Not Exactly Your Average Summer Vacation...

The First Lady and youngest first daughter, Sasha, are currently visiting Spain. At first it sounded as if it would be a nice mother-daughter trip. In my mind I imagined the twosome visiting old historical places and turning the vacation into a semi-educational trip. Why not? It’s a perk that goes with being the wife and daughter of the President of the USA and it wouldn’t be the first time a First Lady took a child overseas. I recall images of Hillary and Chelsea or the Carters and daughter Amy taking trips around the world visiting orphanages and hospitals. And it doesn’t hurt our image for the world to get a glimpse of the First Daughter doing good deeds. At least this is what I thought until I read an article on the NYDAilyNews.com all of which I confirmed via other sources.

It turns out that the mainstream media swallowed the line fed to them by the White House that this visit was "a private, mother-daughter trip with longtime family friends". First this “trip” is only for four days. That’s not a trip but a long weekend. Plus what few reporters have dared to mention is that this “private” mother-daughter trip includes not a handful but 40 of Michelle’s closest friends. Who has 40 close friends? And I’m sure Sasha will get a lot of private time with her Mom with all these people around. Yeh right.

This entourage along with approximately 70 Secret Service agents flew first class in Air Force 2. When they landed in Spain there were an additional 250 Spanish personnel waiting for them, which means that roughly 360 people accompanied this private mother-daughter trip. A picture of them shopping shows the First Lady and Sasha surrounded by the massive security detail. (And, again I wonder, must Mrs. Obama always bare her shoulders? Doesn’t this woman own any shirts or dresses that have sleeves?)

While in Spain they will be on the very chic Costa del Sol on the coast of southern Spain. There they will stay at Hotel Villa Padierna a 5-star hotel nestled in the hills above the resort town. Their luxurious hotel has been described as “posh”, "trendy" and “a millionaire’s playground” overlooking the coast. Oh great, just what a nine year old needs. Yet the First Lady and her 40 closest friends reserved 60 rooms at this elegant resort, more than a third of the 160 rooms available. The price? Room rates are as high as $2,500 for a room per night to $6,500 per night for a villa which includes 24-hour butler service, and private pool and garden. Gee, I wonder which type of room Michelle will have….

I’m sorry but this just doesn’t seem right. Not when the rest of the country is suffering with no end in site. Even more importantly is that this lavish spending is not a one-time incident. Remember their $70,000+ date night? And on their recent vacation in Maine they had the gall to fly their dog up in his own plane! They justified this by saying Bo was accompanied with other staffers but still why even bother with the dog at all? This might be acceptable if they were going to be in Maine for a few weeks but all my research points to their being in Maine for a weekend! I keep hoping I have this wrong for who would fly a friggin’ dog in another plane to join the family for what, just 3 days? Surely the First Kids could go without their dog for a few days and I bet they could find someone in the White House to walk Bo while they were gone. But sadly, for our country, this is a true story.

What makes all of this so disgusting is that the Obama’s try to portray themselves as an average couple. In a recent ABC interview Obama said that they are “not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." He also said "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there." Oh right, just your run of the mill couple struggling to make ends meet in this deepening recession.

Our country may be drowning in debt, the economy is not bouncing back and unemployment is still high, but I'm sure everyone feels better knowing that our leader has been relaxing with his rounds of golf. In fact what reporters have managed to keep quiet is the fact that Obama has played 41 rounds of golf in the past 18 months for a total of about 200 man-hours. That’s the equivalent of twenty five eight-hour work days, or five work weeks spent hitting a little white ball which is reminiscent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned! For comparison, Bush2 played just 24 rounds of golf in his 8 years and he was seen as being a lazy, elitist, frat boy. So what does this make Obama? And did you know that Bush2 stopped playing golf entirely in October 2003 out of respect for the soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq? On the other hand in the nine weeks from April 2, 2010 – May 22 Obama played eight rounds of golf. Even after 11 people were killed in the greatest environmental disaster to hit the US, our current president managed to get in a round of golf every weekend but one. Comforting, isn’t it?

Speaking of the environmental disaster, why couldn’t Michelle and Sasha, along with their 40 best friends have picked a resort on our Gulf Coast? The Gulf is nearly clean of oil now, a fact which I think is a real miracle and a sign that the earth is a lot tougher and more resilient than environmentalists would have us believe. Anyway, the Gulf may be nearly back to normal but our tourist trade is hurting badly and sure could have used the boost a 4-day vacation by the First Lady. Hell, they could even have flown the damn dog down, too.


So while the rest of us worry and suffer as our country falls apart, our country's leader repeatedly relaxes on a Country Club’s lush golf course while his wife and her 40 closest friends spend the taxpayers money in a posh resort in Spain. Not surprising that some conservative media, after learning of the First Lady’s recent trip, are beginning to call Michelle the “material girl” or worse – a "modern Marie Antoinette". Oh well, on the bright side, thanks to Michelle’s anti-obesity campaign at least we don’t have to worry about the First Couple lecturing us to ”let them eat cake”.