RoR: Forum

Clinton pulled this same crap in NY all the time, but at least he had the decency not to pretend he loved his wife or daughter.

Post 1

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 2:28am

I LOVED this article! It's a not very subtle questioning of the Obama couple's elitist view of his "presidential" position. Loved it. The jab about Jackie and Nancy being old hat at buying clothes in Paris was priceless.

Post 2

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 10:18am

Sorry. I feel sorry for Alexandra's dining and transportation inconveniences in Paris, but let's face it - like it or not - Obama is a head of state (the largest, arguably most powerful state), and cannot gad about without the security measures accorded powerful heads of state.

Every US president in the last sixty or more years has been expected to drag around this heavy contingent of secret service. Every country is fearful of being embarrassed (or worse) by an unfortunate incident on their soil, and so takes extraordinary preventive measures to assure no more than pleasant photo ops are seen by international media.

This folderol is just SOP, not just for the US president, but for other heads of state as well. And it is probably - as much - a sense of misplaced pride for average people to see 'their leader' fawned over by foreigners.

That said, whenever I finally get a time and opportunity to see Paris, I'm going to write the president (whomever is in the office then), and ask that he or she please schedule their trip around my vacation. Although, If I get my way (my wife would differ), I'd be cruising down the French canals, thumbing my nose at any dignitaries on the shore.

jt
(Edited by Jay Abbott on 6/25, 10:21am)

Post 3

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 12:16pm

Feb 25, 2009 : "I yield my time to the hypocrite from another state"

Post 4

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 1:08pm

The long-term solution is clearly for York and her husband to establish homes in several different countries and jet off to another when they hear of a parade coming up.

Post 5

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 2:31pm

Wait, don't you guys find it inappropriate for the head of state to treat his position as a four year, taxpayer funded, vacation for his whole damn family? Kinda ghetto, if you ask me.

Post 6

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 2:35pm

Teresa:

Kinda ghetto, if you ask me.

Word!

Post 7

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 3:15pm

LOL

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 8:50pm

Teresa,

Sorry, but I don't see anything new about this. I may think his politics and policies suck, but the very last thing I'd want to see is some moron getting a shot at him (unless it's a verbal shot). Presidents travel. First ladies travel. The kiddies don't particularly cost any more because the security is there for either mommy or daddy anyhow.

And there are so many bigger, scarier issues to take him to task on...

jt

Post 9

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 9:29pm

So many bigger issues? Okay, people, (not just you Jay,) cut the crap. Are you telling me that if Obama were both invading Canada and rounding up all the Jews you would tell people to keep quiet on the one issue because they other issue is so much more important?

This nonsense of prioritizing complaints and only speaking out on the big ones simply encourages a dictator to do as many objectionable things as possible, because the people will only have the energy to call him on one misdeed at a time.

Post 10

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 3:18am

What Ted said.

Jay, the whole idea behind the article isn't that Obama is disruptive, but that he's disruptive because he and his wife are 100% "unworldly." There doesn't appear to be any curiosity or fascination with the world and the history of civilization in either of they're backgrounds.

They had no intention of ever visiting Europe or Saudi Arabia while civilians, while other presidents and their mates were already very familiar with the world long before being elected. Past presidents and their wives were familiar because they were actually interested in the world long before being elected.

Post 11

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 6:11am

Teresa,
Your post #5 was kinda trailer trash if you ask me.

Post 12

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 9:43am

Teresa,

First, I certainly do not agree with Glenn (post #11 is simply unwarranted and inappropriate).

I did re-read the article though, after reading your post #10. While Obama may well be one of our most 'unworldly' presidents, I don't see that she quite really makes that point as much as just complaining "why is he doing it (now) - making such trips -on our tax dollars?" It just appears to me as coming across more as a partisan gripe, based more on her dislike of Obama than on the circumstances.

No POTUS or his immediate family can even run down to a news stand without incurring enormous security expenses. Neither can they just hop on a commercial flight for vacations, so I just think that the fact he's doing it now - even if he hadn't made such trips in earlier private life -is kind of moot. We may not like the timing, but until he starts behaving (grabbing perks) like a kid in the candy store, it not the worst thing we'll see from this president.

jt
(Edited by Jay Abbott on 6/26, 9:53am)

Post 13

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 9:52am

Ted,

Oh merde!

It's not so much prioritizing complaints, as finding an effective voice. If we gripe and complain about everything, we marginalize ourselves. Like the boy who cries wolf, nobody will listen when we point out the major problems.

jt

Post 14

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 11:17am

I don't see this as a serious complaint - but more of a way to examine an interesting quirk in this president.

Some presidents have been sincere in their beliefs and acted as if their principles applied to them as well as to the great unwashed public (think of Jimmy Carter - he drank his own kool-aid).

