Obama’s one Saturday on the town has caused quite the stir for MSM and Republicans, who are condemning the trip as a wasteful joyride on Air Force One while the nation’s economy is suffering. President Obama flew to New York to catch a broadway show with his wife, but the plane wasn’t the usual AF-1. Rather, it was a smaller Gulfstream G-3 jet. Democrats seem to latch on to the fact that taking a smaller plane shows they were conscious of not being wasteful. Republicans quickly note that two other jets were used to transport the press pool. Both sides have their points here. Personally, I have no problem with our President enjoying a saturday with his wife. Yeah, we’re all technically paying for it, but split the bill among the hundreds of millions of U.S. citizens and ask yourself if you will ever see the damage.

I read both what the left and right has to say, and I typically find that both sides are capable of raise arguments in a thoughful and incisive way when armed with writers who aren’t complete dolts that care more about bashing the other party than they do about presenting a coherent point. But I have recently become addicted to reading user comments on political blogs and websites (on both sides), and thought that a small cross-section sample of what is out there would illustrate how nutty we can all get (see: The Diatribe). For your viewing pleasure, TLL presents today’s “Thoughts From Around The Internet.”

“This is what liberalism does tho. The ruling class gets to do what it wants. The rest of us lose our jobs, retirement, and become poor.” ¹

“I don’t begrudge the president his vacation or a night away from the office, and I certainly don’t begrudge him official visits around the country, but he is a solid gold hypocrite. He tells the rest of us we are going to have to sacrifice while we recover — and then turns around and spends our money for a “date night” in NYC. Putz.” ²

“An Oligarchy (Greek Ὀλιγαρχία, Oligarkhía) is a form of government where power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royal, wealth, family, military or religious hegemony. Some examples include Vaishali, the First French Republic government under the Directory, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (only the nobility could vote). A modern example of oligarchy could be seen in the United States under the Obama administration.” Ed. Note – Sounds like jealousy to me. Having his party ousted from power for all of 5 months seems to be too much for this guy to handle.

“Obama and the first lady are Black. That changes everything. They deserve nights out like this on the white man’s dime. Because their great grandparents could have been slaves. It would be kinda funny if they painted the white house black.” ³

“The purpose of Air Force One is to provide an “Office” for the President while traveling on Presidential business; which by the way is a 24 -7 job for four years. Not much noise from the repubs when GW made his regular runs to Crawford where he spent 65% of his time in office; or, out of the office.” /blockquote>

“I’m just surprised that they resisted suggesting he take in a show at ford theater instead. Honestly, this if probably a rare example of them keeping things classy.” ⁴

“I don’t recall ever hearing about the Bush’s going out on dates like this.” ((Just wasn’t their cup o’ tea. I don’t quite see those Texans hitting up Broadway plays.))

“If you didn’t complain – and do so loudly and often – about President Bush shattering all previous records for presidential vacation time in the midst of two wars that he began and various other crises, you should know how you look if you complain now.”
[Responding to the above comment]

“About President Bush shattering all previous records for presidential vacation time in the midst of two wars that he began and various other crises. Just keep repeating the same crap over and over… There is a reason why Bush brought all that staff with him to Crawford, because he was still working, FFS. It’s so incredible, Obama is actually doing all of the things that the left pretended Bush was doing, yet Bush took more heat for doing things he wasn’t doing than Obama is for things he is doing. Sounds confusing, doesn’t it, what a bizarre world we live in.” ⁵

“Honest Americans should pray and cross their fingers for an early of demise of Obama and his “evil empire”, his democratic Administration. Then Americans will be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing all his ill planned programs will fall into a black hole.”

“The GOP has spent more money whining about this issue than the night out cost. Add to that the dollars wasted on lost causes like Sotomayor’s nomination and health care reform and we are left with the picture of a pitiful party that is wasting money tilting at windmills. All this posturing about fiscal responsibility is stereotypically hypocritical Repugnican bluster. Clean up your own house before disparaging another’s.” ⁶

[In response to the above comment]

“I am a Constitutional Moderate and Obama’s love life isn’t my concern no more than yours. He is a hypocrite, a bigot and a racist. Deal with it.”

“You guys are too funny. Does anyone remember that the moron you elected and fawned over for 8 years spent about a third of his presidency at Camp David, Kennebunkport, or his ranch? That he made well over 200 trips to those three locations in just 8 years? That he spent more than 2 of his 8 years at those locations? That he set a record (surpassing even The Gipper) for presidential vacation days? That he spent the month before September 11th on his ranch? Obama takes a night off, and you get bent? All on the taxpayers’ dime. Does one short hop and evening on broadway even begin to compare to all those trips? The desperation factor is amazing. How much more small-minded, hypocritical, and factually wrong can you get?”

My mind was exploding by the time I had finished trolling my 10th website for comments. Whereas comments by either moderates or democrats try to make arguments that make sense, oftentimes the comments by conservatives simply fall back on exhausted slander such as labeling President Obama a racist elite.

1. And what did Conservate “rule” do the past 8 years? Destroy our economy, launch a false war, and allow  Wall Street to go to town. It isn’t a ruling class, it’s the MAJORITY. Sigh. [↩]
2. Mr. Obama is simply a different type of President than Dubya was. Rather than enjoying not working at a ranch half way across America, Mr. Obama enjoys working hard and taking a one night break to catch a classy broadway show in New York. He’s the President. Get over it. I would rather have a President take one larger-than-life night out to enjoy with his wife than to take a month off and ignore CIA reports prior to 9/11, even in this economy. [↩]
3. So because the President is black his vacation falls on the “white man’s dime?” Nevermind the fact that there are over 100 million minorities that make up roughly 1/3 of the total U.S. population. This comment shows how small-minded people can be. [↩]
4. Just haven’t found it yet! [↩]
5. Was Bush really working? I doubt it. [↩]
6. I need to find this information if possible! I wonder how much it really costs the GOP and conservative news sites like FOX to run stories about this stuff – money paid to writers/reporters, server expenses, etc. I can’t really see it costing more than flying over several jets and choppers full of people, but perhaps in the aggregate it might. I have no idea. [↩]