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Michelle Obama's Spain Trip --
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Anonymous
In your case, I doubt that the US taxpayer is obligated to pay one cent for your vacation soo go wherever you wish. |
Anonymous
| Her next stop (FL) is for what--two days? Her major summer vacations have been the Spanish Riviera (hobnobbing with royalty yesterday) and upcoming Martha's Vineyard (American royalty). Whatever. You can go where you like; I presume you didn't stand at a press conference telling everyone to bring their families and pocket books to FL? |
Anonymous
| Why is this such a surprise. Most politicians and their wives are hyypocrites. So are the Obamas. I find it really intresting that she was away for her husband's birthday. |
aprilmayjune
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Great point. |
Anonymous
|
The First Family doesn't go anywhere, including school drop-off, without security. So remove that from the equation.
As for the cost of the trip itself, I understand they paid personally. How many DC millionaires vacationed overseas this year? Many, i would guess. How many of them went to the Gulf Coast? Few, I would guess. Yes, the Obamas need to be aware of appearances, but they also have two daughters who are deserving of interesting and educational experiences. My parents-- far from millionaires-- took us to Europe several times when we were growing up. It was great. I assume many of the posters here also had nice vacations as kids. Why begrudge the Obama girls the same experiences? I (not a millionaire) took two vacations this year-- one overseas, and one to the Gulf Coast. Yes, Florida panhandle. Last month. Did any of the critics go to the Gulf since the spill? If not, I suggest you stow that ridiculous argument. And what are you left with? |
Anonymous
| I don't begrudge them. They've had a wealthy professional lifetime to take trips and no doubt will have many years after the presidency (can you imagine what the future book deals, on top of Obama's many autobiographies?). For four years they have the honor of the presidency. They knew what came with the office--their moves are often going to be interpreted as highly symbolic. Do you consider this an unjust trade-off for the responsibility and privilege of assuming leadership of the free world? I understand that Michelle and the children have their own lives. Still, the idea that that means they are totally exempt from any responsibility to the office is ridiculous. When I was growing up, my siblings and I often had to attend functions and behave cordially in a way that reflected well on and supported my dad's civil servant function. That's life. We also derived some interesting and privileged experiences from it. I think people have been very respectful of Michelle and her children's private life and activities, but it is so OFF in the middle of this double crisis (economic and oil spill) for the Gulf to take a lengthy and highly luxurious vacation to the Spanish beaches a week after telling Americans what a good idea it would be for them to head to FL. There was an article in the Post today with residents of the Gulf saying that now that the well has been capped they fear they will be 'forgotten.' In my opinion, that's exactly what this trip by the 1st Lady got across, that they are forgotten. If it wasn't a priority for her to make the choice of FL over some other beach destination, how can she possibly suggest that it be for others? Or are 'average Americans' somehow worthy of a directive that doesn't apply to the first family? Timing is everything, as they say. |
Anonymous
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PP-
You make some good points. However, it feels like a lot of the backlash is political. That is to say, many of the people are opposing it because they don't like Obama's politics, not because they specifically find the behavior objectionable. Now, obviously, this is not unique to the Obamas, but in general, I find it to be useless and troublesome when it is all said and done with. Was it the best move? No. Was it the worst? No. In the end, does it really matter, in the face of all the other things going on? No. If I was a Gulf Coaster, I'd be far more bothered by Obama's botched handling of the oil spill than Michelle's vacay plans. But that's just me. And I was/am an Obama supporter. We must also look at the logistics. Odds are this vacation was planned a LONG time ago, possibly long before the spill happened. That's not to say they couldn't change plans, but I know that whenever the First Family travels, there is a ton of prep work that must be done to secure all the venues. So it would not surprise me if it was too late for her to make a change, especially if it risked causing a lot of trouble for the Spanish hotel/area that probably got shut down weeks ago to host her. As some have pointed out, she is stopping in Florida next, which may have been pre-planned or may have been tacked on specifically for the reasons cited. Who knows? At the end of the day, what does this tell us that we don't already know? The Obamas are a bit out of touch with reality and sometimes don't act in ways consistent with their words. It's a legit criticism, though one that could be said of so many politicians, but ultimately we learn nothing new from this except that some folks just love to hate on Michelle. And, remember, I'm an Obama supporter... |
Anonymous
They just came back from a week in Bar Harbod ME. |
Anonymous
| Sorry -- Bar Harbor. |
Anonymous
Oh for Pete's sake. It was 4 days. A long weekend. Not lengthy. |
aprilmayjune
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| My biggest problem with it is it seems everytime I turn on the news lately there's talk about the latest family vacation, trip, whatever for the Obama family. This man spends more time away than he does in office it seems like sometimes. I guess he's taking the hands on approach to putting our tax dollars right back into the economy. |
Anonymous
This has nothing to do with him or what is actually happening. The media is always up the presidents ass. My problem with the situation is there's much more speculating than knowledge of facts. So to me, it is a non-issue. |
aprilmayjune
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How does this have nothing to do with him or what's happening? How do you figure? first of all, He's on vacation, not accomplishing anything while our economy sucks, oil is taking over the gulf coast, soldiers are constantly dying in Afghanistan etc etc etc.. Now where it's important to spend time with family and what not, you don't see every Tom, Dick and Harry on vacation or long weekend constantly because they all HAVE JOBS TO DO..
Secondly, I despise the fact that we are working hard to provide those vacations for them, while all of the above problems are still not being taken care of. |
Anonymous
| If you don't like Obama, it's one more reason to not like him. |
Anonymous
First of all, he, Barack Obama, is not on vacation. His wife took the children to Spain. How many of you have taken your children on summer vacations this year. How many of you also plan to take a family vacation during the Winter and Spring breaks. Are the Obama girls not allowed to enjoy their summer break away? Secondly, you are not working to provide these vacations for them. M. Obama used personal funds to pay for her vacation with her daughters. But I guess facts do not matter to you as long as you can continue to spew your hatred and lack of details to the facts. I too have a job, and I enjoy long weekends in the summer with my family. It is called leave. If you do not have a job that affords you the opportunity to spend time with your family to take vacations and mini-trips, don't hate the player, hate your job. My family is planning a 3-day trip to Niagara Falls. I love my accumulated leave. Yes! |