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Republicans infuriated that Obama fulfilled promise to wife and took her to a Broadway show.
Too costly; he could have given her a new bible instead I suppose. Bet this will go over well for Repubs (not exactly incurable romantics, eh?)! Women voters should really appreciate their frugality at Michelle's expense! http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23122.html
Here's a typical wackaloon reader on Politico, whining how the man took his wife on a date instead of going to another Cheezuz gathering, and blaming the failed Bush economy on Obama:
Here's a typical wackaloon reader on Politico, whining how the man took his wife on a date instead of going to another Cheezuz gathering, and blaming the failed Bush economy on Obama:
"POTUS can't make it to a prayer meeting, but POTUS & FLOTUS after TAXNUS and BNKRUPTNUS, has plenty of time to go to a broadway show, regularly eat out around Washington DC & other places, see the Star Trek movie, see a soccer game, watch basketball, and have Wednesday parties are the White House. Just a year ago, I'l bet a lot of people could have paid for broadway tickets."
Cooler heads pointed how many times we had to foot the bill for W. to go to bleedin' Crawford. Anyhow, Repubs should keep knocking the first couple this way, it's going to bring scads of grizzled curmudgeons like the guy above (and their thrifty, date-hating wives!) over to their side, I'm sure!
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How perfectly romantic, a promise to Michelle has been fulfilled. Like a Jackie Collins novel. Life imitates art...
I just wish vitally important trips like these were funded by an additional surchage or tax on the members of a president's party (and not deductible as charitable donation on tax returns).
I have a problem with the fact that my tax dollars go towards airlifting pizza to feed the president and obstructing my life so Michelle can be taken to a restaraunt in my city.
Perhaps they take the meaning of "first couple" rather too literally.
May 31, 2009 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've got no disagreement. I know when I go to NYC, I gotta pay. But same was also true for Bush and his getaways to Crawford, so presumably you'd want whatever regime to apply to both.
May 31, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Normally yes, it would include everyone.
But this time, Obama said that "everybody has to make sacrifices", remember? Or did he mean only the bankers? I guess flying a smaller jet and taking few of his staff and reporters for Michelle's night on the town hshows exactly the restraint he was expecting from Wall Stree?
May 31, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, hey, you got a point. After all, w sacrificed when he gave up golf, except for when he forgot and golfed anyway.
And if you think a puny trip to New York where your tax dollars go towards airlifting pizza to feed the president and obstructing my life so Michelle can be taken to a restaraunt in my city make you feel bad, well, let's talk about my resentment where my tax dollars took a trip to Iraq before ending up in Halliburton's pockets. Not just a little money, either. Billions and billions of dollars compared to what? Maybe $5K?
A free and peaceful Iraq will save this country money in the long term. It's important to get it done now. George W. Bush, 10 Sep 2003, three days after asking Congress for $87 billion for the Iraq war
May 31, 2009 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can respect your concern on this and you stated it well. In terms of sacrificing, I don't know what your life experience tells me, but as I do take him at his word that it was a promise to his wife during the campaign, I have to say that breaking that promise to me is not the place to start sacrificing.
It is worth asking, though, if everybody has to sacrifice as you rightly point out he told us, what exactly is he prepared to sacrifice? I know of nothing as of now, so I think that's a very valid point. To me, though, him becoming the first modern President to deny himself travel is too much to ask in that regard nonetheless, but I respect your opinion if different.
May 31, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
He sacrificed his Blackberry. If you had ever had one, you would know that's almost equivalent to sacrificing a limb. The one that he was finally allowed to have is just a prosthetic.
There's only so far you can push somebody.
May 31, 2009 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
This small-minded crap is beyond drivel! Cheney flew all the way across the country just to shoot a friend in the face! How many trips to the armpit of the US in Texas?
These people, yes that's you, Lalo, just wish they had half the class of this couple; the little green monster shows its ugly face whenever the Obamas act like actual people. They are constrained in how they travel; they can't exactly take the Chinatown bus into New York. Why shouldn't they go to a Broadway play?
May 31, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
More bullshit! You mean to tell me that the President of the United States can't take a day out of his extremely stressful life to take his wife out to a Broadway show? Whether it's Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc. - they deserve a break. In fact they should all visit major or local attractions throughout the country. You'd think the man was staying at the Ritz eating caviar. It's Broadway, accessible to all.
As for your tax dollars, let the IRS know you want your 2 cents back (Lalo!)- and how exactly is your life being obstructed?
I want to see if they come back and bring the kids, would the RNC have something to say. This is another case of Obama doing too much. He works sun up to midnight and STILL has time for his wife. I can hear their wives now.
May 31, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Poor poor president, poor poor Michelle. What kind of life they got because of us
May 31, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
You missed her point entirely -- he is NOT poor, poor president! He is President, and he is going to live his life while he is President, even with all the responsibility and work entailed therein. He is not hiding in the WH or in Texas. He is out and about, living.
It is so childish and small to complain about tax dollars being spent on the President's entertainment. Let's see, the Bush/Cheney entertainment was starting wars, awarding no-bid contracts to their cronies, and paying their pals to torture in our name -- how do you feel about THAT tax money?
May 31, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lalo? Lalo? How do you feel about your tax money spent for the Bush/Cheney form of entertainment? Lalo?
May 31, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not golf but whatever keeps a President of the United States sane is well worth paying for. Lalo, get a life!
