NEW YORK, May 30, 2009
The First Couple In NYC For "Date Night"
Barack Obama Fulfills Campaign Promise To Take Wife To Manhattan For Broadway Show
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President Barack Obama waves as he and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, walk across the South Lawn of the White House towards Marine One helicopter, Saturday, May 30, 2009 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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Photo Essay Michelle Obama: First Lady A look at her first few weeks in the White House
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."
According to the pool reporter, Mr. Obama appeared to shake a man's hand on the way in, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
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.
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See all 120 CommentsAlso, they helicopter they took in NYC - was it the same helicopter that flew them from the White House to AFB to catch the "small jet"?
Sure, they "paid" for dinner & theater, WOW: let's applaud them for not using taxpayer money!
Posted by frannum at 5:30 PM : Jun 1, 2009
You are RIGHT! I totally agree with you!
Even though her daughters are now grown, Laura also doesn't strike me as the type to have left her daughters with a babysitter very often either even if that babysitter might have been her mother! She seemed to me to be the type who is very happy staying home and raising her daughters herself.
In short, some women, like some men, don't care much for expensive things and don't really like the fast life of the cities any more than their men do and are very happy just spending quiet evenings at home with their husbands and children. Some women also get very angry when their husbands spend money unecessarily.
You don't need to go on expensive dates with your husband or wife to have family values. Just being together as a couple or a family is what counts. In fact you don't have to spend any money at all to spend quality time with them even though you might think so. Many people enjoy just sitting in their backyard and talking or sitting together in their living room watching a good movie on tv. I'm going to repeat that spending $24,000.00 for a date with your wife is ridiculous! Spending time together and spending time with your children are what family values are all about and that can be done at home without spending a dime, especially if the taxpayers are paying any of it! I don't care what Obama does with HIS money. He can waste it on $24,000.00 dates if he wants to but I DO care what he does with my tax money!
aahhahahahahahahahahah.........Georgie bush is petrified of horses. His so called ranch (where he could hide out and avoid responsibility), was horseless and cattleless. It was just a place where he could go bury his head in the sand.
You are right, he never would have spent that much money on Laura. He was a man who talked about family values to get his political supporters to open up their wallets to him.
Barack Obama actually sets an example and lives by family values.
My husband also took me to NYC to see a broadway play because we both feel it is important to experience as much as we can of what America has to offer.
We are average income earners and don't have to worry about right wing terrorists, so we did fly commercial rather than private like the Obamas did.
Posted by texasbeta at 8:08 AM : Jun 1, 2009
First of all President Bush might have been born in CT but he grew up in Midland, TX, which might not be a really small town but it's not exactly the biggest city in the country either! Second, he didn't get us into trillions of dollars in debt with a "stimulus" package and ill fated and ill advised and misused bailouts that our gggggggrandchildren will still be paying for hundreds of years from now!
Those bailouts were meant to prevent those banks and automobile industries from having to file bankruptcy. That is not what a large portion of the money was used for. It was used to pay for luxury 4 star retreats for the ceos and to bolster their lavish lifestyles. President Obama and congress should have done something to insure that the bailout money was used for it's intended use. They didn't. Instead they trusted the banks and the auto companies to oversee their own bailout money. That was a big mistake. They should have appointed overseers or "szars" to oversee the bailouts and to give an account for how the money was spent.
Also there is the cost of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the releasing of the prisoners and the releasing of those classified CIA tapes and memos. The cost of that remains to be seen in terms of American lives. If even one American loses their life because of any of that, President Obama should be held accountable, just as you think President Bush should be held accountable for the lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Also it was reported this morning that President Obama's recent date with Michelle cost $24,000.00! That is absolutely ridiculous and outrageous! Especially if the taxpayers paid even one dime of it! Not once during his presidency did President Bush ever spend that much on a date with Laura!
Also President Bush might have made many trips to his ranch but the cost of those trips couldn't have been that much because, as I've already said, he isn't a socialite and didn't eat out that much. The main cost of his trips to his ranch was in traveling expenses.
