for us is driving to visit family for a few days. I can't even imagine a life of vacationing almost every month, and NICE vacations! Ones that 99% of the American population would never be able to afford. And on our tab! What a joke. Election time can't come soon enough. They are in for a rude awakening.

spc said...

Jenny: Michelle Obama isn't elected to office. This isn't a monarchy and she's no one's queen but Barack's. Who was the survey from?

I thought this story was a joke the first time I heard it- someone had to be exaggerating about 40 "friends" on vacation with her.

Joke is on us. Grab your ankles America.

Anonymous said...

"Let them eat cake."

2nd Anonymous

Anonymous said...

I just saw this post! Maybe 40 "friends" and 60-70 rooms IS cutting back, who knows, she may have BOUGHT the hotel if we weren't in a recession

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