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Riddle me this, Batmen (and girls)…

By: Victoria Coates (Diary)  |  December 26th, 2008 at 06:38 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I hate to go all Grinchy the day after Christmas, but can anyone tell me why is it okay for Barack Obama to spend Christmas during the worst economic downturn in decades in the course of which thousands of Americans face losing their homes in Hawaii in a 9 million dollar house body surfing and playing golf when it is not okay for the leader of the free world who has been presiding over two wars for several years to clear brush at the rather modest ranch he owns in Texas during hurricane season?

Or, along the same lines, why is it so terrible for harried executives to save time–and quite frankly in the grand scheme of things not spend that much money compared to what we really face–by travelling by private aviation when the man elected to preside over this mess frolics in the lap of luxury?

Now I know that Mr. Obama hails from Hawaii and no one blames him for going home for the holidays.  But does he have to revel in such such a luxurious rented mansion and be photographed participating in such elitist sports?  Was there no lesser house on offer? 

I suppose that his apologists will now argue that it’s not Mr. Obama’s fault that he now needs to travel with security and support staff that make a more modest dwelling impractical, but when did these same commenters, wearing their critic’s hats, ever extend such understanding to President Bush?

I have to wonder, when even Paul Krugman is raising a bushy eyebrow and scolding that “symbolism matters,” just how in touch this future President is with the terrible financial challenges that will bedevil our nation next year?

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  • Achance

    by definition and everything they do is good. Republicans are bad people by definition and everything they do is bad. Didn’t you get the memo?

  • Kenny Solomon

    …….Do as I say, not as I do.

    The big difference from any previous left-ended agenda is this time, not only will they tell you how you should live your life, but they’ll put it all into law to make sure you do so. However, “for the good of the country”, their own people will not be a part of that mandate.

    There’s not really all that much to stop ‘em from politically going all the way….except for the real Americans who will absolutely refuse to live under tyranny. Get ready for another American Revolution folks.

    • Achance

      Seems to be appropriate to the spirt of the times.

      • Kenny Solomon

        Sometimes I feel we may be the only ones left to defend America…….. It seems as if the overwhelming majority of the USA have become part of the proverbial “pod people” ; Being literally brainwashed by the Obama minions, the media and adhering to political correctness run rampant.

        This is a dangerous time we’re entering.

        I urge everyone to keep a close eye on the international media. There are many things happening that are not being even remotely touched on by the US media, not even The Fox News Channel.

        ——————

        Achance……On the Mossberg…….. That’s one of the best shotguns out there.

        Safe shooting and remember that true gun control is hitting your intended target at center with your first discharge.

        Cheers !

        • Achance

          gun. It is superceding a Remington 870 because I normally only need or want a shotgun on the boat. A salt water boat isn’t a healthy environment for a wood stocked, blued shotgun. I got the “Marine” version of the 500 which is supposed to be pretty corrosion resistant.

          I don’t hunt anymore, so the Mossberg is purely for personal protection. We spend a lot of time out in the islands of Southeast Alaska. If you wind up ashore on any of those islands, you are definitively NOT at the top of the food chain. The Mossberg has four rounds for the brown bear and the fifth one is for me. Oh, and should a human intruder show up at either the boat or my house, it would probably serve to rearrange his career plans and his DNA.

          I’ve long had a “slightly modified” Ruger Mini 14 for household protection and a Walther PPK as a backup. When we’re not on the boat, I think the Mossberg’s home will be beside the bed.

          • Academic Elephant

            Enjoy.

          • Achance

            I went out to the range with it a while today; kicks like a mule! It’s said that nothing will concentrate the mind so much as the sound of a round being jacked into the chamber of a Mossberg. I can believe it; it is an ominous and very distinctive sound.

            It kicks a LOT more than the 870. It really is a pistol grip shotgun with just a little adjustable polymer shoulder stock, there’s not much mass. I’ll load it up with 00 when it’s on the boat. #4 buck seems to be the way to go for home defense, plenty lethal but it won’t remodel your house so bad.

          • Kenny Solomon

            Achance, if you can get some, you may want to check into frangible loads. Realizing that 1275/1375 fps isn’t exactly easy on whatever is surrounding/behind your target, but a softer pellet may help a bit.

            I have a new 870 synthetic and it’s ….. well ….. yessiree it’s a good’un. It’s a 6/1, so I can have some alternating patterns.

