Some are making the case for the scaling back of the extravagances of the high living Obamas. It is acknowledged that the original costs associated with the First Couple's grand ten day adventure to India, Indonesia and South Korea for trade and outreach along the way to the G20 conference. Then it was off to Japan, as utter failure overseas follows the First Couple.
No new trade agreement signed in South Korea. Michelle inappropriately touches yet another high profile person in a receiving line. The traveling media swoons over the wardrobe of the First Lady when regular Americans mock her taste in fashion and how she looks in her choices.
Maybe some of the more extravagant touches should be scaled back a bit - taxpayer funded, of course - until everyone gets the hang of it. Inexperience shows and it is embarrassing. Our nation still struggles with high unemployment numbers and an economy stuck in neutral.
Apparently, the news that the entourage would be accompanied by 34 warships was a rumor, while the story that the president took over the entire Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was not. And while the White House denies that the trip will cost American taxpayers $200 million a day, officials have refused to reveal the total cost, claiming such information is confidential. The point really is not the exact figure. The point is that the citizens (and the world) not only believe the obscene $2-billion estimate, but they have also come to expect this from the Obamas.
Why isn't the total cost being released? Isn't this suppose to be the most transparent administration ever? Ever.
Not begrudging the President and his family their vacations. Not suggesting that they should not represent our country at world economic summits. It would be prudent, however, for someone around the First Couple to teach them a bit about coping with public perception. It is well understood by this time in his first term that Barack Obama has failed in keeping his promise to rise above street level Chicago politics in his governing style. It is well understood the basic hypocrisy in lifestyle from this First Couple - whether it is eating burgers and fries at every opportunity as he continues his smoking habit while Michelle lectures the nation and its restaurant owners on good nutrition, or the weekly parties with celebrities and entertainment at the White House - as they insist everyone else do the hard work of tightening our belts and not expecting to continue on with our own good lives.
And as the writer of the referenced article points out, worst of all is that no one was shocked by the extravagances first floated in reports of the latest trip abroad. It has come to be expected.
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