Quote:Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.

But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.

Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.

Let's say Ms. O got the discount rate of 2k a night. 70 rooms x 2000 x 5. Gee, rooms alone cost $700,000. Throw in Air Force 2 transportation, and the usual vacation goodies, and we're talking well over a million. And the left used to bit$h when Bush went to his ranch in Crawford.................

The Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."

A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!

Now you're channeling Philly. That was his schtick for all the Dumbya years.

Where's the proof this is on the taxpayer's dime? Of course, you have none. You do realize the Obama's are millionaires, right? They can afford a junket like this.

(08-05-2010 10:33 AM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  Where's the proof this is on the taxpayer's dime? Of course, you have none. You do realize the Obama's are millionaires, right? They can afford a junket like this.

Oh jeeze, you bit his bait............now the games begin.

Staying completely out of who is paying for the stay, the article is wrong: Airforce 2 is the title given to the plane on which the Vice President is flying, much like Airforce 1 is the plane on which the President is flying. If Biden is not on it, it is not Airforce 2.
As to why she took that plane? It's all about security, she would be a major target for assassination/kidnapping if she flew commercial.

Is it sacrifice? No. But, assuming it's her money not ours, if she has the money to go, why not?


And provide a link please, so we can read the full article not just what you have determined are the important bits. As a teacher you of all people should know the need to cite your sources.

I picked this from the "Spin Room," you know where it's all political posts as opposed to say, the WMU front page.

What do you know, it's linked on drudge.

She's riding this "Gravy Train" to the limit.

Maybe she already knows she will be back in Hyde Park sitting on her fat *** in a little over two and a half years, so she is milking the system for all the perks she can get in the time that's left.

Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation

Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.

But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.

Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.

To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.

Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."

A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!

The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear. From lavish trips to Spain to reportedly flying Bo, the President's Portuguese water dog, on a separate aircraft to vacation with them in Maine, to a date night in New York City that perhaps cost nearly $100,000, their idea of austerity is really just the lap of luxury, at least for ordinary folks.

Incredibly, the Obamas have long portrayed themselves as precisely such commoners. Just this month, Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "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."

If that's true, why not select a more appropriate destination like the California coast? The scenery is just as gorgeous as that of Spain, and instead of patronizing a foreign country they would be pumping money into an American economy that desperately needs it. Camp David wouldn't exactly be slumming it, either. A long weekend there would really send a message of responsibility, leadership and compassion. For a couple that has sharply criticized former President George W. Bush so widely, they could stand to follow his example for once and select a more low-key locale, as Bush regularly did in his Texas vacations.

Instead, Michelle Obama seems more like a modern-day Marie Antoinette - the French queen who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects' plight - than an average mother of two. While she's spent her time in the White House telling parents they should relieve their chubby kids' dependency on sugar and stressing the importance of an organic veggie garden, hopping a jet to Europe to meet with Spanish royalty isn't the visual the White House probably wants to project. Perhaps they've forgotten the damning image of John Kerry, on the eve of the 2004 election, windsurfing off the coast of Nantucket?

I don't begrudge anyone rest and relaxation when they work hard. We all need downtime - the First Family included. It's the extravagance of Michelle Obama's trip and glitzy destination contrasted with President Obama's demonization of the rich that smacks of hypocrisy and perpetuates a disconnect between the country and its leaders. Toning down the flash would humanize the Obamas and signify that they sympathize with the setbacks of the people they were elected to serve.

In January, President Obama insisted that "everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good. Everybody is going to have to give. Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game."

If sacrifice is the precursor to change, what will the family that ran on change offer up? Elitist doublespeak won't cut it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010...anish.html


A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010...z0vk1gyCmw

Its on the top of Drudge as well. http://www.drudgereport.com NY Daily News is playing games with busted links

^^ Obamabot panic, Obamabot panic :yikes: :yikes:

Man you Obamabots can find no wrong in anything these people do. They want us to tighten our belts, but have no issue at all blowing gazillions of tax payer dollars on overseas fun. Amusing to watch the hypocrisy.

Quote:^^ Obamabot panic, Obamabot panic 03-yikes 03-yikes

Man you Obamabots can find no wrong in anything these people do. They want us to tighten our belts, but have no issue at all blowing gazillions of tax payer dollars on overseas fun. Amusing to watch the hypocrisy. 03-phew

THIS is what I was talking about by biting his bait.......

(08-05-2010 10:34 AM)DesertBronco Wrote:  

(08-05-2010 10:33 AM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  Where's the proof this is on the taxpayer's dime? Of course, you have none. You do realize the Obama's are millionaires, right? They can afford a junket like this.

Oh jeeze, you bit his bait............now the games begin.

NO panic Dip, just pointing out that, as usual, your anti Obama rants have little fact to back them up. Where does it say that the Government is paying for this trip? Lot's of innuendo in the article but no information nor evidence.

:ncaabbs::ncaabbs::ncaabbs:
:ncaabbs: :ncaabbs: :ncaabbs:
:ncaabbs: :ncaabbs: :ncaabbs: OBAMA, OBAMA, OBAMA
:ncaabbs: :ncaabbs: :ncaabbs:

Huge PR blunder by the Obama administration at a time when they can least afford it. So far this Presidency has been underwhelming and disappointing. Unless major changes are made in how they operate, this is going to be 1 and done.

The righties hated him from the first day, the lefties are now probably close to the righties in their dislike, and the middle of the road Americans don't have a sense of what it is going to take to get out of the numerous messes this country is in. How about some leadership? Can't anyone who resides in the White House get it right?

^ SPOT ON

Quote:Can't anyone who resides in the White House get it right?

Not since Clinton.

Reluctantly, I agree with Dip. Even if it is not our money, the message being sent is the wrong message.

J

Oh yeah, Clinton was a gem..............Such a gem he was impeached.

Quote:Such a gem he was impeached.

. For an affair and lying about it.....

Typical of a right wingnut, it's all about optics and not about substance.

He left us in good shape as a country, until Dumbya cut taxes and started an unfunded war, let Wall Street get out of control, and sent our economy into a long term tailspin which we're still trying to get out.

(08-06-2010 09:52 AM)BCBronco Wrote:  Reluctantly, I agree with Dip. Even if it is not our money, the message being sent is the wrong message.

J

Shouldn't you have more important things to worry about, like an oil spill in SW MI?

I like how they worry about "the message", when Bush by this time in his term had taken three times the vacation time that BHO has, and that was with 9/11 and his planning for an invasion of Iraq in the mix.

Get over yourselfs, you're being petty.

(08-06-2010 10:47 AM)DesertBronco Wrote:  I like how they worry about "the message", when Bush by this time in his term had taken three times the vacation time that BHO has, and that was with 9/11 and his planning for an invasion of Iraq in the mix.

Get over yourselfs, you're being petty.