The Obama administration faced an embarrassing diplomatic blunder today after it was forced to pull a warning about racism in Spain - just as the First Lady arrived in the country for a summer holiday.
Soon after touching down in the Costa del Sol yesterday morning, Michelle Obama was pictured taking in the sights of Marbella with daughter Sasha, nine, surrounded by a throng of bodyguards.
Staff at the U.S. State Department removed the contentious advice to travellers, which included the phrase 'racist prejudices could lead to the arrest of Afro-Americans who travel to Spain,' from its website on Monday.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1300240/Michelle-Obama-jets-Marbella-5-star-holiday-daughter-Sasha.html#ixzz0vgSyOQP7
Thursday, August 5th 2010, 1:53 AM
But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them
altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling,
the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern
Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70
rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call
cutting back in troubled times.
Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella,
"luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering
$2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.
To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another.
Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will
cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.
Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of
international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When
Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah
Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago –
as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to
come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring
this bid home."
A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage!
The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_material_girl_michelle_obama_is_a_modernday_marie_antoinette_on_a_glitzy_spanish.html#ixzz0vkF4jFYH
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