It’s always the little things that make me miss George W. Bush. Yes, his public profligacy gave us Obama, which in turn gave us the Tea Party. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor’s book, The Obamas, makes me love him all the more. The book gushes a little much about Michelle Obama’s sense of style.

We learn, this, for instance:

[The First Lady] hired a wardrobe assistant; when she traveled abroad, she wanted to bring her own hair and makeup assistants; and to redecorate the private quarters of the White House, she passed over little-known designers in favor of Michael Smith, who had done houses for Steven Spielberg and Rupert Murdoch. (85)

(A few days after the inauguration we learn that Michael Smith had also redone the executive suite of John Thain, the fired CEO of Merrill Lynch, for $1.2 million after having gotten $20 billion bailout money.)

Congress typically sets aside $100,000 to help the president-elect and his family move in, but the Bushes used their own money instead and left their $200,000 in the White House bank accounts for the Obamas to blow.

As you will see in this TV spot that’s airing, one of many, the message of the Let’s Move campaign is quite simple: Lying to your children is fine because it’s good for them.

Let’s Move should be relabeled Let’s Lie.

Social engineering—for that’s exactly what this is—is not just ineffective but it is evil.

In a sense, we should be glad these commercials are out there. It serves as a wake-up call that Liberal ideology justifies the use of lies, manipulation and let’s face it, a dose of sadism. This insidious mindset pervades the ageing 60’s idealogues’ views  of child rearing. It’s a deceitful approach that sabotages good parenting, which must be based on trust and mutual respect.

Instead of a relationship built upon integrity these health autocrats encourage us to manipulate and lie to our children.

This is a paradigm for how the Obama administration views and treats the American public. They are the all-knowing parents and we are the clueless children who will be herded and prodded, by any means necessary, into government mandated programs that are, they assure us, ultimately “good for us.”

The premise that we should seek out guidance from the government on child rearing is one more encroachment on the sanctity of the family aimed at destroying the rights of parents to raise children according to their values.

Under the guise of a smiley, benevolent state, Michelle Obama, Big Sister, is making a bid to lead the ignorant masses to a better life.

And where have we seen that strategy before?

It’s the justification for Obamacare, a Byzantine universe of laws and regulations that is guaranteed to ratchet up the cost of health care, drive physicians out of business, destroy competiton in favor of a government monopoly, and ration medical care especially for the elderly and those afflicted with life threatening illnesses.

It’s also the fuel that sustains every murderous Socialist and Communist regime that’s ever existed, dictatorships whose morality is best summed up thusly: the ends justifies the means.

OBAMA:  Hey Axe!  Whassup?

No, I don’t know who leaked our decision to abandon blue collar whites.  Soon’s we find the S.O.B., we’ll dress him up like a banker and drop him into the middle of an OWS protest.

You’re kidding.  We gotta reverse course because word got out?

Okay, I understand: you want me and Joe to be regular people for a while.  Suggestions?

Avoid Camp David.  Fine.  Too rustic for my taste, anyway.  Anything else?

Wait until after the election to eminent domain Lafayette Square and build a White House pitch and putt complex?  No problem.  That it?

What?!  Aw, c’mon, man!  You can’t be serious.  That would demean the office of the Presidency.

All right, all right, I’ll do it.  Yeah, we’ll brainstorm more ideas, too.  Okay, later. [hangs up]

BIDEN:  Chief?

OBAMA:  First thing tomorrow, Joe, you and I begin hanging new drapery in the East Room.

JAY CARNEY:  I’ll alert the networks to have camera crews in place by 10:00 a.m., sir.

BILL DALEY:  Your 9:00 o’clock tee time with Tiger at Congressional, Mr. President?  I’ll call him and canc. …

OBAMA:  Ixnay!  SNL’s Fred Armisen owes me big for resuscitating his career.  Request his presence here at dawn in work clothes and cap.   Jay, don’t give the signal to start taping until Fred and Joe are atop their ladders.  No close ups.

VALERIE JARRETT:  [hanging up phone] You and Michelle are signed up for the Tuesday night mixed league at the Lucky Strikes Lanes in Bethesda, sir.  First-timers bring beer.

