Michelle Obama vacation: Will critics slam this trip too?
| Washington
Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia are looking at an extended vacation on Martha鈥檚 Vineyard this summer, according to a report in The Boston Globe. The Globe might have something here 鈥� it鈥檚 almost a local Vineyard paper, after all.
According to The Globe the first couple is looking at a house , in Oak Bluffs, which they鈥檝e visited in the past. 聽The particular house they鈥檝e stayed in previously, Blue Heron Farm, 鈥淯p Island鈥� in Chilmark, has . So that piece of real estate is probably out.
President Obama has a lot going on, what with defending against Benghazi inquisitions and the IRS's聽targeting of conservative groups and other flaps, so it鈥檚 not as if he鈥檚 going to be biking the Vineyard鈥檚 idyllic paths all summer. He may come up for weekends and an extended period of time in August.
If Michelle and the kids do opt for a lengthy Vineyard stay it could become fodder for critics. First family vacations are a fraught issue, as it鈥檚 easy to portray them as insensitive in some manner. The Vineyard is an expensive and exclusive area (as well as kind of Democratic 鈥� didn鈥檛 the Clintons go there?) so it鈥檚 likely that at some point some talk radio host will go after this plan as demeaning to US workers still suffering in a slowly recovering economy.
The right-leaning Weekly Standard, for instance, has that the Obamas are on a vacation-a-month schedule so far for 2013.
Plus, the first lady and daughters have at least one family foreign trip on the agenda. They鈥檙e scheduled to accompany Dad on his for a Group of Eight summit in June.
And Michelle will go along with Barack when the president makes a swing through Africa later in the summer. There鈥檚 no word yet on whether Sasha and Malia will go there, too.
In the past conservative groups have cried 鈥渇oul鈥� over Mrs. Obama鈥檚 presence on such trips, saying that while the first couple may pay for some of the expenses, it still costs the taxpayers money for her security detail and associated stuff. The group Judicial Watch even filed a suit with the US Air Force last year, from Mrs. Obama鈥檚 trip to Spain in 2010.
For the Obamas the reality is that the White House is a gilded cage. Like virtually all residents of the US executive mansion before them they long to escape it for a semblance of normality, preferably somewhere with a climate superior to that of steamy Washington, D.C.
As a wealthy couple they can afford a Vineyard rental. Having been there before, they鈥檝e perhaps decided it both meets their recreating needs and can be played down as a place where they鈥檝e been before.
