Comments on: Saturday Night’s All Right for Dating

By: porkopolitan

porkopolitan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:20:56 +0000

It’s not the date night, it’s the date venue. How many tens of thousands does it take to back AF1 out of the hangar? Probably more than I take home in three years. I don’t begrudge Barry & Mish a night on the town, so long as they cough up reimbursement for the voluntarily assumed expenses to travel beyond their current city limits. (Though that might violate rule 1b of the Democratic Handbook: “Make someone else pay for it.”) Wanna see the traveling company of the “Cats” revival when it rolls into the Kennedy Center, though? Knock yourselves out.

As for Alsadius’ entirely reasonable point about staying sane, that’s what a weekend at Camp David or a few weeks’ R&R at whatever replaces the Crawford Ranch are about. A Presidential date night cannot be R&R — not with an augmented White House press corps in tow. But we are required to pretend that Barack And Michelle On Parade is really all about quality time with the spouse. Please. Even the backwoods rubes won’t fork over a nickel for that one…

By: zipity

zipity — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:05:51 +0000

Sure Michelle doesn’t get “paid” but she does, of course, have a staff of 26 and a budget of $1.75 million dollars….nice work if you can get it. It’s almost as good as her hospital job she used to have, the salary for which mysteriously doubled after her husband became a Senator..and said Senator steered a several million dollar earmark toward same hospital….

By: jon

jon — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:57:09 +0000

I don’t think the rules are any different, it’s just that a new group of people is complaining about who’s not doing his job and who’s afraid to deal with the real issue and so forth. Bush liked going to his Crawford property, Obama likes going new places, and both receive a lot of scrutiny from the media and everyone else who bothers to notice such things.

The rules aren’t being changed or even asked to be changed, since Obama knew and knows what comes with the job. What Obama, and Bush before him, and Sarah Palin and Balloon Boy and Gisele Bundchen and Martina Navratilova and McCain’s daughter and Patrick Stewart and probably even Harry Dean Stanton have is just a regular case of Celebrity Regret. That’s the thing best summed up by Thelonious Monk when he said, “I’m famous, ain’t that a bitch?”

By: DaveP.

DaveP. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:31:25 +0000

The rules were changed for the last President… for eight years under GWB, the POTUS could have no expectation of a private life, nor of private time with his family, nor even of common human respect and decency.

Now the same people who changed the rules and made the Oval Office into a fishbowl want the rules changed back, so one of theirs can have an easier time of it.

No. the rules are as played, seasons 2001-2008. Live with it.

By: Alsadius

Alsadius — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:48:59 +0000

I prefer that even bad Presidents stay sane, and telling them that they’re locked into the pressure cooker for 4-8 years with no escape is not the best way to achieve that. And the “It was at taxpayer expense” line is pure nonsense – everything he will ever do for the rest of his life will be at taxpayer expense. Yeah, the nominal salary is nothing special, but the perks are like no other job on the planet. And that’s true whether he spends the night in Broadway, the White House, or his old recliner in Chicago.

Also, Stephen, I know you probably read this yourself already or will soon, but I’m curious about your take on this post, mostly because I know it’ll be hilarious no matter whether you’re pro- or anti-.
Oops…forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.

By: Alsadius

Alsadius — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:53:52 +0000

By: mike

mike — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:25:05 +0000

well part of the issue here is the hypocrisy by the MSM…if GWB had taken his wife out to a diner in Gaithersburg, the MSM would have been all over him about the waste of taxpayer’s money, how much time he was spending eating out, etc.

By: jsallison

jsallison — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:19:04 +0000

I don’t have an issue with date night, as pres some stuff is going to be downright strange. I DO have an issue with that whole corrupt socialist Chicago hack thing…

By: jon

jon — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:46:03 +0000

Casey, cheating on a spouse is not good, but it’s not something I’d consider worth kicking someone out of office for (though other, related issues should cost him the job.) Yes, it showed that Sanford’s character is not good, but if being a sleaze at times makes someone unfit for office then we’d have very few leaders left.

xj, Obama wasn’t even in the plane at the time. I think the fact that he wasn’t scheduled to be in the area is an added part of what scared people so much.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:59:01 +0000

It shows that he is human

His critics already knew that. It’s his supporters who need to figure it out.

