A foolish trip
Michelle Obama's PR disaster
Last Updated: 10:21 AM, August 9, 2010
Posted: 1:53 AM, August 9, 2010
Kirsten Powers
The first lady's well-publicized, expensive vacation in southern Spain last week was a PR gift to her husband's opposition.
After all, we're in the middle of a major recession, with many Americans suffering terribly. President Obama himself, in discussing American economic woes with George Stephanopolous in January, said, "Everybody's going to have to [sacrifice]. Everybody's going to have to have some skin in the game."
"Sacrifice for thee but not for me" is not a great campaign slogan.
Plus, Obama's worst political weakness has been with white-working class voters, who've viewed him with suspicion at least since the 2008 primaries. Mrs. Obama's jaunt through an expensive resort town in a one-shouldered Jean Paul Gaultier top won't help on that front.
It also plays into a favorite right-wing attack: branding Democrats as elitists who can't relate to average Americans' struggles.
In 2004, Citizens United ran a 30-second ad that called the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, "another rich liberal elitist from Massachusetts who claims he's a man of the people." And no one will forget the famous wind-surfing ad.
In 2008, Obama himself fed it with his comment about voters' "clinging to guns and religion." Media elements used "Joe the Plumber" to "prove" that the candidate hated the middle class. ...
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