By Martin Delfin
Memo from Madrid
US first lady Michelle Obama left Spain on Sunday to return home to face a barrage of criticism for taking a Costa del Sol holiday at the expense of US taxpayers. Boisterous chats from conservative television commentators and bloggers have centred as to why the first lady and her daughter opted for an expensive vacation – and without her husband – at a time when Washington is to be looking at tightening the government's belt. Should she have gone instead to spend time on Florida’s Gulf coast, which is environmentally impacted by the BP spill and help pump some money into the depressed beach economy? That was one major question that has been raised.
Not since Jaqueline Kennedy made her now-famous visit to France in 1961, without her husband, there hadn’t been such abundant media coverage in the US press of a first lady’s trip abroad. The White House had been almost circumspect about the issue because, as spokesmen would only say, it was a private visit. But White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod told CNN on Monday he didn’t think the criticism aimed at Mrs Obama and her daughter Sasha was fair but still he gave no reasons as to why Spain was the chosen destination. But the issue became clearer on Monday when Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet scratched well below the surface to explain the trip.
According to Sweet, Mrs Obama travelled with a handful of friends – three women and four daughters who all paid their own way – and not 40 people as some news outlets have quoted. One of Michelle Obama’s friends from Chicago, Anita Blanchard, was the catalyst for the Spanish trip. Blanchard, an obstetrician who delivered both Obama girls, had lost her father in July and Mrs Obama was unable to attend the funeral, writes Sweet, quoting a White House source. Blanchard, who is married to President Obama’s campaign financial chief, had promised her own daughter a trip to Spain and asked the first lady to tag along with Sasha (Maila, the other daughter was away at summer camp). “She felt it was important as a friend to do this,” the source told the columnist.
Security concerns were given as to the reason she stayed at the lavish five-star Villa Padierna Hotel. US Secret Service agents said that it was the best choice to secure the area as opposed to other hotels. The noise over Mrs Obama’s Spanish holiday will soon blow over in the United States now that campaigning is in full earnest for the midterm elections in November. The Democrats face a gruelling struggle to keep majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representative at a time when many Americans are frustrated over the lack of progress in solving the unemployment issue and getting the economy back on its feet.
Michelle Obama is one of the most popular figures in the president’s entourage, and it is a shame that the White House wasn’t up front about why she decided on Costa del Sol, Spain over Fort Walton Beach, Florida. This first lady is not known for excesses as some of her predecessors were famous for manifesting, such as Nancy Reagan who created a stir when she announced that she was purchasing expensive china for the White House soon after Ronald Reagan was sworn into office in 1981. Mrs Obama has launched an important campaign to combat child obesity in the United States, which is growing at an alarming rate. Like any good mother, she wants the best for her two girls – including keeping their lives at a normal pace and away from the media scrutiny that comes with the White House job. If mother and daughters want a girls’ night out, then they should be allowed to have it.
Tomás Gómez, the leader of the Madrid Socialist Party (PSM), and Trinidad Jiménez, the Health minister, will face each other in a primary for the Socialist party nomination in next year’s regional premier’s race in Madrid . They have both asked the PSOE national executive committee to remain neutral but the camps are already divided following a sounding off by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero who has said he would like to see Jiménez win – a bad sign for Gómez. Party primaries are a rare bird in Madrid and an even rarer bird is to ask and to get party leaders to agree to remain impartial in an internal race. The Socialists are split in Madrid and this is good news for Esperanza Aguirre, the current regional premier who represents the Popular Party. But there is also another problem for Zapatero and his supporters. Should Gómez win the nomination on October 3rd, it could politically wound the prime minister within Socialists ranks. It could even put Gómez in a powerful position to wrest control of the PSOE from Zapatero before the next general elections. It’s a risk that Zapatero is willing to take for being overly confident that Jiménez will defeat Gómez
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