Move over...

[bonnie]

So you are suggesting that these "common people" (not that I agree that they "play" the "common people" so often, any more than any other previous president...)should not have all the very same perks, staff, personal chefs, security, that every other president before them has had? Why is it that you feel that way?

[bonnie]

YAHOO NEWS

The Atlantic Wire

Michelle Obama's Trip to Spain Draws Fire

Heather Horn Heather Horn – Thu Aug 5, 2:15 pm ET

WASHINGTON, DC – Michelle Obama's trip to Spain--complete with shots of the first lady touring town in a swoon-worthy Jean Paul Gaultier top--is not playing too well in the media. Though the first lady, her daughter, and the first lady's friends assembled for the vacation are traveling as "private citizens," as Press Secretary Gibbs has emphasized, and paying their own expenses, a few columnists aren't wild about the optics during tense economic times.

* 'Modern-Day Marie Antoinette' Andrea Tantaros at New York Daily News is the first to make the call. The problem for her, though, is not so much the excess itself as the excess on the public dime, as well as the hypocrisy:

[sacrifice] was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation ... 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 ... 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 ... I don't begrudge anyone rest and relaxation when they work hard. We all need downtime--the First Family included. It's the extravagance of Michelle Obama's trip and glitzy destination contrasted with President Obama's demonization of the rich that smacks of hypocrisy

* 'Let Them Eat Arugula' The Charleston Daily Mail's Don Surber comments on Matt Drudge's choice to run Michelle Obama's Spanish sojourn next to a headline about the number of Americans receiving food stamps. "Participation has set records for 18 straight months," says Bloomberg News; "Obama has been president for 18+ months," comments Surber, and, meanwhile, Michelle Obama is going on about a kitchen garden.

* 'First Ladies Often Go on Vacations,' acknowledges the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, and Michelle Obama and the friends with whom she is seeing Spain pay for their personal expenses, though not the security. "The issue," says Sweet, "for Mrs. Obama may be how many" vacations she is taking:

New York in March; Chicago, over Memorial Day; Los Angeles in June; Camp David -- sort of an extension of the White House -- in July; Maine in July, to highlight Acadia National Park, and now Spain. Mrs. Obama is glamorizing Spain's coastal resorts before her Aug. 14 first family weekend visit to Florida's Gulf Coast, to encourage tourists scared away by the oil spill. Starting Aug. 19, the Obamas will spend 10 days in Martha's Vineyard.

* The Way to Do This Right "Way, way back in 2004," writes Nick Gillespie Reason, "... the accomplished doctor-wife of insurgent candidate Howard Dean got it right when she pulled a Dennis Thatcher and refused to be a public player in her spouse's campaign." This, he says, should be the model: "there, for a brief, shining moment, was an idea that rulers should live like the people they govern because, after all, they weren't any different."

[Dr. Shane]

The fact is that Obama's family needs more security because they are black. There are a lot of crazy racists out there.

[bonnie]

The fact is that Obama's family needs more security because they are black. There are a lot of crazy racists out there.

Kennedy and Reagan being white were shot WHY???

Dislike or crazies are not all racists. Maybe some crazies dislike a president for other reasons.

CBS News.com

December 3, 2009 2:04 PM

Secret Service: Threats Against Obama No Higher than Normal

Posted by Stephanie Condon

5803574The director of the Secret Service today disputed widely-reported claims that President Obama is receiving more death threats than previous presidents.

At a congressional hearing into the White House security breach that took place last week, when Tareq and Michaele Salahi "crashed" the White House state dinner, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said the current threat level against the president is normal.

"The threats right now ... is the same level as it has been for the previous two presidents at this point in their administrations," Sullivan said.

Sullivan was the only requested witness who agreed to testify today before the House Homeland Security Committee, and he said the Secret Service takes responsibility for allowing the Salahis to enter the state dinner uninvited. Three Secret Service officers are currently under suspension because of the incident, he said.

Since news of the security breach broke, members of Congress have commented that the incident was particularly troubling in light of the number of threats against the first African-American president.

"It is well known, it's been in the press over and over again, that this president has received far more death threats than any president in the history of the United States," Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the congressional delegate for the District of Columbia, said at today's hearing.

The Boston Globe report last month noting that the threats against Mr. Obama have fallen back to typical levels, Mark Hosenball of Newsweek writes that the reports of a 400 percent increase in threats can be traced back to a book about the Secret Service published earlier this year by author Ronald Kessler.

Sullivan said today that the president was not at risk the night of the state dinner.

[Dr. Shane]

Lots of racists dream of the day they could kill Obama. I think it safe to say that he is the most hated President ever. I pray that he will make it through his presidency alive. He certainly needs all the security he can get.

[phkrause]

Here's a link to the amount of death threats Obama receive's a day. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...et-Service.html

[bonnie]

Lots of racists dream of the day they could kill Obama. I think it safe to say that he is the most hated President ever. I pray that he will make it through his presidency alive. He certainly needs all the security he can get.

You must live in a different world than I do,Thank God I don't have to live among those you must.

I don't even know "lots of racists" let alone anyone that is dreaming of killing the president because he is black.

Many I know do dislike him because of the mess his leadership has created. Most of those voted for Obama and feel extremely foolish for being so duped.

Did it ever occur to you that what you call " the most hated president" really has nothing to do with the color of his skin.

Not everyone places so much emphasis on skin color.They just want to work and support their families

[bonnie]

Here's a link to the amount of death threats Obama receive's a day. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...et-Service.html

The secret service has debunked the number of threats claimed.

Anybody get excited when Bush received them on a daily basis.Maybe he was safe as his skin color was white

[Dr. Shane]

Well, Bush was safer because of his skin color. That is clearly obvious and undeniable. Racists have been devising plans on how they can kill Obama from the time he began to run for President. No make no mistake about it, racists are the ones behind the entire birther movement. They are sick with rage and hatred.

We probably need to double the number of secret service agents protecting Obama and his family. It might even be a good idea to create a new government agency to protect our first real black president.

[bonnie]

Well, Bush was safer because of his skin color. That is clearly obvious and undeniable. Racists have been devising plans on how they can kill Obama from the time he began to run for President. No make no mistake about it, racists are the ones behind the entire birther movement. They are sick with rage and hatred.

We probably need to double the number of secret service agents protecting Obama and his family. It might even be a good idea to create a new government agency to protect our first real black president.

Sounds like you have a close relationship with those wishing the president harm.If you have the information on this I am sure that Obama and friends know,as well as the secret service.

Obama would milk a racial threat like that for all it is worth.

[bonnie]

Well, Bush was safer because of his skin color. That is clearly obvious and undeniable. Racists have been devising plans on how they can kill Obama from the time he began to run for President. No make no mistake about it, racists are the ones behind the entire birther movement. They are sick with rage and hatred.

Really? Why didn't the color of their skin protect Kennedy and Reagan?

Maybe a little more diligent search into the origins of the birther movement.

[Dr. Shane]

There are all kind of crazies that want to kill a President. Obama has all of those after him. Those are the regular kill-the-president loonies. In addition to the regular loonies that every President has to deal with, Obama has the rapid-at-the-mouth racists that dream each night of being the one that is able to kill him. Obama needs lots and lots of security. In fact, if he hired enough he could probably stimulate this economy and get us out of this recession. He just needs to tell the first lady to vacation here and home and not spread our stimulus dollars into Europe.