A Queen comes to town

We're going for the cheap, lowest-common-denominator level today, but why not. That's what obama supporters do.

Anyway, in true liberal and mainstream media fashion we'll start with some facts and then go on to sleazy innuendos.

An under-reported story is playing out in Hawaii right now — the story of Michelle Obama and her royal, incredibly luxurious, taxpayer-paid vacation in Hawaii.

Michelle Obama is staying at the Hawaii home of Oprah Winfrey for a few days without her husband and children. This is not simply the vacation of a private citizen. Because she is the First Lady of the United States — FLOTUS — her vacations cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. Because she is a queen, she considers that cost her just due.

In Hawaii, security zones have been set up around the Winfrey estate. Residents and business owners are being inconvenienced to an exceptional degree. Security checkpoints have kept customers and vendors away from businesses, effectively shutting them down. But the people who are hurt are little people, nobodies. Who cares what happens to them as long as Michelle Antoinette gets her vacation?

There is the cost of the protective detail, plus their housing. There are the costs of the armored vehicles Michelle and her entourage ride around in. Those have to be transported by Air Force planes. There is the local cost for police services, which the federal government may or may not reimburse the local government for.

And then there is Michelle’s triumphal return to Washington to celebrate her birthday, to which this vacation is but the first act. President Obama will send an Air Force plane for her. It will probably be a C-32A. The C-32 is the Air Force version of a 757. The “ownership” cost per flight hour is reported by the Air Force as $42,936...

Now on to the sleazy innuendos.

Building on the fact that Mooch stayed behind while barry and the kids returned to D.C., some media outlets are speculating that the obama marriage is on the rocks.

Michelle Obama's extended absence from Washington and a flurry of renewed speculation about the state of the first couple's marriage are threatening to overshadow her 50th birthday party at the White House on Saturday.

Not for the first time in their 22-year marriage the Obamas are approaching what should be a happy family milestone under a cloud of rampant tabloid innuendo, summed up by a National Enquirer headline: "World exclusive: Obama marriage explodes!".

The Enquirer has earned a measure of respectability in Washington with its reporting of political scandals - most notably its exposure of the double life of John Edwards, a former senator and once a Democratic presidential contender.

Mr Obama acknowledged long ago that his marriage to Michelle had had ups and downs as they coped with the pressures of dual careers - she was formerly a lawyer and a hospital administrator - and the arrival of their two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

The latest tabloid report appears to have been provoked by the notorious incident at Nelson Mandela's memorial service when Mr Obama and David Cameron posed for a selfie with Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the prime minister of Denmark - or as the National Enquirer described her, "a leggy blonde foreign leader".