And another thing, I think in the years to come you will see who was conned and who was not and it won't be us republicans! You think Obama can do no wrong. However, little by little his true self is starting to show but you democrats can't see it yet. You will, though, and soon! I'm talking about his policies concerning Israel and his recent nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the supreme court.
Israel has always been one of our strongest allies. However, little by little Obama is eroding that relationship by backing their enemies like Hamas and Syria and Iran.
Also the nomination of Sotomayor for the supreme court is just the beginning of Obama's pro-choice agenda.
No, it won't be long before it will be obvious as to who was conned and who was not and you will regret voting for Obama but it will be too late. The problem is those of us who didn't vote for him and weren't conned by him have to suffer because you couldn't see what was right before you!
And the libs can't figured out why we can't take him seriously.
barrack will tell us what is good for us so you better listen.
Leading by example is way overrated.
Thank God for his stimulous package that has put millions of Ameicans back to work. He wrote such a wonderful plan, nobody in congress could read and understand it. This shows the magnitude of his wisdom and understanding.
And what abouth all of the savings ? He has personally found a huge chunk of the budget
$17 billion) that he considers to be wasteful spending. He had to spend many nights pouring over the federal budget line by line to accomplish this. He deserves a break, let him have it and quit complaining.
Wasting taxpayer money is no doubt one of his major talents. The little bit he spends for himself and Michelle is very very little in relation to the billions he wastes for us everyday.
Posted by ladypirate2
Look at the numbers...Bush, who had / caused more catastrophe in our country since the Great Depression and Vietnam...took more vacation days than any other President in HISTORY. Secondly, your "country boy" was born in CT, went to a boarding school in VA, and went to college at Yale. So much for your "country boy." Finally, you want to attack Obama because you think his meals cost more than Bush's meals...that is ridiculous. The same personal chef is there goofball....and how much did Bush's deregulation cost the economy, his fake war...how much did that cost in both money and lives. How much did his awarding of no-bid contracts to companies who immediately following, overcharged the country for fake services? Seriously...."brown bag lunch for Bush"...ridiculous. Bush bought the Crawford ranch by advice from Rove before he ran. That dude conned all of you..."country boy" my ass
Posted by starleo146 at 2:34 PM : May 31, 2009
I doubt that Bush's trips to his ranch and to Maine cost nearly as much as Obama's date nights because Bush was not known to attend very many shows and he wasn't known to eat out very much either and wasn't much of a socialite in general. He prefered to eat at home with his family and isn't much of a dancer. It also doesn't cost much to pack a brown bag lunch and eat it by yourself in the quiet and solitude of a ranch. That is also something he liked to do. He would pack a lunch and take off by himself on a horse. President Bush is not a person who enjoys city life. He's really a country boy at heart. He enjoys the simpler things of life like the quiet and solitude of his ranch and a good horse. Those things don't cost much. President Obama is a city boy. He likes the excitement and the social life of the cities. His way of enjoying himself is much more expensive than eating a brown bag lunch by himself in the middle of a ranch!
As for Republicans complaining about the trip, it goes with the territory, so just get used to it. Democrats whined just as loudly any time Bush so much as scratched the back of his head... Remember the carrier landing at the onset of the Iraq war? This is the way it is supposed to work, keeping the pressure on the folks in power to ensure they understand we are watching their every move...
We all certainly can't do what he does on the same scale, but I have been to New York and I have seen plays on Broadway and I had to travel to get there. The only difference is I flew commercial and he has a helicopter at his disposal.
I do feel bad for the people who have so little richness in their own lives that they see this date night as a negative thing. Some people may want to think for themselves about what family values really mean. It shouldn't just be some political slogan that the right wing uses to get people to open up their wallets and give contributions.
I used to vote Republican but not any more. They can keep their "real" America and their mercenary army. They so insult my intelligence.
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