Time for An Obama Laxative?
By Larry Johnson on August 9, 2010 at 7:45 PM in Current Affairs
/ Bumped Up /
Michelle Antoinette. Gauche. Nouveau riche. Yep, those are terms being applied by many pundits and wags to Michelle Obama and her jaunt to Spain. That’s the kind of press coverage you want during a slow August news cycle. But wait, there’s more. We’re also alerted to Michell’s BOWEL MOVEMENTs. Yikes! Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times informs us that Michelle wants more than the fiber of a daily bran muffin. She’s into “cleansing:”
Mrs. Obama occasionally goes on what she calls a “cleanse” to purge her body of certain foods, she told Ladies’ Home Journal. Don’t confuse a “cleanse” — to get certain foods out of your system — with other techniques to detox, such as colonic irrigation. . . .
Asked how it worked out, Mrs. Obama said, “The cleanses are good for a short period of time. I can’t live my life on a cleanse. But they help me clean out my palate. Because when you start adding things like sugars into your diet, you start craving them.
“And the more you eat, the more you crave. … So maybe I’ll do a cleanse for two days. It isn’t a way of life because I like food too much. But it is good to break your mind-set,” she said.
So, was Michelle’s trip to Spain a metaphorical “cleansing” of America?
With unemployment still hovering around 10%, with the economy struggling to find its sea legs and Americans along the Gulf Coast economically devastated by the BP oil disaster, what is Barack and Michelle’s prescription? Vacation overseas, stay the hell away from the Gulf. Why spend dollars in America? Why provide free publicity to resorts along the Gulf Coast? Why not just exhort the nation to sacrifice and fiscal discipline and then do whatever the hell you want. Michelle’s decision to jet off to Spain (leaving Barack behind) with a forty plus person entourage at an estimated cost of $75,000 a day does not exactly signal austerity.
White House is whining that she’s just a “mom” and that she’s entitled to a vacation. If she’s traveling on her own nickel, then yes. But that’s not what happened. Who in the hell goes on vacation with “forty friends?” And to Spain? It would be one thing if Michelle had gone to Mississippi, Louisiana or Florida with this kind of entourage. At least her gang of strap hangers would have been spending money in America. They would have put some cash in the hands of struggling restauranteurs or hoteliers. Nope. Off to Spain.
The opulence of the European trip also has drawn scrutiny. Michelle Obama is staying at the Hotel Villa Padierna, a Ritz-Carlton resort in the mountains outside Marbella. The resort has two golf courses, a posh spa with Turkish baths, views of the Mediterranean Sea and a high-end restaurant specializing in avant-garde fare. Room rates start at $400 and rise to $6,500 for a two-bedroom villa with a private pool and 24-hour butler service. . . .
While her friends arrived in Spain on their own, Michelle Obama flew in on a type of aircraft also used by Vice President Joseph Biden. It costs the government $11,555 an hour to operate the plane, according to the Air Force. Assuming a nearly eight-hour flight to nearby Málaga, the total round-trip cost of the flight is about $178,000.
For the 60 million Americans who are unemployed or under employed, a trip to Spain by Michelle is a big thing. It smacks of insensitivity and elitism. It is akin to John Kerry parking his yacht in a neighboring state in order to avoid taxes. Someone with good political instincts would know, a trip to Spain at tax payer expense for your own “private” enjoyment is callow and clueless.
There also is something extremely weird about Michelle seeking so much time away from Barack. Vacationing without Barack is becoming a theme. But that’s grist for another day.


















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