It’s been quite a week for FLOTUS (First Lady Of The United States) Michelle Obama and the youngest of the first couple’s daughters, Sasha. But more on that in a moment.
First, it’s good to be back. The two-week hiatus was a good opportunity to veg out and try to ignore the reality of our country’s abysmal economy, the unrelenting unemployment, the runaway train-ride towards being overwhelmed by illegal aliens while the federal government sues anyone who wants to enforce existing laws designed to combat the problem. Ah yes, how nice it’s been to ignore it all. Kind of like, you know… being President.
AP Photo/Sergio Torres
As for the first lady, I’m so happy that Michelle had a chance to get away from the drudgery of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. And Spain is such a great place to spread the wealth around, isn’t it?
Uh, perhaps for them but not, apparently, for us minions:
In July, Michelle Obama showed us all how concerned she was with the desperation of businesses in the Gulf states who are losing hundreds of millions of tourism dollars due to the BP Oil Spill. In a warm show of community unity, she traveled to the Florida Panhandle, hit hard by the oil spill and boldly stated that families who are “looking for things to do with their kids this summer… this is a wonderful place to visit.” And she sounded so sincere, didn’t she?
Then she went back to Washington to pack for a week-end trip in Maine. You may remember that was the trip where the family dog got his own chartered plane to join the family.
Last week, in true Marie Antoinette fashion, she jetted off on the Vice-President’s 757 Jumbo Jet with youngest daughter Sasha, a few dozen of her closest friends, a complete staff of secret service and attendants and spent the last 5 days in a luxury vacation area on the Mediterranean Sea in southern Spain…
But she’s back home now and all is well. If she hurries, she’s got just enough time to do a new PSA (Public Service Announcement) encouraging us minions to vacation in the Gulf of Mexico before she has to jump aboard Air Force One with the entire family for yet another vacation, this one on Martha’s Vinyard. I wonder if the dog will have his own jetski.
Of course, she’s entitled to a vacation, and all first families have taken them. My point is simply this: Adding up hotel suites, private cottages by the sea, meals and transportation while there probably added roughly several million dollars to the coffers of Spain. It could have been the coffers of the businesses in the Gulf of Mexico. And it would have prevented the inevitable comparison to Marie Antoinette.
But that would be an unfair comparison… While Michelle wants to put OUR kids on a strict diet, at least Marie Antoinette is purported to have said “Let ’em eat cake.”
Pass the twinkies…
Gerry Ashley
Grand Rants 
I don’t find the comparison to Marie Antoinette to be an apt one either. Marie has a reputation for extravagance but this was also traditionally expected. For all the complaints of the money wasted “frivolously” on clothes, a queen could not be dressed poorer than people lower than her and outshined by them.
Then there’s also the fact that much of the hate Marie received was undeserved-no matter what she did, she could do nothing right in the eyes of many. The “let them eat cake” statement is almost assuredly untrue as well.
Unless the point to be made from the comparison is that Michelle is as wrongly maligned as Marie was and painted as worse than she is regardless of her actions, I wouldn’t compare her to Marie Antoinette.
Correct, Lee. I believe it was Jean-Jacques Rousseau who actually coined the term in “Confessions” but for some reason, it gets attributed to Antoinette (which is why I wrote she was “purported to have said” it).
Plus, her very name has become a symbolic for “ostentatious luxury by the super rich in the face of national problems and the hardships of the poor…” (Wikipedia) And that describes precisely the image both Michelle and Barack project with their lavish living (Far beyond what Bush and even the Clintons did) but most especially in a time where we are being told to accept 9% unemployment as “the new norm.” Their arrogance is just amazing. People in the Gulf States were watching their way of life and means to earn a living disappear while Obama not only took his time responding, but was too busy singing “Hey Jude” along with Sir Paul McCartney who showed all the class of a beer-fart in a wooden pew in church with his cheap shot at Dubya.
Thanks for your reply. Good eye, too!
Why did she have to go to spain when she could have spent our tax payers money here in this vast country . there is more to see in the USA then in spain. .
I believe the obama’s are very arrogant and so out of touch with the American people..
Can’t wait until 2010, 2012 Out with these buggers..
The problem with the Obamas is that they are so full of themselves. Obama got elected on nothing more than soundbites and lies crafted to cover his real agenda. Now that he’s in office, he doesn’t give a rat’s ass what people think. He’s going to implement his agenda, piece by piece until he is stopped.
The mere fact that he has bypassed Congress for confirmation of virtually ALL of the support staff (Czars) is further proof that he has no desire for the US citizens to know what his true goals and agenda are. His hope is that he will be able to get enough of it in place so that he can’t lose re-election.
I’m convinced he is the single biggest threat to the Constitution in the history of this country.
He may try to shove as much of his agenda down our throats between November and January during the Lame-Duck Congress (the time between the election and when the winners take their seats in January).
Also, look for a secret end-run amnesty program for all the illegal aliens that bypasses Congressional scrutiny. He might attempt to do this through an executive order. If he’s successful, he might just create enough new liberal voters to carry him to victory in 2012′s re-election bid.
With these lofty in-your-face-America goals, do you really think they’re going to worry about the public image of Michelle jetting off for a luxury vacation with dozens of friends at our expense?
In the 8 years of Bush or the 8 years of Clinton before him, does anyone recall such arrogance at the taxpayer’s expense with absolutely NO return on the investment?
Then she went back to Washington to pack for a week-end trip in Maine. You may remember that was the trip where the family dog got his own chartered plane to join the family.
Su Kesme: I’m confused by your comment. You have pasted in my 5th paragraph, word for word. Did you want to comment on that? I will be happy to reply if you wish to make a comment regarding this. Thank you.
Thanks this made for intriguing reading. I want your wordpress theme!
bill gates…
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