First Couple Go On Date: Taxpayers Pick Up the Tab

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – President Barack Obama made good on a campaign promise to his most important supporter Saturday night — his wife, Michelle.

The president and first lady jetted to a date in New York late Saturday afternoon, aides and media in tow.

"I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said in a statement an aide read to the press.

After dining a little more than two hours at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant touted by New York magazine as a "seminal Greenmarket haven" that features food grown by chef and owner Dan Barber on his upstate farm, the president and first lady headed to the Belasco Theater to make curtain call for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."

The play by August Wilson is about black America in the early 1900s, with residents of a boardinghouse recalling their migration from the sharecropping farms of the South to the industrialized North.

As the motorcade left the West Village and drove up Sixth Avenue to the theater, crowds of people, at times about eight deep, gathered on the sidewalks of the blockaded streets to wave as the Obamas passed. Some cheered. Cab drivers opened their doors and stood on the frames of their taxis to glimpse the president and first lady.

The White House declined to say how much the trip was costing taxpayers, and even before the smaller jet left Washington, the there-and-back trip drew criticism from the Republican National Committee. The RNC issued a news release that chastised Obama for saying he understands American's troubles, but then hopping up to New York for "a night on the town."

Noting that General Motors is expected to file for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, the news release said: "Putting on a show: Obamas wing into the city for an evening out while another iconic American company prepares for bankruptcy."

In an interview before his inauguration, Barack Obama said he and his wife like having "date nights," usually on Fridays. Since moving to Washington, the Obamas have managed to fit in at least a few nights out in the nation's capital.

While on a trip to New York last week, Michelle Obama was reminded about the couple's first date.

"You know, after 20-some-odd years of knowing a guy, you forget that your first date was at a museum," she said. "But it was, and it was obviously wonderful. It worked."

Before traveling to New York, the Obamas watched daughter Malia's soccer game for an hour Saturday morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090531/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Good for them!

[Niels Bohr 72]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

At least GW Bush would have a helicopter fly him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas where he would chop wood and wear cowboy boots. He didn't flaunt spending tax payers money by taking his wife out on the town.

[scandal 951]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

At least GW Bush would have a helicopter fly him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas where he would chop wood and wear cowboy boots. He didn't flaunt spending tax payers money by taking his wife out on the town.

What's the difference? (Between going to Crawford or NY)?

As a taxpayer, I have no problem with this. I hope they had a nice time. And I hope it stirs up business for recession-hit small businesses, in NY or elsewhere.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

At least GW Bush would have a helicopter fly him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas where he would chop wood and wear cowboy boots. He didn't flaunt spending tax payers money by taking his wife out on the town.

What's the difference? (Between going to Crawford or NY)?

As a taxpayer, I have no problem with this. I hope they had a nice time. And I hope it stirs up business for recession-hit small businesses, in NY or elsewhere.

NY is closer to DC, so the difference is that it cost more to fly to Crawford every weekend.

P.S. As a fellow taxpayer, I don't see a problem either. The President and First Lady are entitled to alone time. Are they expected to fly United? I rather have the President travel under Secret Service protection which includes military planes than put him at risk. What would happen to the country if something happened to Obama? The economy would take a big plunge.

Edited May 31, 2009 by aaron2020

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Why can't he just chop wood like a real man?

[mawilson 2,133]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

At least GW Bush would have a helicopter fly him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas where he would chop wood and wear cowboy boots. He didn't flaunt spending tax payers money by taking his wife out on the town.

I would personally pick up the tab for his night out on the town if he just stopped all the bailouts and spending.

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

At least GW Bush would have a helicopter fly him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas where he would chop wood and wear cowboy boots. He didn't flaunt spending tax payers money by taking his wife out on the town.

do i hear someone missing the good ol day of gwb?

[scandal 951]

Why can't he just chop wood like a real man?

Coz he's a fairy ghey?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Why can't he just chop wood like a real man?

And ride a mountain bike.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Hmm..Come to think of it, aren't taxpayers already paying the secret service for past prez

At least GW Bush would have a helicopter fly him back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas where he would chop wood and wear cowboy boots. He didn't flaunt spending tax payers money by taking his wife out on the town.

I would personally pick up the tab for his night out on the town if he just stopped all the bailouts and spending.

You'd might have been out of job by now if that spending bill didn't happen. You should send Obama a personal thank you card.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Obama's a fvcking hypocrite.

[웃 910]

Barry "Bail Out" Obama adds somewhere around $1 billion dollars to the nations credit card every single hour ($25 billion a day is the latest figure I have, probably much higher though).....So what's another $100,000 or two? Charge it to our future grandkids, mine won't be born for at least another half century so who cares, right!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Obama's a fvcking hypocrite.

I am always disappointed when you fail to make up a fact or two to add to your insightful posts!