Let Them Eat Kale

by Gary Graham

So I guess it’s the schoolyard chivalry I was raised on that taught me you never beat up on the girl.  Thus, I have held my tongue in regards to the good First Lady, Michelle Obama.  But now it has become too much to bear.   And the tipping point:  Kale — yes, a leafy green vegetable. 

nm_michelle_obama

It had to happen, it was inevitable, I suppose.  She slid past us with her, “For the first time, I am proud to be an American” proclamation…and we even looked the other way when she and her husband spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a fun-filled New York City getaway of Broadways shows, dining and shopping.  (Sure, they may have used their own personal cash, but I doubt they ponied up out-of-pocket for the myriad of security vehicles, the legion of secret service agents, the bomb-sniffing dogs, etc, etc.

So, in a carefully publicized and orchestrated publicity event, the First Lady last week launched a full contingent of security, including three dozen D.C. police vehicles;  they had closed H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street, plus an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. Security had swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs.  They had installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks.   There was press and interpreters for the hearing-impaired — and with over 100 viewers in tow, Michelle Obama went and did her own shopping. 

Why – she’s just like you or me!  She’s a Woman of the People.  

But hey – her husband is the Prez of the U.S., for god’s sake.  Give him his due; he’s earned a few perks.  However, it occurs to me as odd that the same people who tell us that we are killing our planet because of Global Warming (or Climate Change if you like), and that we must ‘reduce our carbon footprints’, blissfully take a small army of heavily armor-plated SUV’s out to buy a food item that one of their employee’s could have procured riding a bicycle to the local Whole Foods.  Tuscan kale.  (I had to look up just what Tuscan kale was.  It’s like a cabbage or lettuce.)  I would love to have seen behind the no-doubt stoic and professional eyes of the lead security agent as Mrs. Obama announced to him (or her) that they were about to mobilize the full arm of White House Security and go on a merry jaunt across town to buy some lettuce. 

I suppose this is all just part and parcel with Michelle Obama’s newfound pride in being an American.  And aren’t we taxpayers generous?  Hmm.  That’s probably not the right word.

Lest we forget, by their own words, the economy is in a shambles, and people are suffering and struggling like never before.   Yet the Obama’s have no problem grinding up our tax money for hundreds of security personnel on fun little luxuries like a shopping spree to buy Tuscan kale?   Normal lettuce like you or I would buy just won’t do.  No, it had to be the finest, most expensive and rare certified organic lettuce, at $20/lb, imported Tuscan kale from Italy.  But she’s a ‘woman of the people’, dontcha know.  She can relate to the little guy. 

But no one can scream the H-word.  That would be beating up on the girl!  (H-word…  think ‘hip’– and rhymes with Democracy)

I don’t know what the price tag to taxpayers is for this lovely little publicity and image enhancement stunt, but I shouldn’t belabor it too much; because the President is engaged in one of his own as of this writing.  He is flying in to New York to tape an appearance on the David Letterman show.  This is the Obama’s answer to sagging poll numbers – go back in to campaign mode, fly high on the thin air the cult of personality lends you.  Although, the fact is that President Obama never came out of campaign mode.  He lets his radical friends from the ultra Left write legislation that he doesn’t even read, much less understand; then hit’s the airwaves and tries to sell it to the American public.  He’s like a high-end Carney barker.  The circus performers create the acts and he gets out there and smiles and charms and hawks their wares. 

I’m not saying he’s not good.  Oh, he’s good.  He’s verrrry good.   And that should scare the hell out of all of us.

If you’re like me, you grew pretty irritated at hearing the daily litany of all the supposed abuses of power the Bushes and the Cheney’s inflicted upon us.  But the previous administration looks like Mennonite penny-pinchers compared to this new group.   A couple trillion bucks defecit…and pretty soon you’re talking real money!

I suppose it’s the New Way.  This must be that Change we kept hearing about.  It’s the Culture of Entitlement.  And oh what fun it is to spend Other People’s Money.    Who would have thought it could be this much fun being the First Lady?  I suppose it’s like being Queen.  No one says ‘No’ to you.  There are only ‘Yes’ people wherever you turn.  “Yes, Madame First Lady, that’s a great idea.  Yes, Madame First Lady, we can take off and shop for Tuscan kale.  Yes, Yes, Yes we can… do whatever we want!”

“We won.”

I heard about the Tuscan kale caper and I couldn’t help recalling some history…and thinking about another First Lady of sorts, Marie Antoinette.  She had a bad public relations problem at the time that, in the fervor and unforgiving tumult of the French Revolution, ended up costing her her head.  When asked what the poor peasants should eat if there isn’t enough food, the elitist and arrogant woman answered simply, “Let them eat cake.”  As cake at the time was a luxury only afforded the wealthy, this was a public snub of the haughtiest of natures.  

“Let them eat kale,” is a phrase I know I would never hear from the lips of the striking First Lady.  But still, all in all…she does seem to have the haughty down.


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Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 6:42 am in Politics | 271 Comments