Pity the poor First Lady

Yes, pity her, I say. Her detractors can't decide whether she's a Marxist fist-bumper or Marie Antoinette, but they know whatever she is, it ain't Amurican.

Honestly, these people get their knickers in a twist over the weirdest things. Now they are complaining because she's taking a private vacation to Spain with her younger daughter and some friends and their daughters. The vacation is paid for by the Obamas' own private funds. Of course, the Secret Service went along and they are paid by us, but they would have gone along if she had gone to Little Rock. It's part of their job to keep her and her daughter safe wherever they go. With all the crazy and violent people who would love to do them harm, I'm very glad the Secret Service is there. But the right-wing blogosphere is appalled and outraged. Predictably. Remember how they were also appalled and outraged when President Bush and his family spent a third of his presidency at his Texas home with him clearing brush and mountain biking while the country went to hell in a handbasket? No, I don't remember it either.

But not only is the right-wing blogosphere appalled. Maureen Dowd is appalled, too. Actually, that's pretty predictable as well. She's pretty much lost her way when it comes to commentary. She seldom has a column that is really worth reading anymore. She's become a screecher and she screeches about the oddest things. This time she's upset not so much because the First Lady went to Spain but because she spent her husband's birthday there, when, according to Maureen, she should have been home soothing his brow and mixing him a martini.

I don't know what led to the choice of Spain for a holiday for her and Sasha. Maybe it was something she and her husband felt they needed to do for their younger daughter. As hard as it is being President and First Lady, it can't be any picnic being one of the First Daughters either. I don't know the reasons and I don't really care. There are some things that just aren't any of our business, and this is one of them. Happy vacation, ladies!

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