Michelle Obama says "Let Them Eat Cake!" with Lavish Vacation

[Dave]

The best part of this is that she used a plane that costs over $11,000 an hour to operate and "reimbursed the taxpayers" for the cost of two first class tickets. Remember just a month ago?
"On her first trip to the Gulf Coast since the BP oil spill, First Lady Michelle Obama encouraged Americans to consider vacationing on the region’s beaches that have not been directly impacted by oil.

“It is vacation time. Folks are looking for things to do with their kids, and this would be a great opportunity to do a few things — help this community, send a different message about the extent of the spill, and also think long term about how the rest of the country can help this economy and the folks down here,” Mrs. Obama said at the Panama City Welcome Center."

"During the Wednesday afternoon briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about the "appearance" of Mrs. Obama's trip. "The first lady is on a private trip," Gibbs said. "She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip. And I think I'd leave it at that."

While the White House has emphasized that Mrs. Obama pays her personal costs,(not true) as do her friends who flew to Spain on their own, taxpayers pick up a big chunk of the tab.

According to CBS News, the tax dollar part of the vacation include an estimated $146,000 round-trip cost for the U.S. Air Force 757 aircraft, not counting ground time; about $95,000 in hotel costs for an estimated 70 security personnel -- Secret Service and military -- who get a $273-a-day government per diem, plus costs for the dozen or so cars in her motorcade. I'm told that three shifts of agents are needed for a trip of this magnitude."

I'll be glad to see the end of the Obama presidency.

 

[platypus]

 

[Dave]

It just makes me mad that this administration was sold to the people as "Change." I didn't vote for Obama but I still hoped there was a chance he would be different. We're going to wind up with President Palin because of this kind of bullshit.

 

[dunya]

From the Independent Newspaper

"Conservative critics seized on details of her itinerary to paint her – and by extension her husband the President – as at best tone-deaf and at worst feckless. There was the choice of the five-star Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella where rooms go for as much as $7,000 (£4,400) per night, for instance, and the commotion caused when a beach was briefly roped off to allow her to swim.
Even a lunch with the Spanish King and Queen – a diplomatic gesture – at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca on Sunday was cast by parts of the American media as being overly luxurious, featuring, we were breathlessly informed: "Andalusian-style chilled gazpacho soup, chargrilled turbot, veal escalopes with mustard, Oriental rice with sautéed mushrooms.""


The facts and the fiction
* It's true the Obamas and their guests stayed at the five-star Villa Padierna hotel. But the choice was not theirs: their security attachment picked the location on protection grounds.
* Mrs Obama was reported to have attended a ball hosted by Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria at the hotel; in fact, she went to dinner with friends.
* Some 40 friends were reported to have joined the Obamas. But in reality only two friends and their children came, paying some of their own costs. The father of one of the two recently died; Mrs Obama was unable to attend the funeral, and invited her on holiday as a gesture.
* The first lady did, indeed, eat gazpacho soup, turbot, and veal escalopes at lunch with the Spanish King and Queen. The group also had ice cream for dessert.


Some snippets I cut and paste from the Independent Newspaper report on the fuss.
From a distance it looks like it depends on political affiliation as to how it's interpreted.

All diversionary tactics, anyhow. "Look, someone to blame!" "Look, someone else to blame!"

 

[Dave]

Why didn't she have a holiday in Florida as she suggested others do? Not to mention that the Obamas vacationed in Maine last month. The focus of that story, that some of the things written were maybe trivial and that some conservatives don't have anything nice to say about Michelle Obama, is really beside the point. Spending this money on this trip at this time was a bad idea and it begs criticism.

 

[Black Cloud]

The sista just needed a little time away from the mista, why you hatin'?

 

[CrystalGeezer]

The sista just needed a little time away from the mista, why you hatin'?

 

[mauve21]

Way cool!

That is great. You are talented. Bet it was difficult to make.

 

[platypus]

Way cool!

That is great. You are talented. Bet it was difficult to make.

I didn't make it. It's a phenomenal piece of art though, haha.