| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Kass: Let Them Eat Cake! |
| 2010-08-08 |
| John Kass of the Chicago Tribune takes a sympathetic look at the First Lady's recently concluded vacation to Spain. And if the first lady wants to take her daughter and her friends to Spain and spend her own money, how dare anyone rip her for it? Agreed. Unfair to criticize a wealthy woman for wanting to treat her daughter to a once in a lifetime vacation... There are many legitimate issues for which the Obama White House can be criticized. But ripping on the first lady for taking a vacation to Spain is just plain wrong. Agreed. Yes, the government picks up the tab for her security and the presidential jet. But we'd pay that tab if she returned to Chicago. So relax. The problem isn't the trip. It's the logistical tail she brought her and her husband's current policy ripping rich folks for their profligate ways. Turnabout is fair play. Many of you know that I'm no fan of the Obama liberal big-government politics. I like President Barack Obama personally. It's his politics that drive me crazy. I got five bucks that sez you voted for him, John. So every time the White House hints at more federal taxes and regulations -- policies that frighten business away from hiring unemployed workers who are desperate for jobs -- I've got to do something to calm my nerves. Try drinking heavily, John. So I smoke a couple bowls of Hopium trimmed from the smiling Obama Chia Head sitting on my desk, and everything's all right. Very revealing, John. But Michelle isn't going to raise the national debt by going to Spain. No one is going to lose their job. The Spaniards seem to like her. And what's wrong with Spain anyway? No, but Mrs. Obama is adding to it in her own little way.. Where do you want her to take a vacation, Wisconsin Dells like the rest of us? Grand Lake in Oklahoma is lovely this time of year. Great fishing, okay nightlife. There's nothing wrong with the Dells. Some Chicago politicians go to Aruba for the casinos. Mayor Richard Daley might go on an exotic trip with his developer buddy, Michael Marchese. Wipe drool from your chin, John... But working families vacation at the Dells. And I can't picture Michelle's wealthy entourage squeezing into a Paul Bunyan for the lumberjack breakfast before spending the day at a go-kart track. Aside from the nutbusting security, what would it hurt? Some pundits shrieked that they should have gone to California, because it's just as nice as Spain. California as nice as Spain? Oh, shut up. In California, do they have free-range pigs that eat nothing but special golden acorns until their flesh gets buttery, forming the foundation of the exquisite ham known as jamon serrano? In California do they serve earthenware bowls of tiny baby eels, called anguilas, delicately sauteed with virgin olive oil, garlic and a touch of red pepper flakes? You have a point, John, but California has several air hubs all that stuff can be flown in. Has California ever won the World Cup? Of course not. No, but they recently acquired Hello Kiffin. I wish I could afford Spain as well, but I'm not going to criticize our first lady because her husband made several million on his two autobiographies before he turned 47. Nice rhetorical juke, John. Irrelevant, but nice. "The bottom line is that optics matter," sniffed a Republican political strategist on CBS. "… At a time when we're seeing 9.6 percent unemployment, 70,000 jobs lost this month, people losing their homes, and it doesn't convey that she senses the plight of working families." Yes, optics do matter. It's not that Mrs. Obama didn't consider those optics. But the daughter wanted Spain. So vamanos, chiquita. Very impressive. Way to dismiss a legitimate criticism. By ignoring it. The same as with the rest of your media buddies. If I were president and my boys wanted to go to Spain and watch soccer games, then on to England, France, Germany, Greece and Turkey, guess what? I'd send them. And you'd send your kids where they wished, if you had the money. I'd tell them to bring back some nice photos. But that's just me, John. A few years ago, every time President George W. Bush or first lady Laura Bush appeared to have even a smidgen of fun, the network news would juxtapose their smiles against some heartbreaking account of impoverished Americans eating road kill to survive another winter. Way to go. Very impressive. You suck as a polemicist, but you don't need that, do you? Just by ignoring the fact that during W's time we had a relatively tame US government in near full employment, you can actually make a point. So I suppose much of this Marie Antoinette business is a reaction to all that liberal media bias against Republican presidents. The bias has been evident for decades, and it's one reason why networks and many newspapers have lost viewers and readers. Wrong John. TV networks and newspapers have lost customers because of the internet. And conservatism is an easier sell. But Republican Party pundits are now acting exactly like the Democratic water carriers they once whined about. True. Except the republican have an actual point to make about oversized government spending, exemplified by the First Lady. They want to paint a portrait of Michelle telling her peasants to eat cake if they can't find bread. But the real picture is that it's none of our business that a mom with a lot of cash wanted to take her daughter to Spain. I don't mnow many moms with a multimillion dollar logistical tail, do you, John? So let them eat ham. How about canned tuna? ( Sorry: O-club reference. ) |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #16 Like I said, its possible I missed the /irony tag someplace in there in the original piece. But honestly, there are tons better criticism that can be made, which was my point - its a far more fundamental defect in the Obamas and typical elites that the "elites" themselves seem unable to comprehend. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-08-08 21:01 |
| #15 Fred and OS has nothing to do with this fisking. It was this writer. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-08-08 20:33 |
