This White House photo…
…posted by Michelle Obama of the First Family’s two dogs comes under the heading of “what if the Bushes had put this up on their website?” You know the answer, of course:
A person’s reaction to the photo depends not only on the obvious question of whether the person supports the Obamas or not. You might ask “whatever was Michelle thinking of?” But perhaps she was merely thinking that most people love dogs and might consider the prospect of their sitting at the dinner table wearing jewelry to be just plain cute. I yield to no one in my disapproval of Obama’s politics as well as much of his character, but somehow I just can’t get into a “Michelle is Marie Antoinette” uproar about these here doggies.
Now, when I had a dog, I not only never let him sit at the dinner table (he was kind of small for that, anyway), but I never even fed him scraps from the table—until after his dinner and ours were finished, and the scraps were placed in his regular bowl—for fear of encouraging begging. I remember back in the late 70s when I went to France it was not unusual to see dogs seated at dinner tables there even in restaurants. When I returned to France more recently, that quaint custom seems to have gone out of style. But perhaps Michelle is intent on reviving it.
Here is the less refined version:
Cute picture of Michelle and Barack. Wait, that’s not them? You sure? Alright, hold on …. I got Alex Tokeville on the phone.
“You might ask ‘whatever was Michelle thinking of?'”
She was thinking that so many people adore her, and so many people will therefore adore her doggies, and that of course so many people will understand and *approve* how she is entitled, utterly entitled, to the extravagant lifestyle she leads.
She does know about the people who do not adore her, but those people are lower than . . . ummmm . . . *dogs* to her, and so don’t count worth a damn anyway.
If the Obamas were nice and decent people, this would be cute.
But this is just another way for Michelle to say, “Screw you, America.” They are not animal lovers, the dogs are just props. Yesterday she wore a 12,000 gown to a state dinner which is just another way the Obamas can thumb their noses at us.
Anyway, if truthBtold, she made the dress look cheap.
The dogs are like their lavish spending and numerous vacations. (Bush took no vacations because our troops were in wars. He would go to his ranch and work on his land.) The Obamas are a classless couple hellbent on ruining America. They are a crude joke. The dogs have better table manners and pedigrees. And they have real birth certificates. And they are housebroken. I vote for the dogs.
How much did Hussein and Michelle spend of your money again, on this?
Is that the state occasion (for the French, I believe) where the Obamas sent invitations telling people to eat dinner before they get there?
That was so tacky. Therefore, right in step with all their other actions.
My cousins in Georgia say they’re already seeing a ton of sleet. All five snowplows are going to be busy today. 😉
” . . . somehow I just can’t get into a “Michelle is Marie Antoinette” uproar about these here doggies.”
About this one photo? No, but this photo is part of a pattern of the Obamas being out of touch with what the rest of the country is going through in this economy.
The only thing that would have made it more “tasteless” is if it was done at the hotel in Hawaii while on vacation at the taxpayer’s expense.
And, yes, I am biased. Everything the Obamas do is weird, tacky, tasteless, and mean-spirited. They are, quite frankly, self-centered bores; the kind of people in real life that I try to avoid. So, yea, I do see this photo as a Marie Antoinette moment.
Now, let me go complain about the rising price of arugula . . .
Charles,
But I still kinda like the dogs.
We have encountered dogs in Parisian restaurants as recently as the summer of 2012. They did show a sense of refinement by not wearing jewelry and letting their tongues hang out.
Which reminds me of what I often tell neighbors who are enchanted with the neighbor’s dachsund I take on walks. “This dog is running for President. Vote for him. His campaign slogan is ‘Since the country is going to the dogs, you may as well vote for the real thing.’ ”
Regarding Dogs w Diamonds @ Dining Table- I would call it tasteless. Regarding our FLOTUS wearing an expensive gown, my reaction is “so what?” Mary Lincoln and Jackie Kennedy did the same thing. By my standards, much of what the FLOTUS wears is not to my taste, so I would not be surprised that the Dogs w Diamonds @ Dining Table would appear. Guess there are some things the Ivy League can’t do.
