Newsweek: Is the Obama administration tone deaf? With Gulf Coast residents reeling from the oil spill and the economy still in the doldrums (another 131,000 jobs lost in July), the visuals of Michelle Obama's summer holiday in Spain are undeniably unhelpful for Democrats. For five days, the first lady, with daughter Sasha in tow, stayed in expensive hotels and soaked up breathtaking scenery in the southern Andalusia region. She also lunched with the king and queen of Spain, sampling a sumptuous menu of char-grilled turbot, veal escalopes with mustard and Majorca-style vegetable ratatouille.
Today, she has arrived back in the U.S. to more than a few raised eyebrows. While the White House has defended the trip as a private affair, the cost of firing up Air Force Two and providing Secret Service protection is likely to have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. "Politically it was not a smart move," said political analyst Cokie Roberts on ABC's Good Morning America, concurring with Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez. Over on the NBC Today Show, Tim Kaine, chair of the Democratic National Committee and a good friend of the Obamas, defended the First Lady. "I think it's wrong to talk about the first lady's family vacation as a politician ... When you're in office you don't give up being a mom and a family member, too." |