By: Tweets that mention Vodkapundit » Saturday Night’s All Right for Dating -- Topsy.com

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:30:44 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephanie Harrington, match u up. match u up said: Vodkapundit » Saturday Night's All Right for Dating: “If I weren't president, I would be happy to catch.. http://bit.ly/1hwnR2 [...]

By: xj

xj — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:48:45 +0000

By presidential standards, Barry’s a piker. FDR once commandeered an entire Navy cruiser so he could go deep-sea fishing:

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/409-a-map-of-fdrs-vacation/

And hey, it’s better than that time he flew Airforce One low over downtown Manhattan and scared the bejesus out of everyone…

By: Dmac

Dmac — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:54:52 +0000

That last comment must be some kind of a bad parody, right? This is the most narcissistic, navel – gazing, elitist POTUS we’ve ever had in our lifetimes. This sounds remarkably like his earlier whining about “just let me finish eating my waffles” rant during his election run. I could care less what he does on his free time, but why on earth does he need to tie up mid – Town Manhattan for four hours? And with the ginormous security apparatus and escort? And we’re supposed to believe that it’s not all about him? Please.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:39:12 +0000

Even Barack Obama should be allowed to go out on a date. It shows that he is human and needs sometime to go out and relax just like the rest of us. Whether you agree with his policies or not, you have to agree that he is probably are most down to earth President we have had in a long time.

By: bgates

bgates — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:13:37 +0000

Obama is unrelenting in his attacks on personal consumption and the pursuit of happiness by anyone other than Himself. “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times,” He said. The odious First Lady was the same way – “Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual,” but she demands she go back to her life as usual, with no inconvenience from their new position.

And what an inconvenience! If it weren’t for date night in New York, how could they have any fun, besides a dinner from their private chef, a show in their private movie theater, command performances by any of the glamorous people who worship Barack, or any of the perks of office that have some kind of tangential relationship to the office – the state dinners, the appearances in front of adoring masses, the endless series of parties at the White House, all at taxpayer expense, all filled with Obama devotees.

It would be an inconvenience to not take a private jet to Manhattan for an evening at taxpayer expense. Taking that burden upon himself would spare millions of others the mild inconvenience that accompanies Presidential travel, and it would save the taxpayers a few hundred thousand dollars. He will not endure that inconvenience for himself, but he demands the rest of us fly less, drive less, eat less, accept worse medical care, smaller and less comfortable homes….

I’ll agree with him this far: it would please me greatly if he weren’t President, too.

By: Pauldow

Pauldow — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:59:16 +0000

Besides the direct hundreds of thousands of dollars the taxpayers have to cough up for their “date”, there’s the hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue from nearby businesses. Many won’t get any customers because of all the security. Vehicle traffic is restricted. Aviation is severely damaged. Anywhere the President goes, they put a 30 mile flight restriction. That’s all non-airline flights in a 2827 square mile area. There can be no flights within 10 miles, and within 10-30 miles there are many restrictions to flights.

If he needs a rest, that’s what Camp David is for.

By: Casey

Casey — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:26:54 +0000

Barry can have all date nights he wants. I just get ticked off when he blows millions of dollars doing so. I suppose that makes me an “inane ..whiner” from Joan’s point of view.

jon, as usual, is clueless about the issue; this time with respect to Governor Sanford. Some of us do take concepts like responsibility seriously. Sanford cheated on his wife; he broke faith. But, hey, no big deal, right jon? I’m sure someone willing to cheat on their spouse would never break any other oaths, like one to the citizens of this country…

By: Steve Ducharme

Steve Ducharme — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:19:38 +0000

Well it was a promise to his wife made during the campaign.

So we can now say that he HAS live up to one campaign promise.

Bout freaking time..

Now back to the links with you..

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:44:31 +0000

Sure, but it comes with the territory. It’s not like someone forced him to be President

By: rbj

rbj — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:30:39 +0000

True, Brad. I just wanted to head jon off at the pass on the AIG et al., executives.