Big-Spendin' Obamas: Their Personal Has Become Our Political

Half a million for a Spanish getaway there, half a million for a night on Broadway there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

To some extent I think this is sort of bullshit: Maybe presidents like to pretend to be hardscrabble men of limited means, but few actually are. Even men of modest beginnings, like Nixon, were fairly wealthy by the time they took office.

That said, if Obama's going to run this insipid "Mitt Romney is rich, ew" campaign, then it's worth a look at the Obama's plush lifestyle.

Jodi Kantor's book The Obamas noted the Obama's lavish habits.

Even the president made uncomfortable jokes about why his wife needed so many things. Behind the scenes, aides said, the Obamas were concerned about money: the president’s books could only sell so many copies, and it would be years until he could write more and the first lady could write her own. From vacation rental homes big enough to accommodate the Secret Service to all the personal entertaining they did at the White House, their lifestyle had grown fearsomely expensive.

People shouldn't demand that people of means should live like paupers, just to send some signal that they're "of the poor."

That signal is itself a lie. It shouldn't be transmitted.

So, what's this nonsense I keep hearing about "Horse Ballet?"

Mitt Romney is a rich man. He made his money the old-fashioned way -- he earned it. He actually gave away his inheritance from his father. Yes, he was still armed with his father's connections, and those are a form of wealth. But he worked for his money.

He didn't just have a political movement donate it to him, through buying an "autobiography" which in all likelihood was written by a domestic terrorist.

The Obamas are welcome to their ceviches and waygu beefs and Spanish getaways.

But let's have an end to their attempts to stoke resentment against Mitt Romney for doing what every parent tells his kid to do: study hard, work hard, be a success, make enough money to ensure your children will never want.

posted by Ace at 05:26 PM

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