Is Comparing Obama to Coolidge Fair?

I had meant to post about this last night, but then it slipped my mind.

Yesterday Mark Steyn was complaining about all the travel and extravegance that the Obama's indulge in - flying in chefs from Chicago to cook their meals, taking vacations seemingly every other weekend, and so on. And he was saying that's not what a citizen President should do, and then compared him to Calvin Coolidge.

And frankly that was just a silly comparisons. Since the 1960s, Presidents have been known to get their little luxuries. Nancy Reagan was criticized for her insensitivity in telling the rest of the US to tighten their belts, than ordering a new set of china dishes for the White House.

So, are those people who claim that Obama is too extravagant with taxpayers money just racist? Is it okay for white Presidents to go on vacations and use the perks of office, but because Obama is black, he doesn't deserve the same kind of treatment?

No, that's not what's going on here. The point is that - here and now - the US is bankrupt. We don't have the money to pay our debt unless the debt ceiling is increased, and yet Obama can jet around on Air Force 1 to be interviewed by Oprah for a daytime talk show. (Why didn't Oprah spend her own money to come interview him at the WHite House? Heck, she took her whole show to Australia, didn't she?)

But back on point. Obama has said he "feels our pain." Obama has said that people shouldn't live above their means. So, taking Obama as himself, at this point in time, yes, he's being hypocritical and wasteful of taxpayers money.

It doesn't matter if you think that the Bush's were just as wasteful, or that Reagan was just as wasteful. Every president has to be judged by the time in which he lived. And the times we're living in now are kind of desperate for a lot of people. And its based on these times that Obama should decide how much money he gets to spend on vacations and what not.

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