            For whenever I’m out and about, I picked up a Sig 9mm (Sig Pro 2022) and I’m also getting something smaller for an ankle carry.

          • Achance

            I’ll keep it aroumd/ It’s really that the boat is just such a hostile environment for anything made out of metal. The idea behind the 500 was for it to be left on the boat, but after I’ve played with it a bit, I want to keep it at home. Maybe I need two.

            Thank God the last time I had to think about an ankle carry was almost forty years ago in Atlanta. Didn’t lose anything there.

      • Susannah

        Just kidding Achance. I was watching “A Christmas Story” on Christmas day (it came on all day on TBS), so I just had to say it.

        Merry Christmas and enjoy your new gun (it sounds like a great gift). :-)

  • progressivemass

    Barack Obama is not the president.

    Okay?

    A hurricane going on while being president is not equal to an ongoing recession while not being president.

    He’s not even a senator. He resigned. He holds not public office whatsoever.

    • NightTwister
    • NightTwister
    • Academic Elephant

      Have your heard anyone call him anything but “President Elect” for weeks? Every word any of his administration utters comes from “The Office of the President Elect.” He has an Official Seal, for crying out loud. This is hardly Citizen Obama.

      And as I think about it, is it okay for him to do this as he threads the needle between government jobs but then to “wear the mask” as it were while he’s President? Are you saying there is no symbolism to his actions between now and January 20th? But then on the 21st he will start to care about what everyone else is going through and vacation, accordingly, in a shack?

    • JustLeaveMeAlone

      So…. you are saying that a president has more control of a hurricane than a non-president does of a recession?

      • hmmcontrib

        I believe the president is completely in control of his, and his subordinates’, response to a hurricane, not the weather itself.

        • JustLeaveMeAlone

          How many hurricanes have you been through?

          I’ve been through my share — Katrina, Rita, and most recently Ike. And I can tell you that Presidents have NO control over them and very dang little control over the response to them. Mother Nature is in control.

          I don’t begrudge the President cutting some brush on his ranch, for goshsakes. That’s just plain silly. What was he supposed to be doing at that time? There was nothing anyone could do right then except batten down the hatches and ride it out.

          This whole attitude of “why doesn’t the guvment DO SUMTHIN’ for me?” drives me insane. When the wind stops blowing, you start making repairs and do what you need to to survive; you don’t sit around waiting for FEMA to show up, unless you really enjoy a lot of waiting.

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      Then you agree that this whole “Office of the President-Elect” bit is just an uppity farce resulting from Obama’s delusions of grandeur and pathological belief in his self-importance?

      Glad we’re on the same page, then.

    • janis

      then what is the jug-eared Lightworker doing going to Iraq over the holidays to hang out with our troops and military leaders? Is that the logical next destination for Mr. Private Citizen after his tropical interlude?

      He is exactly what he appears to be–an opportunistic and arrogant man, deluded by his illegal money raising system into thinking that he and his every deed are of supreme importance and wisdom.

      And we shall all pay whatever price justice demands for electing the likes of him and his cohorts. We are already paying a terrible price for ending up with a deeply biased and dishonest media, but you ain’t seen nothing yet, progressivemass.

      • http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/ Warner Todd Huston

        But God forbid that Bush ever took a vacation… for that matter remember the hew and cry that went up whenever Reagan went to his ranch?

      • birdmojo

        Obama going on vacation is probably the best thing he could possibly do over the course of the next 8 years.

        Please practice saying the following things:

        “Jeez, he’s looking tired. Wouldn’t he be better off taking off a week or two?”

        “Man, he’s been working hard. He should take a 3/4-day weekend!”

        “Checking my calendar, it’s the Feast of Saint Barnaby. He should probably relax a little.”

        There is nothing, allow me to say this again using all caps, *NOTHING* that Obama would be better off doing than nothing at all. Please help make this possible by treating his vacations as something that he should have more of rather than turning into mirror images of the anti-Bush Brigades who spent all their time complaining about how awful a job Bush was doing and the second he went on vacation started complaining about how Bush wasn’t doing his job anymore.

        When I was a kid, my grandfather put me on his knee and gave me some very, very good advice which I will now pass along to you:

        Don’t Be That Guy.

    • Justin_Case

      Sort of like O’s Wifey’s quip about the $600 earrings.

      It’s ok when it’s the Democrats.

      But, we already knew that.