May 31, 2009 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lalo is a vapid troll who was uninteresting before the election and is now just pitiful.
I'd feel sorry for him, except I know he's secretly happy Obama won so he can lurk here and snark to distract him from his pathetic life (or lack of one).
Best not to feed the trolls, even the ones you feel sorry for.
June 1, 2009 12:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great rejoinder CVille Dem.
May 31, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
what show did they see? Shouldn't we find that out first before we criticize?
May 31, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
But that what that matter? Seriously
Anyway, the play's called Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and it's about slavery in the North somehow. It has a touch of scandal since it employed a white director against expectations, a wretched "missed opportunity" as those interested lament. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/OverInterpreting_Joe_Turner_and_Blue_Hill.html
It's being considered for a Tony award. They ate in some politically correct understated place that is a showcase for the "local food movement," whatever that means.
May 31, 2009 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
It doesn't matter. It's absurd to think it has any relevance at all.
I was just trying to top the absurdity of Republicans being infuriated about a president taking his wife to a broadway show.
I failed. (Thankfully:)
May 31, 2009 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha-hah! Good one!
May 31, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, frankly if they had gone to see "AHDLLKDFLASNDLF" then any criticism would be justified!!!!!!!
May 31, 2009 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
No copy on that, CVille Dem. Say again, please, over. Come in, CVille Dem. No copy, over. :)
May 31, 2009 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it was extravagant, but if it were combined with some other event it would hardly be noticed. Was the sole reason for the trip just to take in a play? It's really not that big of a deal but someone on staff (RAHM!) should have though about this and made sure there was an official reason to go to NYC and then finish the day with a play. C'est la vie! I hope they had a good time and don't fret over the momentary carping.
May 31, 2009 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Extravagant compared to what? I went to New York in April to visit my daughter. I got tickets for us to see a broadway play. I stayed for 2 nights. OK, I rode a bus, but the Obamas couldn't ride a bus if they WANTED to. I also went to a few restaurants. For me it WAS extravagant, but why shouldn't our President and his wife be able to do what they could afford to do in their private life?
I promise you that there is not another world leader who, if he went with his wife to a play out of town, would be put down for his "extravagance." This is pettiness at its most petty.
May 31, 2009 11:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
"[S]omeone on staff (RAHM!) should have though about this and made sure there was an official reason to go to NYC and then finish the day with a play"
Very interesting take, and you're definitely right that it would barely have been noticed then. (President attended a clogged-drains summit today, warning about risk to effective water use, blah-blah.) I gotta say, I don't know if by having done it their way thus by having Republicans do their publicity for them, it might not have actually been a net *gain* for them, though. Guy met his promise to wife and took the little woman who had endured so much on a date. Therefore, he's a scoundrel? I don't think women voters will few it that way.
Not everyone will agree it was extravagant (though naturally I understand and respect your reasonably view of it). Many who differ with you will have some 7 takeaways, I think:
(1) he's a stand-up guy.
(2) he knows how to honor a commitment to his wife.
(3) they are an enviably romantic couple even though they've been married for some years -- that's the kinda marriage I'd want.
(4) gosh, they are a *very* nice looking couple
(5) the Republicans are more petty and ridiculous than we thought.
(6) what kind of people get mad at a guy for doing right by his wife - what real choice did he have, to just *stiff* her? What is *with* these people?
(7) they came to our area, wow!/they came to NYC area; wonder if they might come *here* some day cuz I'd sure like to see them!
I may be Overreaching, but not sure. This really could in my mind be a net plus for them, despite the truth in what you say. The grouch who I quoted bitching above (and there's a lot in the base like him) thinks Obama shoulda gone to a *prayer meeting* instead; that's not the type of thing that gets most people's blood going.
June 1, 2009 2:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice post Overreach, How much more infantile can some of these Repubilcans get? They seem to be having a "Benjamen Button" experience, regressing backwards in age and maturity until at last you can picture them in diapers sucking on their thumbs when they are not crying whaaaaa!!
May 31, 2009 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
"How much more infantile can some of these Republicans get?" Yes indeed, people who notice this (outside the base!) must be thinking that in great numbers. I pick up simiar themes in my answer to oleeb just above. I completely agree with you, that this begrudging, Grinch-like reaction will have many people scratching their heads. Who would want to take a weekend trip somewhere with people who thought like that?
June 1, 2009 2:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Recc'd for the post title alone...!
June 1, 2009 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Odd thing is that the title is a true and fair depiction! :)
June 1, 2009 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares if it was a promise to his wife during the campaign or something they decided to do the day before? The man is pretty much giving the bulk of his life to the country while attempting to have a family life, as well. I think he is a great example for men in general.
This tempest in a teapot shows just how desperate the repubs are to find something, anything, to be on his case about. It's pathetic.
Give me a break...is there seriously any thinking person out there who expected him to move into the White House, live on mac and cheese and buy his clothes at a thrift shop? And even if he did they would find a way to complain about that.
Let's face it...there is NOTHING he could do, short of becoming a Republican, that they would give him credit for, and that's iffy.
June 2, 2009 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, what you say is what I truly think about it personally. I am trying to be accomodating as to a range of views, but if I have to state just what I myself think, it's what you said.
As to "that's iffy," you bet it's real iffy. They hate Powell, they'd hate Obama more.
June 3, 2009 3:06 AM | Reply | Permalink