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Jewish World Review
May 31, 2010
/ 20 Sivan 5770
As economic worries worsen, White House puts on the glitz
By
Byron York
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
You know the basics. The unemployment rate is 9.9 percent. Jobs are still being lost. Worries about the global economy are causing breathtaking volatility on Wall Street. And millions of Americans who still have jobs are worrying more than ever about the safety of their retirement savings.
What you may not know is that, during this moment of terrible economic anxiety, the Obama White House found the time -- and the money -- to turn itself, at least for a night, into a showcase of glitzy extravagance.
On May 19, the White House held a state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The dinner itself was sumptuous; the East Room was an elegant setting, and first lady Michelle Obama brought in a favored Chicago chef to put together a lavish menu. "The main course of Oregon wagyu beef came with a Oaxacan black mole sauce with more than 20 ingredients that takes days to come together," reported the Associated Press.
Of course state dinners are supposed to be grand affairs. But where the Calderon dinner hit the heights was in the festivities after the dinner, which took place in a huge tent -- the AP called it a "luxury marquee" because "tent" doesn't quite do it justice -- set up on the South Lawn.
"I know we just had a very formal dinner," President Obama told the 200 guests who had left the East Room and made their way to the "luxury marquee" on charming trolleys brought in for the event. "But we heard that this was the place for the real party."
And so it was. The AP reported that South Lawn "marquee" was "the size of two-thirds of a football field, decked out in elaborate black decor and nightclub-style lighting, (and) featured a stage and baskets of flowers and models of Monarch butterflies dangling from the ceiling."
The White House had the idea to feature the butterflies -- there appeared to be thousands of them -- because Calderon was born in Michoacan, Mexico, which is where butterflies migrating from Canada stop for the winter.
Popular singer Beyonce, who attended the dinner with her husband, rapper Jay-Z, performed for the guests from a stage that could only be described as Hollywood on the Potomac. With Beyonce at the microphone, and the guests dancing or seated at their candlelit tables, it was a scene the most ostentatious party-giver would have envied: the White House as high-dollar nightclub. Perhaps they can call it Club 1600.
Words don't do it justice. If you want to see what Club 1600 looked like, you'll have to go to the White House Flickr Photostream (www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse). There, the White House photographer posted several pictures that will provide a feel for what a truly opulent event it was.
Paid for by the taxpayers, of course. State dinners are handled by the State Department, and officials do not reveal the cost, so we don't know the price tag for this one. But a simple look at those pictures will tell you that it was expensive -- very expensive.
Despite the extravagance amid hard times, there was little public criticism of the president and first lady. That's quite a change from earlier administrations.
In the early 1980s, for example, with the economy in deep recession, some critics in the press took first lady Nancy Reagan to task for her fashionable clothes and gatherings -- for "exercising her opulent tastes in an economy that is inflicting hardship on so many," in the words of a 1981 New York Times article.
Now, not so much. While it's true that at any given time, critics of any administration can claim that the first couple is insensitive to this or that hardship Americans are enduring, the fact is, at this particular moment in history, Americans are enduring lots of hardships, and lots of anxieties to go with them.
Which leads to a question: Is transforming the White House into a glam nightclub the best message for Barack and Michelle Obama to send to a suffering and nervous nation?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Byron York's column by clicking here.
Previously:
05/25/10 GOP dilemma: Fight Kagan, or go along?
05/11/10 Enforcing nation's immigration laws would be a bargain
05/03/10 How Obama could lose Arizona immigration battle
04/27/10 What's behind the anti-Tea Party hate narrative?
04/20/10 As government expands, beware the post-office example
04/19/10 Who wins in 2010? Good luck reading tea leaves
04/12/10 GOP Obamacare strategy: Try repeal, then cut
04/05/10 Obamacare was mainly aimed at redistributing wealth
03/30/10 Message to Dems: People still don't like Obamacare
03/23/10 The coming consequences of Obamacare
03/16/10 Marco Rubio and the Republicans who love him
03/15/10 GOP hopes town halls take health care off table
03/08/10 Dems turn risky health vote into manhood contest
03/01/10 Why Obama defies the public on health care
02/22/10 South Carolina mulls 2012: Romney? Palin? Huck?
02/16/10 GOP winning war over Miranda rights for terrorists
02/09/10 Who are the 300 terrorists held in U.S. prisons?
02/02/10 Is Obama dissatisfied with being president?
01/19/10 The Republican dilemma: Good Michael or Bad Michael?
01/12/10 Now the lawmakers are figuring out what they didn't know
01/05/10 GOP deserves blame for Democratic excesses
12/29/09 Dems' dreams of a blue West begin to turn red
12/22/09 Why Dems push health care, even if it kills them
11/30/09 Dems' kamikaze mission: Health care by New Year's
11/23/09 Why it's a mistake to bring Gitmo prisoners here
11/16/09 Dems' slick fix: $210 billion of fiscal restraint
11/10/09 Obama can't be community organizer for the world
11/02/09 At key moment, Obama leaves health post unfilled
10/26/09 Fierce urgency' for jobs, not health care
10/12/09 Facts hurt Jennings in youth sex controversy
10/05/09 Amid terror threat, Dems chip away at Patriot Act
09/27/09 In Afghanistan, let U.S. troops be warriors
09/21/09 Under fire, Democrats abandon ACORN in drove
09/14/09 Dems stifle Republican health care plans
09/08/09 For Dems, a serious Charlie Rangel problem
09/07/09 Obama's speech: Wrong setting for a sales job
09/01/09 What happened to the antiwar movement?
08/24/09 Why Dems may jam through health care plan
08/17/09 GOP thinks the unthinkable: Victory in 2010
08/10/09 The empty words of a journalist turned flack
08/03/09 Probe finds new clues in AmeriCorps IG scandal
07/27/09 Obamacare haunted by unkept promises of stimulus
07/20/09 Why the GOP failed the Sotomayor test
07/13/09 What the GOPers will ask Sotomayor
06/29/09 Serious questions remain for Mark Sanford
06/22/09 How GOPers can crack the AmeriCorps scandal
06/16/09 Worried about Sotomayor? Consider Andre Davis
06/08/09 Can Mitch Daniels save the GOP?
06/01/09 When the Dems derailed a Latino nominee
05/26/09 Why the GOP will defeat Obama on healthcare
05/19/09 Rosy report can't hide stimulus problems
05/12/09 The Reagan legacy is the man himself
05/05/09 Sen. Specter, meet your new friends
04/27/09 Ted Olson: ‘Torture’ probes will never end
04/20/09 Who's Laughing at the Axis of Evil today?
04/14/09 Congress needs Google to track stimulus money
04/06/09 Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary
03/30/09 On Spending and the Deficit, McCain Was Right
03/24/09 It's Obama's crisis now
03/17/09: Geithner-Obama economics: A joke that's not funny
© 2009, NEA
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