    • Old_Crow

      working on issues with his staff. Obama’s neither a thinker nor a doer, but just a kitty cat on the hood of the car.

    • smagar
  • rbdwiggins

    The key word is: Ranch.

    I suspect the reaction from the Partisan Press would have been much more amenable if President Reagan or President Bush had chosen exclusive resorts for their respective vacation destinations…

  • rbdwiggins

    It seems to me, that President Obama will be a “lame-duck-in-waiting” following the 2010 mid-terms if the “progressives” have their way with the Party and the 111th Congress.

    But, your grandfather’s advice was spot-on: “Don’t be that guy.”

  • birdmojo

    If you’ve not noticed, there have been a non-trivial number of front-paged posts to this very website cackling about how Obama has been stabbing the Progressives in the back.

    If this continues… well, we could well have another Clinton on our hands with a population that remembers Bush fairly clearly and Reagan fuzzily, if at all.

  • rbdwiggins
  • rbdwiggins

    But by all accounts Harry, Nancy and the 111th have a “progressive” agenda to ram down everyone’s throat (Made a little easier if Minnesota flips-out and sends Franken to the US Senate), and by 2010, President Bush will probably look good to the average Joe.

    Note: If President Reagan should ever be forgotten, it will be our own fault, and it will be because we failed to defend his legacy.

  • smagar

    that Saint Al Gore’s Tennessee chalet?

    I do. The MSM has made sure that the rest of America can’t.

  • Kenny Solomon

    These traitors posing as Congress don’t really need The One other than to sign off on whatever they deign to shove up our……….

    It wouldn’t at all surprise me if one or two of our Supreme Court Justices “has an accident” soon after 20 January.

    Cheers !

  • mdkess

    This seems like a bit of a non-issue. He’s not President, he’s on vacation, and presumably it’s his money. When did America get so whiney about what people do with their cash? I spent over $1000 on a bike recently, should I not do this because some other people can’t afford it, or because most people don’t spend $1000 on a bike? Hell no. I wanted a bike, so I went and bought a bike. Barack Obama has every right to go and rent a nice mansion for what is going to be the last big vacation before the hardest 4 or 8 years of his life.

    Protesting like this makes you seem like a bunch of commies. Let people do whatever they want with their money. If he were president, or it was public money, sure, take issue, but neither is the case here.

  • rbdwiggins

    to what we can expect from the minority when it comes to dealing with President Obama’s judicial nominees.

    There will be two vacancies, possibly three, on the Court for Obama to fill during his first two-years. I’m certain he will try to persuade those Justices who may be considering retirement to do so while the Democrats enjoy a substantial majority in the US Senate.

    An “accident” won’t be necessary.

  • Rod_Patrick

    Obama thinks that he has been “annointed” as King…. not elected as a President.

    The non-stop jubilation and adoration from the MSM makes Obama looking like the former, not the latter. There’s a big difference in paradigm there.

    Let me repeat my congratulations again to the 52!

    But I think it will be a good riddance for all of us if Obama stays in Hawaii in the next 4 years and enjoy his well-earned vacation after a successful election campaign (thanks to all the Credit crisis in September).

    Let the market forces dictate the operation of the economic systems, let the market correct itself, and let the Generals (sans Carter-like executives) do the thinking in protecting the country from outside threats.

    In short, I wish that the Democrat-run Government stay away from the market… that government will do more harm than good.

  • janis

    It’s about the difference between how the MSM treats Obama’s vacation as opposed to how they treated George W. Bush’s. We have every right in the world to protest that piece of hypocrisy.

    And clue for you: I doubt very seriously that Obama had to fork over a single nickel of his own money for this vacation home.

  • mdkess

    Okay, when I say his money, I mean more money over which you have no claims – basically, not public money. The point is that he’s not President. Sure, he has his “Office Of The President-Elect” thingy going, but that seems more to ease his transition into the White House than anything else. He’s still not President until the end of January, and so if he wants to go and golf in Hawaii, he’s not shirking any duties. My main point of contention is that a lot of what goes on Red State seems to be grasping at straws – I’m sure we’ll find out that Obama drives a foreign car or he loves Mexican food or whatever – instead of taking issue with politics and policy. And maybe the mainstream media treated Bush unfairly over his Katrina vacation. This, however, is not comparable.

  • bs

    did you fail to understand?

  • Martin Knight

    That they’re busy working the fans to make sure their man-god stays cool is a little annoying, is all.