The Obama Campaign, which for quite some time has been masquerading as the Obama Administration, long ago discovered that the best thing to do with Michelle is to muzzle her. Widespread dissemination of her candid opinions- “mean America…first time as an adult I am proud of America..” – cannot help advance her husband’s- and Valerie’s- agenda. Diamond Dogs are a small price to pay compared to the costs of not muzzling Michelle.
Considering that this was taken in our White House, with the dogs posing in a room that is probably not part of the president’s family residence, it’s gross.
How many people will ever have the opportunity to attend an event at the White House? Heck, how many regular citizens were denied the opportunity to even tour the White House during the months Obama claimed there was not enough money to support it?
It’s a privilege, and yet Obamas regularly treat the White House as if it were their own, whether its doing a workout with “The Biggest Loser” or Jimmy Fallon, letting Tony Hawk skateboard down the halls, or letting Beyonce and Jay Z tweet selfies from the situation room. It’s tacky and disrespectful.
*sorry for the rant!
If I remember the picture of the dogs playing cards right, the original showed that the Saint Bernard was cheating by looking at the reflection of the bulldog’s cards in the glass covering the painting behind him.
How much do you think the jewelry on the Obama’s dogs cost? We’re entering Louis the XVI territory here.
Gringo:
I don’t think those are diamonds on the dogs.
I’m just grateful the Obamas aren’t decorating/embarrassing any cats.
It is always all about Barack and Michelle.
That’s all you need to know to understand them.
Cf. George and Laura Bush.
I think the dogs are cute and far enough from the table not to get my “eww!” factor going. I suppose since French are so fond of their dogs, the photo would be considered cute, too. But it wouldn’t fly with anyone from a Muslim country where dogs (particularly black dogs) are considered filthy.
OK, even if the dogs aren’t wearing diamonds, Gringo’s comment made me go look up this song I haven’t heard in years:
David Bowie “Diamond Dogs”
I’d rather have those dogs’ posteriors on our Louis IV furniture than the posteriors of the Potus and Flotus.
IYKWIMAITYD.
The odious duo are among other things, grifters. Obama and Michelle, with an enormous sense of entitlement, feeling owed, and out to grab as much as they can at our expense. They’re livin’ large, and enjoying only the best, meanwhile thumbing their noses at us suckers, feeling nothing but ill-disguised contempt for us –as we try to live within our means, deny ourselves all sorts of things that we might want, scrimping to get by–for being chumps, and letting them get away with it.
Although you may not get worked up over it, the picture demonstrates tone-deafness and an amateurish quality. So the First Lady thought it was a good or harmless idea to tweet this, and none of her staff stopped her.
But I think back to (what is probably an apocryphal version of) Marie Antoinette: didn’t she have these same thoughts?
That people blurt out these ideas in public shows a lack of respect for the gravity of the positions they hold. It shows flippancy, vanity and/or possibly ignorance.
This was a personality test writ small. And Michelle failed it.
When I think about it, the Obamas are great examples of “the ugly American,” each in their own way.
People will be political about anything.
Such happy doggies. Joy and beauty and kindness can be found almost everywhere, if you look hard enough.
The comparison with Antoinette is a good one, however. The Obamas have the same attitude towards their flock as Jim & Tammy Faye.
Evil corrupts everything it touches. Those that refuse to accept that, are underestimating evil there.
But I think back to (what is probably an apocryphal version of) Marie Antoinette: didn’t she have these same thoughts?
Cake was made out of a different kind of flour than the regular bread. So she had a point when she suggested that they switch to cake.
However, there was no cake either. Obviously. Antoinette is a better person than Michelle Obama or her dogs combined.
Is the one on the right saying?: “pray tell me sir, who’s dog are you?
Neo
Gringo,I don’t think those are diamonds on the dogs
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? 🙂
Speaking of Marie Antoinette, does the WH vegie garden remind you a bit of the hameau de la reine?