Michelle Goes Shopping

Just because they are the First Family doesn't mean they have to ... well, yes it does mean just that ... they are no longer like you and I, they campaigned for the right to be different, and they won (as we are reminded over and over and over and over again).

So if you are different, then behave as such - like Barbara and Laura Bush, Nancy Reagan, and yes, even Hillary - none of them, to my knowledge (with the possible exception of Hillary who liked to show she was one of us) went off shopping.

Why does it matter? because hundreds of people follow Michelle around - a Secret Service detail of over 20, the press, her aides, and their aides, and followers-on ... all so she can go shopping. A police detail, bomb sniffing dogs, ambulance, at least a half a dozen police cars, 4-5 Secret Service vehicles, motorcycles, 2-5 press vehicles ... all so she can go shopping. Streets are closed, manhole covers covered, security detail checks everyone out, people are held back, traffic created - all so she can go shopping.

According to the Washington Post (link) - more vehicles were involved than I assert, and more traffic and street closures, all so Mrs. Obama could do some shopping ... for food.

You all understand that living in the White House is like living in a hotel ... you decide what the menu will be, and the cooks go buy your food. If Mrs. Obama had wanted fresh Asian pears, she could write them on a list instead of causing a major cluster-fuck that resulted in more carbon emissions than 10 average families could emit in a year.

It is not a matter of she just wants to get out of the 'house' for awhile. Milbank explains WHY she did it, and it was not just to go buy her own food ... it was a promotion, and one that costs thousands of dollars, and inconveniences hundreds of people ... so she can promote a shopping place.

Whether it is their very expensive nights out or her decision to go shopping ... they are a very expensive First Family. Nancy Reagan never spent so much on all the china and furniture in the White House and she was held up by Democrats as extravagant and out of touch at a time when we were in a recession.











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