printI can’t bring myself to break a sweat over Michelle Obama’s lavish vacation. The First Lady and daughter took along to Spain “68 Secret Service agents from the US,” and for “her entourage she had reserved 60 of the 129 rooms.”
The comparison to Marie Antoinette, down to the wave, is flattering, of course—to Michelle. But how stupid is it to suggest that individuals so privileged as these—who have set themselves and their offspring up for life by working the political process (i.e., by pelf)—could, by “toning down the flash,” humanise themselves “and signify that they sympathise with the setbacks of the people they were elected to serve.”
That was New York Daily News columnist Andrea Tantaros’s much-publicized criticism and attendant advice.
Yes, precisely: if the Obamas and their hangers-on tone down, I’ll feel so much better about them and their undeserved riches.
Dumb.
Besides, the metaphor is all wrong. This sojourn to Spain, the “sedate” soiree for Mexican President Felipe Calderon, down to the pelvis-shaking Beyonce—this is out of the MTV series, “Pimp my Ride.” Or Pimp my president.
UPDATE (Aug. 9): The Idiocracy at large has taunted Michelle and her posse by saying that the American economy could have done with their dollars. The royal party should have spent its money stateside.
The American cognoscenti knows so little about the money in their society. Government workers are paid out of taxes. In other words, the money they spend is money confiscated from taxpayers. Productive activities were suspended in order to fund these parasite. It’s a zero-sum game. The BHO family doesn’t produce anything; it consumes wealth. All told, even if Michelle vacationed in the US, the money she blows has already resulted in less economic activity somewhere unseen. It’s Bastiat’s elegant argument about ‘What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen’ all over again.
Exactly which hotel Mama Michelle and child patronize on their trip to Spain does not matter. Ms. Tantaros has it all wrong. What are they expected to do in Spain, stay at the local youth hostel? There is no way to “tone it down” outside of staying stateside.
When I see Michelle and child with packs on their backs or tents in their RV, putting their $5 bill for an overnight stay into a campground’s pay box in the California Redwoods, I’ll conclude that she is working hard to appear “like me.” Until then, she is just another of the Washington elite and she shouldn’t bother trying to look like “one of us.” It doesn’t work.
I am quite amazed by the number of secret service agents that went along. I often looked at Michelle Obama, big and mean-looking, and thought she could take on any likely number of opponents.
Granted, I’m being quite disrespectful here, but how little the Obamas respect the decorum and gravitas their station in life requires.
Who cares? We know what we have in Michelle Obama. Why do feign horror when she shows herself true to her real character? The Obamas are going to big dog it and live the high life. They just can’t help it. So, get over it. There are plenty of outrageous things about this bunch without getting our knickers in a twist over an opulent vacation.
At least we can thank Yomama for putting on the ostentatious spectacle.
I’ve never been able to shake the metaphor formed during the inauguration: the ‘Movin on up’ theme from that insipid TV show The Jeffersons.
Besides her speeches telling young girls that they need to get a good education (like she did) so that they can marry a president (like she did) to being tacky in public on just about every occasion when she leaves the White House, what else is new?
She sups on caviar and champagne with royalty as a vacation from the strenuous job of making the children of America eat spinach.
She is, after all the wife of our Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler. Doesn’t she deserve a trip like this? They make me sick.
My problem is not that the trip was taken, but the rank hypocrisy, of the Obamas’ when telling us that austerity is the name of the game.