| #14 OldSpook, Fred, you need to read some of John Kass's previous columns, readily available on the Chicago Tribune web site. You really blew it in your fisking and comments. You are 180 degrees wrong on Kass. |
| Posted by: Ebbese Ebbump8799 2010-08-08 20:25 |
| #13 Let them eat cake. That is what Mrs. O told the advisors when she told them that she was going to Spain and leaving her husband behind on his birthday. Hey, she can do whatever she wants, including telling him, "Later!" on his birthday. |
| Posted by: Martini 2010-08-08 20:19 |
| #12 Compare the column Mr. Kass wrote with the one Joe Klein of Newsweek would have written had Laura Bush taken her daughters on the same exact trip in the summer of 2006. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-08-08 19:58 |
| #11 I am constantly amazed that people assign a bad execution of good intentions - "obama really loves the US he just has a weird view of economics" or "he's a bad leader because he sends his family friends on this vacation" or "doesn't he realize he plays too much golf and takes too much time off?" This is who he is. He does not love your America. He is doing all he can to push his agenda and reward his allies which he hopes him to push his anti-American agenda forward. He's not an idiot - he's against all this country stands for. Once you look at it this way he makes a lot more sense. |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2010-08-08 18:28 |
| #10 OS, destructive is part of the plan. |
| Posted by: Hellfish 2010-08-08 18:23 |
| #9 Or perhaps Im missing the /irony tags... |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-08-08 15:40 |
| #8 TO clarify: And if the first lady wants to take her daughter and her friends to Spain and spend her own money, how dare anyone rip her for it? [Agreed. Unfair to criticize a wealthy woman for wanting to treat her daughter to a once in a lifetime vacation.] Dead wrong. If you are Joe Stock holder, then yeah take a vacation, whatever. When you are the leader and your people are hurting, you have to do the right things, even if it means you have to tell the wife and kids "No". THAT is the part of leadership that the original author does not get. There are times when your position demands things that may have you sacrifice personal gratification for the greater good. And that's where it is NOT OK for a rich woman to take a "once in a lifetime vacation". Just like a division commander's wife doesn't go on a Disneyland vacation when her husband's brigades are deployed in combat (and her husband usually doesn't spend time at the golf course if he is serious about his unit). Its piss poor leadership, and destructive. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-08-08 15:38 |
| #7 Barb, I respectfully disagree - honestly it sounds like he is making excuses for them since they have money they can do as they wish -- he gets his digs in about HOW Obama made the money but does not attack the central "wrongness" of the action in the context of being the primary leader in the US Government. It smells of typical Country Club types defending their own against us rabble, the Sam's Club types. Again, I think he misses the most salient point: a leaders family IS part and parcel of the team; and their behavior alters the effectiveness of the leadership. Marie Antoinette was an enabler of Louis XVI, and she deserved the guillotine. Michelle Antoinette, (knowingly or not) is setting herself and Obumble up the same way, except there is no guillotine waiting (at least not yet). |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-08-08 15:23 |
| #6 |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2010-08-08 14:42 |
| #5 At my last private-sector gig, the place was going slow spiral Tango-Uniform. Multiple layoffs (Gawd, I got tired of the "you are the best of the best" speaches the day after each one, but I digress.), pay cuts, etc. Yet the CFO had the Obamasense of arriving at work one day in a brand new Porche 911. Imagine the surprise of us "best of the best" when the damn thing got keyed...... |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2010-08-08 14:39 |
| #4 Um, guys? Read this again, remembering that he doesn't like Bambi or Bambi's policies much. I think Mr. Kass is very imaginatively sticking it to Mrs. Bambi. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-08-08 14:10 |
| #3 Side note: how can this guy be so blind to the obvious issue of personal leadership? Because 'leadership' has been deconstructed into an evil artifact of 'false class consciousness?' (Ask Lopt- she is way better at explaining how our socialist ruling-class looks at these things.) Is the "upper crust" and press really that isolated from real life? That would be 'yes.' Too many examples to mention... |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2010-08-08 13:47 |
| #2 Here's a clue John, you poor sheltered upper-crust twit: Its called LEADERSHIP. Lead by example. Something innate to anyone that's held a military leadership position. "Follow Me" isn't a motto, its a way of life. We call on our president to be a leader. And guess what? Family matters. The old saying goes "The hardest job in the Army is Army Wife". Like any military wife knows, the commander's wife is part of the team, like it or not. She has to help set the example in public. And that is where the Obamas fail - basic leadership. Its becoming mpore and more apparent that he's simply a glib pol from the Chicago machine who is far above his competence, and she's a power hungry social climber with all the grace of a Klingon. She is the Marie Antoinette to his Jimmy Carter. Side note: how can this guy be so blind to the obvious issue of personal leadership? Is the "upper crust" and press really that isolated from real life? If so, its time to tear them down, forcefully if needed. They are becoming a clear and present danger to the Republic and liberty. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-08-08 12:44 |
| #1 Now this is weird. Every time I think of Mrs. Obama I get the, "Let Them Eat Cake," saying running through my head. I didn't know some one else shared that thought. |
| Posted by: miscellaneous 2010-08-08 12:36 |