It began as many news stories do with a tip from a reader of Breitbart News which set social media blazing and then the Drudge Report features a story by the Weekly Standard that assert the Obama’s average more than one vacation per month even as the White House is closed to tours of school children, Obama’s children, Sasha and Malia are quietly vacationing at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
Breitbart confirmed President Barack Obama’s daughters’ trip with other sources and you may read the original story by clicking here. Both the White House and the Atlantis resort declined to confirm the report or comment, but another guest provided a photograph of Sasha and Malia at the resort.
Social media, including Twitter and Facebook, have carried reports of the First Daughters’ presence at Atlantis. One person who is at the resort wrote: “Rumor confirmed: friends saw the first daughters with a gaggle of friends being escorted to the held elevator.” Via Twitter, another person wrote: “Obama daughters at the same restaurant as me…in the Bahamas.”
Breitbart’s Mike Flynn followed up with an analysis showing how this reflected President Obama’s budget priorities. Flynn wrote, “There is enough money in President Obama’s post sequester FY 2013 federal budget to provide Secret Service protection for his daughters vacationing outside the country, but not enough to keep the White House open for tours for the children of average American taxpayers.
“Throughout the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, President Obama promised to transform America into something better, a land filled with hope and change. It appears, however, that the man who vacations in Martha’s Vineyard, golfs with Tiger Woods, and sends the Secret Service to accompany his wife and daughters on international vacations to Spain, Mexico, and now the Bahamas has another agenda in mind. He seeks to transform constitutional presidential authority into royal prerogative. Judging by the failure of any media source other than Breitbart, Drudge, and Instapundit to cover this story, it is also quite clear that the mainstream media has decided to play the role of dutiful courtiers to this expansion of presidential powers,” Flynn wrote, but maybe just a bit hastily.
Flynn continued, “Prerogative is not a word used very often these days. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege: as one belonging to an office or an official body . . . [or] to a person, group, or class of individuals.” During the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers used this word frequently to refer to those special powers and privileges that could be exercised only by the British monarch, King George III. Their complaint about George III was simple. In his treatment of the American colonies, he had far expanded the royal prerogative beyond those special powers and privileges identified in the unwritten English Constitution.
“This, of course, was one reason why our Founding Fathers insisted on a written Constitution, ratified by the citizens, with a Bill of Rights that guaranteed freedom of the press. Presidential authority would be constrained by both the written words of the Constitution and the free press, acting as a watch dog of executive abuse.
“But during the Obama administration, presidential authority has been unconstrained to a remarkable degree, ranging from the unconstitutional use of the “recess” appointment to blatant abuses of executive privilege. The courtiers of the mainstream media have been fawning in their treatment of these unfettered and apparently successful attempts to transform traditional constitutionally authorized presidential authority into extraconstitutional royal prerogative.
“The mainstream media’s protection of President Obama’s budget hypocrisy in denying access to the White House to thousands of American school children while authorizing the latest international vacation for the First Daughters is but the latest example of the most troubling transformation of all–that of the watch dog media into fawning royal courtiers,”Flynn wrote.
However, from Breitbart’s good effort, that “protection” is showing holes.
The Weekly Standard weighed into the mix with a story on how the Obama’s vacation writing, “In the first three months of the year, members of the first family have been on three vacations, averaging a vacation a month. And now it’s being reported (a shame they didn’t reference Breitbart) that the first daughters are on a spring break vacation in the Bahamas.
The Obamas began the new year in Hawaii. “President Obama departed Hawaii this morning for Washington, after spending NINE days vacationing with family and friends in his native state. Here’s a quick look at how he spent his vacation,” ABC reported on January 6, 2013.
“Obama played FIVE rounds of golf with SEVEN different partners, spending roughly THIRTY hours on TWO different courses on Oahu. The president made FIVE early morning trips to the gym at the nearby Marine Base at Kaneohe Bay. The First Family spent TWO afternoons enjoying the beach on the base and went for ONE hike to a local waterfall. The president spent ONE father-daughter afternoon with Malia and Sasha, bowling and going out for shave ice, an annual tradition.”
Then the first lady and their daughters vacationed in Aspen over President’s Day weekend. “First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in Aspen on Friday afternoon and is here with her daughters for a ski vacation,” Aspendailynews.com reported in February. “Few details about her trip were available. Sources said she is staying at the home of Jim and Paula Crown, owners of the Aspen Skiing Co. She is reportedly skiing at Buttermilk today, where the Crowns, of Chicago, own a home on the Tiehack side.”