surely I wasn’t the only person who winced at reports about the luxurious beach house the Obamas have rented, not because there’s anything wrong with the first family-elect having a nice vacation, but because symbolism matters, and these weren’t the images we should be seeing when millions of Americans are terrified about their finances.
I didn't wince. Out among normal, non-media humans I hadn't heard it discussed. But what should he have done? I don't think he could have commandeered a military base since he's not the Presnint yet. Should he have stayed at a tourist hotel? Or maybe skipped the memorial for his grandmother?
Come on, Professor K. Wasn't that kind of a reach? You didn't have to go there...especially given the on-pointness of the rest of the op-ed.
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Yes, you are sensing bitterness
Bitterness that a Black man and his Black friends who went on vacation with him, COULD AFFORD to rent those types of homes. You ask a fabulous question, P6. What the hell was the man to do.
He went HOME.
I'm tired of folks pretending that Obama went to some ' exotic' local for the hell of it.
He went HOME.
He went to honor his grandmother and to visit the ONLY other living relative that has been there his WHOLE life - his sister Maya.
He did NOT come from a rich family.
His grandparents never could afford to BUY a house in Hawaii, so they rented an apartment. His grandmother died in the same apartment that they had rented for 40 years.
When it was just him, he went home and stayed in that apartment. When it was just him and Michelle, they did the same.
BUt, when they had children, they went to a local HOTEL.
That was doable.
UNTIL he ran for President. Could you imagine the logistics NIGHTMARE not only for the Secret Service, but for ANY hotel that would have the PRESIDENT-elect of the United States staying there for nearly TWO WEEKS?
Folks need to get over themselves.
He rented a home. That the Secret Service could secure.
They're so petty, it's unreal.
Prof. Krugman, too, is not
Prof. Krugman, too, is not immune from acting as a conduit for expressing the petty gripes and mindless carpings of the chattering classes and the Washington Village. Are there any rental beach houses in Hawaii that are not "luxurious"?
Where was his editor?
Even as a first-tier columnist he must still have an editor who could have cleaned that up that remark. It reads like the bitterness of one who is snowed in towards one who is not. Beach envy, pure and simple.
Here is a more troubling quote from earlier in the piece: "He [FDR] simultaneously made government much bigger and much cleaner. Mr. Obama needs to do the same thing." Government is certainly big enough now to assist in the economy's resurrection, but it's just not clean enough. The current agencies need new direction and let's hope they get it in this brief window of opportunity, while Obama is still "the new guy." I agree with Krugman that inspectors with real authority, and real whistleblower protection, would go a long way.
Symbolism matters.
In this case the symbolism that matters most is the one in which the President-elect's race is irrelevant to Prof. Krugman's assessment. Hollywood's Golden Age emerged during the Depression. I would bet that the Obamas surpass the Nixons as the least financially endowed family to ever occupy the White House.