Other politicians flat-out live a lie - that is my estimation of Gore who lives in a mansion, flies around in a private jet, makes big bucks off of the green movement while refusing to debate knowledgeable opponents.

Obama seems unique to me. I think he is a True Believer (although he isn't letting us know what it is he really believes in). But he doesn't see himself as someone the rules apply to. LBJ was like that, but in the typical sleazy politician's way - he did his thing behind closed doors. What I see in Obama is a level of narcissism and entitlement that rises significantly above that of most national level politicians - and that's saying something.

If he isn't so narcissistic as to be blind to the contrast of his flying around while talking of sacrifice and national crisis... then his people are purposely 'spending' some of his political capital (popularity) to use up the finite daily quantity of media attention on minor negative press so that it isn't available to focus on the massive juggernaut of his legislative agenda that is marching through congress in blitzkrieg fashion.

We spend our time quibbling about his date-night with Michelle while his minions march Cap-and-Trade, Obama-Care and who know what else into law. He's the magician, standing in plain sight, distracting us while the stagehands move things in and out of the trapdoor.

Post 15

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 2:12pm

Your post #5 was kinda trailer trash if you ask me.

Aaaaawe. Why's that, Glenn? I had no idea you were an Obama supporter.

(Edited by Teresa Summerlee Isanhart on 6/26, 2:17pm)

Post 16

Friday, June 26, 2009 - 2:22pm

We may not like the timing, but until he starts behaving (grabbing perks) like a kid in the candy store, it not the worst thing we'll see from this president.

Maybe it's just a symptom of poor upbringing, but it's starting to look like Imelda's shoe closet.

Post 17

Monday, June 29, 2009 - 4:47pm

Alexandra asked that I post this:

*The Royal Obamas *

**Flopping Aces reports that it took a Boeing 757 and a fleet of armored cars for Michelle's taxpayer-paid sight seeing tour !**

*/Michelle One/*

On Sunday, Obama flew back to the United States on Air Force One. His wife, two daughters and her mother did a bit of shopping in Paris before taking their own Boeing 757 (C -32) over to London to do some sight seeing.

We all remember Obama's admonishment to corporate CEO's in February:
"You can't get corporate jets, you can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime."

Apparently that doesn't apply to his wife.

The London Times opened it's description of Michelle's visit this way:

"Motorcycle outriders, armored Chevrolets and bullet-headed men in raincoats criss-crossed London yesterday as Michelle Obama and her daughters spent a second day on an unofficial visit to the capital. Michelle's motorcade shut down London streets as the First Lady of the World and her children go for Fish and Chips at a pub in Mayfair."

The entourage inside the restaurant was 15 people while dozens more wait outside. Include the dozens of Air Force personnel to fly and service the plane, embassy personnel and other staff and we are talking about a serious expenditure of tax payer dollars.

Meanwhile

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and won't be able to take their family on a summer holiday.

Despite their circumstances they'll still be expected to fork over the tax dollars to pay for Michelle's trip.

__________________________________________________________________

Make that "trips." I for one don't expect Michelle to have the decency to settle for one little shopping trip to Paris and London with less than six months on the job. Please. Hong Kong, Rome, and Tokyo are beckoning! Any excuse to go will do, or none at all.

I get two weeks paid vacation at work, but I'm never able to take advantage of them. I'm embarrassed that the First Lady is so comfortable taking advantage of the entire country to satisfy her curiosity. She ought to be ashamed.

Post 18

Monday, June 29, 2009 - 4:54pm

And this from Alexandra (she's very very busy, and I don't mind :):

I was surprised that so many of your readers didn't get to the meat of my piece, although some of them did, so I will simply pass by the ones who got stuck on the inconveniences of my time in Paris, because it should be clear that this family cavorting is intentionally or unintentionally--operative either way--a smokescreen for the media and naive public of all nations to distract them from the many deep and serious issues that are going on in Washington with the end game of destroying our Capitalistic system of government and controlling our personal liberties under his "leadership." (Steve Wolfer seems to have got my point on this)./ And/, it is not for nothing that I cannot remember another President, who had the /bald effrontery /to send his wife and kids on an /extensive holiday /in a separate plane, complete with entourage and security, especially while crying "crisis" on the economic front, and it /is/ worth noting that although, heretofore uninitiated from lack of curiosity to worldly experiences as this family is, our tax dollars are providing them a free ride to the ball. Obama's daily outbreaks of flagrant, in-our-face hypocrisies, subjectivism, narcissism, flippant/arrogant "me" immaturity, and obsessive power-lust limned in my article are only symptoms of a viral philosophical-political illness that festers in the very center of his being /and will infect all of us if we do not name and resist even the symptoms, /which is how I end the article, with that warning. My last paragraph sums up the theme of my offering.

Thanks for all,
Alexandra

Post 19

Monday, June 29, 2009 - 6:37pm