Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Hypocrites Claim Obamas Are Elitist To Hide Positive News Stories

With Michelle Obama's recent trip to Spain, the attacks from the right calling the first family elitist have reignited.  Glenn Beck attacked the trip on his show, spreading lies as usual:
I thought the President was out of touch with the average American because he prefers arugula, plays basketball with LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, sings with Paul McCartney. And his wife threw me off the scent of 'struggle' just a little bit with her recent mother-daughter trip to Spain. She flew on an AC32A, that's a 757, which usually serves as Air Force Two, and sometimes Air Force One. It only costs $11,351 per hour to operate.

Then the First lady reserved 30 rooms at an opulent 5-Star hotel. Oh, it's beautiful. It was just for her and approximately 40 of her friends. Now I'm not a sacrifice expert, so forgive me, but where exactly is the sacrifice here? Was this your vacation? Did she sacrifice your vacation? The security cost alone cost you the taxpayer reportedly 75 thousand dollars per day.
Of course Beck's was all wrong, but that probably wouldn't make a difference with his audience.  Fox White House Wendell Goler gave a conflicting account of the vacation:
Well, we reported on the trip before she went. We also reported that reports out of Spain that she was going to fill an Air Force jet with friends and put them up at a five-star hotel were wrong. It turns out the First Lady met a couple of friends and their daughters over in Spain. The friends paid their own travel and accommodations. She flew on an Air Force jet that was mostly filled with uniformed and plain clothes Secret Service agent. They chose the hotel.
Sean Hannity called it their "let them eat cake moment."

As Newshounds put it, "Sean Hannity, the multimillionaire who ponies up nearly $100,000 a year in property taxes for his 16-room waterfront mansion, whose speaking fee includes private jet travel, who charged $50,000 in travel expenses for a speech he “volunteered” to give at Brigham Young University, is apparently banking on the fact that nobody will notice his hypocrisy in complaining that Michelle Obama’s trip to Spain was too sumptuous."

If Michelle Obama is elitist for vacationing in Spain for a few days, then what about someone who regularly vacations at a multimillion dollar ranch in Texas?

President Bush purchased the ranch back in 1999 - before he was president - for over $1 million and spent 490 days of his presidency at the ranch.  He spent an additional 487 days at Camp David.  I wonder how much it cost for all the secret service agents to accompany the president on those vacations, which ammounted for 33% of his presidency.

How about the last president to leave office with high approval numbers - Bill Clinton.  He liked to vacation in Martha's Vineyard but you rarely hear the right attack Clinton as being an elitist - maybe because most Americans liked Clinton and found him relatable - it wouldn't be wise to make such an attack, but what about Jimmy Carter, who has remained a popular target among conservatives?  Carter only took the least amount of vacations during his presidency, and when he did he went back home to Georgia, but that didn't stop the right from calling Jimmy Carter an elitist.  Did I mention Carter sent his daughter to public school?

In my opinion, these attacks are attempts from the right to prevent any good news from coming out painting the president in a positive light.

Which would Fox News rather report - Michelle Obama's "opulent" vacation or Congress passing legislation aiding teachers, police officers, and firefighters?

Which story would conservatives rather be heard - Michelle Obama meeting Spanish royalty, staying in a 5-star hotel, and the president playing basketball with NBA greats, or the passage of a border security bill?

Like the Digg Patriots trying to bury "progressive" stories on social media websites, the right wing media are just trying to maintain control of the narrative by hiding stories they don't like while pumping up non-stories that help benefit their agenda.

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