Granted, it is good to remind children to be grateful for blessings and to be mindful of reality and those less fortunate. However, one can’t help but wonder how Barack reconciles his own family’s in-your-face extravagance while burdening middle class seven year-olds with guilt at Christmas.
While Barry urged wide-eyed tots, looking forward to Christmas presents under the tree, to “have fun” – but not so much fun that they forget the “Tiny Tims” of the world – Michelle was loading up an Air Force C-40B because she couldn’t wait a couple of days to start an extravagant Hawaiian vacation.
Barack decided to postpone the trip so he could deliver coal in the stocking of the military just in time for Christmas and oversee Congress ramming through the ultimate Christmas special: “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
Lord knows, Michelle won’t tolerate being kept waiting, as evidenced the night of the White House Christmas party when Obama handed over the press conference reins to Jolly Ole Bill Clinton to rush off to meet Michelle under the mistletoe, dressed in an economical $2,500 secondhand frock.
Barack knows if he’s late Michelle will leave without him, which is exactly what she did. Michelle intended to get every second of well-deserved vacation time – two weeks is two weeks and not a second less. So Shelley packed up the girls and the dog and departed as scheduled, leaving the President behind to do as much damage as possible before the end of the year.
“Mrs. Obama’s decision to go without the president forced her to take a separate plane, meaning two flights instead of one are needed to ferry the First Family to their vacation destination.” At $6,330 per flight hour for a 10-hour flight, the first lady gave nary a thought to $63,000 in additional expenses billed directly to taxpayers, such as the parents of the children Barack was reminding to be cognizant of the less fortunate.
The whole operation will be repeated when Barry flies into Hawaii via AF1 to meet the wife and kids. “Since the cost of moving the entire family together on Air Force One would not likely have been much different than that of taking just the president, the first lady’s trip is a $63,000 add-on.”
By leaving early on her own aircraft, Michelle, who epitomizes someone who “spend[s] time thinking about the less fortunate,” incurred even more than a $63,000 get-the-First-Lady-to-the-luau-on-time/Christmas-in-Hawaii expense, especially if “logistical support operation[s] – including a retinue of Secret Service agents” are added to the tab. Not to mention the “Sasquatch-sized carbon footprint … commandeering her own jet to take her to Hawaii” imposed on the environment.
Nonetheless, to appear less extravagant, Mrs. Obama sacrificed by taking a modestly sized high priority transport instead of sending AF1 back and forth like a shuttle bus to pick up presidential vacationers. In other words, Michelle roughed it for the cause!
Meanwhile, while the kiddies in Virginia see visions of impoverished children instead of sugar plums dancing in their heads, in a “trio of multimillion dollar beachfront homes” the “Obama family and friends will be [spending] Christmas and New Year’s” in the lap of luxury, spending lots of time “thinking” about the less fortunate.
Jeannie DeAngelis
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