The Happy Family Returns from Their Tony, Pricey Vay-Cay

Somehow it doesn't look like their time at Martha's Vineyard did them much good. Oh yes, "Who can begrudge," the lapdog press endlessly suggests, the president some time with his family. Just looking at Lady Michelle's face, I'm thinking that "more family time" with that woman must be a pure delight. Oof.

And knowing the cameras were going to be there when they landed (for all of 15 seconds), I would tell those girls to stand up straight and put a smile on their faces. Did these parents somehow not realize their children were going to be in the public eye when he ran for President of the United States? The family was left alone by the press on this vacation for almost the entire 10 days, with the exception of a very few structured photo-ops. The least this family can do is recognize that there is responsibility that goes along with privilege.

--Although clearly the tone is set for the "attitude" by Lady Michelle, and the children are simply following her lead . . . a "lead" which is angry, sullen, and entitled. Undoubtedly Lady Michelle and her entourage would have stayed for the entire vay-cay at MV instead of coming back one day early with Mr. Obama, except that Lady M has been recently and publicly outed for her lavish and out-of-control vacation expenses, including taking a separate plane so that she could land on Martha's Vineyard four hours ahead of her husband. I'm sure she doesn't appreciate the criticism, and believes "because I don't get paid, I get to do whatever I want to do" and that she's entitled to any and all perks she can manage to squeeze out of the American taxpayer. When you think of the good that any First Lady might do with her position, this woman is a pathetic waste.

As far as President Downgrade is concerned, some believe that this vacation at this time has been "the strangest PR debacle of a weird presidency." Optics matter, says John Hayward at Human Events. "Spending a fortune to jet off to a fabled playground of the rich, while the country suffers from his recessionary economic policies, was a bizarre slap in the face to an electorate that has already come to view this President as arrogant and out-of-touch."

I honestly don't begrudge the Obamas wanting to get away, but instead of going to a place where "millionaires and billionaires" hang out, he could have gone to Camp David with his family for a week, where he wouldn't have needed his 40-vehicle entourage every time he wanted to step out. Or how about this--visit a city for a few days where the economy is struggling (I'm sure there are boatloads of cities like that to choose from). I'm just guessing, but Obama and especially his wife simply aren't mature enough to make such a decision. He can tell the American people that they need to sacrifice, but clearly that's for the little people, not for Obama and his family.

Update. A good article from American Thinker by Jeannie DeAngelis: "Michelle Blames it on the Kids." --"Every couple of months Michelle has to pray that America is either consumed by the economic pain inflicted by her husband or afflicted with short-term memory loss, because between tagalong official trips barely a couple of months pass before the first lady partakes of on-site international cuisine and global sightseeing, compliments of the nation's taxpayers. If White House sources are correct, Michelle is doing one of the following: either floating another lame excuse to bunk in somme exclusive $2,500-a-night hotel somewhere, exploiting lunch with her daughters as an excuse to shop in Paris, or treating her liberal body to an expensive massage accompanied by a martini made with "top-shelf vodka." And every trip, of course, rationalized by the standard "Obama-family-Hallmark-moment excuse." Snort.

And from lucianne.com: Here's how it looks on Martha's Vineyard when the Obamas go out to dinner...and lunch...and to the beach...and out for icecream. The locals are sick of them. Here's a commenter from the site, one of the locals at MV: "The Moocho had the Edgartown waterfront closed down for 3 hours while she had lunch, the town's parking was closed and no one could enter or leave, people were trapped inside stores. This is no BS. I live here and work on the waterfront; did the same thing last year. He is a duffer not a golfer, in more ways than one."