OBAMA:  Oh joy.  Well, anyway, Versace’ll need a few weeks to design Michelle’s bowling duds.  We’ll start after we get back from Hawaii in Jan . . . Joe, what?

BIDEN:  Um, regular folks don’t go to the islands on holiday, Skipper.   Better stick close this year.  How ‘bout us two and the wives do some day trips:  Busch Gardens, say; maybe check out Bob’s Reptile House in Virginia; or take a bird walk at the National Zoo.

OBAMA:  This is getting out of hand.

BIDEN:  Ooh, that sparks a thought, Number One.  Let’s you and me do a Bush-Cheney sock puppet show for poor kids next Saturday in the Rose Garden.  Bush and Cheney are quail hunting in Jersey, see, when Cheney turns towards Bush and accidentally discharges his weapon, winging Jon Corzine who’s nearby throwing bags of money into a big hole he’s dug. Meanwhile. . . .

OBAMA:  Wait wait wait.  We’re going about this bass ackwards.  I won’t get reelected because the great unwashed think I’m one of them; I’ll win if the economy booms.  How do we make that a reality in eleven months?

BIDEN:  Bring Rick Santelli in and do what he says?

JARRETT:  The President means, without openly abandoning his war on capitalism, Joe.

OBAMA:  Correct.  Look, unemployment fell to 8.6%.  Why?  Because employers are buoyed by the fact I’m looking more unelectable every day.  They’re anticipating my defeat and trying to get a leg up on competitors.

DAVID PLOUFFE:  I think I get where you’re going, sir.  We keep doing what we’ve been doing to drive your numbers down further, through the 30s and even into the 20s.  The lower you go, the more hoarded cash gets pumped into the marketplace.  By late summer, the economy’s ignited, leaving the Republican nominee gasping like a landed fish.

OBAMA:  Exactly.  Naturally, my numbers rebound dramatically in the fall, with businesses too committed to expansion to pull back even though I’m surging.  Their tough luck when I win and punish them for trying to profit on the backs of their customers.

JARRETT:  On another front, sir: the Ice Queen has agreed to break ranks with Senate Republicans and sign on to your American Jobs Bill,

OBAMA:  And what did we give up for Senator Snowe’s favors?

PLOUFFE:  She remains a Republican, sir, but she’ll have a vote in Reid’s caucus.

OBAMA:  Not too bad in exchange for. . . .

PLOUFFE:  There’s more, sir: she has first call on the White House movie theater.  And next vacancy, you’re nominating her for the Supreme Court.

OBAMA:  Ouch!  The pain in Maine weighs heav’ly on my brain.  Still, nice having a token Republican on our side.

BIDEN:  Whew!  All this Machiavellian stuff is making my head spin.  And it’s been days since you had a day off, Boss.  Whyncha reach out to Tiger and Michael Jordan.  Check if they’re available to fly to Pebble Beach this weekend.

DALEY:  Snowe’s already reserved Air Force One through Sunday, sir.

OBAMA:  Oh?  Has she moved into the Residence yet?  What more can possibly happen to. . . .

[enter First Lady]

MICHELLE:  Hey, who booked the Blue Room Friday night for “An Old-Fashioned Maine Snowbound Hoedown”?   I need it for my seminar on “Weak Men, and the Strong Women Who Push Them to Greatness.”  Move the Maine shindig to your basketball court.  You hear me, Barack?

BIDEN:  Well, I didn’t, Billy boy.  I said Hillary was leading with her behind.  Or maybe I said the whole NATO operation was like the blind leading the blind.  I don’t remember.  But the guy misquoted me.

OBAMA:  No lasting harm.  Research and Destroy knocked that off the front pages fast with the Cain revelations.

DAVID PLOUFFE:  Oh, Mr. President, the Smithsonian taxidermist just delivered Gaddafi’s head.

OBAMA:  Okay.  Tell Housekeeping to mount it above the mantel in the Residence, next to bin Laden’s.  And remind them to leave room for Baby Assad and Boehner.

VALERIE JARRETT:  Sir, the Libya bump is fading since Fox reported diehard Islamists have seized control of the country and Gaddafi’s massive stock of surface-to-air missiles.

