With cost effectiveness in mind, the president just couldn’t let budgetary concerns deter his commitment to being an example to children in the area of physical fitness and healthy eating. That’s likely the only reason basketball enthusiast Obama chose to invite scores of basketball players to the White House and attend his wife’s healthy eating “Kids’ State Dinner,” where he impacted millions of children when he revealed that broccoli is his favorite food.
Okay, all right, Mrs. Obama did spend $4,000 a night in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, but that was purely for the diplomatic opportunity to reach out to – you guessed it – Irish schoolchildren. Then, the first lady, who was probably forced against her will to participate in a $100 million Africa excursion, set an example herself by saving on childcare costs when she toted along her mother Marion, niece Leslie Robinson, and hubby’s playmate Reggie Love.
But try as they might to set an example, it seems the impressive cost-containing efforts the Obamas are making go unappreciated by relentless faultfinders and distraught schoolchildren who are still barred from White House tours.
With any luck, downscaling to a meager $7.6 million Martha’s Vineyard vacation cottage will help convince even the most skeptical Obama critic that the president and his family, like sequester-affected children, are more than willing to “give up a piece of their pie.”
Image: Martha’s Vineyard’s Gay Head Cliffs; Own work; author: William Waterway; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license