Vacationing in Spain. What's wrong with the U.S.?

From my point of view, the excuses by the White House -- and other Obama groupies -- over the First Lady's extravagant trip to Spain, are pure bull hockey.

Axelrod said it was appropriate because she was a "mom," and that she went to Spain for the "privacy".

Privacy? Do Democrats really think the average American citizen is that stupid. It's unbelievable. If she wanted privacy she could have stayed home or gone to Camp David...but that was not the purpose of the trip and shows once again how the White House is disconnected from reality.

I think the arrogance and sense of entitlement the Obama's continually flaunt will insure that they will be gone after 2012.

But I knew someone would play the race card again, and it wasn't hard to find:

Simply put, there are some in this country who cannot stand the idea of women and people of color in positions of power, and there are cynical power mongers who don't mind pushing their buttons to keep the political pot boiling. And they are not above exaggeration and outright lies to prove their nonexistent point.

Are we tired of this yet? I think of all the "women and people of color" who have occupied positions of power over the last several decades, and wonder where some folks keep coming up with this as an excuse for incompetence.

Even some in Europe sense this. From the Telegraph in the U.K.

The First Lady’s ill-conceived trip to Marbella and the complete disregard for public opinion and concerns over excessive government spending is symbolic of a far wider problem with the Obama presidency – the overarching disdain for the principles of limited government, individual liberty and free enterprise that have built the United States over the course of nearly two and a half centuries into the most powerful and free nation on earth.

And the public is waking up. As Admiral Yamamoto said right after Pearl Harbor: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post summed it up nicely:

When many Americans are scraping together pennies to finance a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, the notion that a child must be treated to Spain's beaches to celebrate her decade on the planet is a bitter pill to swallow.

On balance, the vacation was poorly conceived but hardly a crime befitting the condemnation. Perhaps of more lasting concern is the missed opportunity for the first lady to set an example of restraint and even generosity. I hear the Gulf Coast beaches could use a cash infusion.

And what's wrong with a vacation in the United States? Well, we know that Michelle Obama really doesn't like her country all that much and would rather rub shoulders with European royalty. That is the simple, but sad, truth.