BIDEN:  Damn Ailes, trying to make people think we shoulda known that could happen.

HILLARY CLINTON:  Mr. President, a faction of the Libyan ruling junta assured me when I was there showcasing Smart Power™  a few weeks back that they’ll work with us to secure the missiles–if they survive the coming purges by al-Qaeda hardliners.

OBAMA:  Whatever happens, the Libyan denouement has been a nice diversion recently.  But the Cain thing is petering out and attention is swinging back to the economy.

JARRETT:  As well as scandals like Gunwalker and Solyndra that Jonathan Alter–bless his loyal, simple heart—and our pussycat media have ignored.

HILLARY:  Perhaps we need a bank of foreign distractions to draw on through next November, sir.

OBAMA:  Good thinking.  Hmm.  Here’s an idea.  Hillary, get Prime Minister Ahmadinejad on the hot line, please.

[pause]

Hello, Mahmoud?  It’s Barack.  Uh, Obama.  Yes, yes, Hussein, American president.  Peace be with you, sir.

”Death to America”?  Ha Ha Haaaa!  Funny, you sound just like my former pastor when you say that.

No no no.  Libya was an aberration.  Gaddafi asked for it when he gave up his nuclear program.

Listen, can we meet? Maybe resolve our countries’ differences?

Tehran, January? Absolutely.  I’ll clear my schedule. Now, my people tell me we shouldn’t meet without preconditions.  What are your preconditions, sir?

Completely out of Iraq before I arrive?  Way ahead of you, Mahmoud.  I’ve already cut the orders.

[pause]

Oh, sure.  We’ll leave bases intact for your use should Iraq become a part of Greater Iran.  Waste not, want not.  Anything else?

Agreed.  I’ll recall our ambassador to Israel.

I understand.  In fact, I told Netanyahu yesterday I’m implementing a variation of our ”One China” policy vis-à-vis the Jewish state and Palestinians.  We’re calling the initiative our ”One Palestine” kowtow.

A good faith gesture?  Um, how about our weapons specialists working with Iranian scientists to ensure your nuclear bombs are reasonably clean.  That’ll limit damage to the environment when you use them.

May I ask for a good faith gesture in return, sir?

You’ll use your influence with al-Qaeda to guarantee that soldiers captured during our withdrawal will enjoy the option to convert?  I don’t. . . .   Ah, conversion entitles them to be beheaded with a sharp knife rather than a dull one.  Yes, indeed, Allah is merciful.

See you in January, inshallah.

[hangs up]

That went well.  Maybe a breakthrough.

BIDEN:  Good on ya, Chief.

OBAMA:  Okay, Diversion Number Two for, say, next spring?   Anybody?

HILLARY:  North Korea, sir?  We’re still dead in the water there.

BIDEN:  She’s onta somethin’, Boss.  I say we pursue a, whatchamacallit, quid pro nililum approach with the Hermit Klingon–  unabashed groveling absent expectation of anything in return.

HILLARY:  Kim will expect us to offer something concrete in exchange for nothing, sir.

OBAMA:  Hmm.  I’ll authorize an Executive Action extending health coverage to North Korea’s 23 million . . . uh, what?  [Hillary whispers into his ear] Oh, since yesterday?  All right, North Korea’s 22 million people.  HHS?

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS:  The “DPRK Wellness Program” is already on the books in my safe, sir.  You could announce it’s imperative we implement the coverage immediately to get America’s economy moving again.

HILLARY:  Preliminary talks with Kim on this matter took place just after you assumed office, sir.  He insisted end-of-life counseling be mandated for all North Korean citizens, regardless of medical condition.

OBAMA:  Wily old Troll.  Who says he doesn’t care about his people.   Now, let’s plan a really big diplomatic distraction for next fall.

HILLARY:  You’re overdue for an “America Apology” trip, sir.

OBAMA:  True.  Arrange a state visit to Havana in September, Hillary.  I’ll tell Castro I’m sorry for decades of American interference with Cuban efforts to destabilize the Southern Hemisphere.

ERIC HOLDER:  Match words with actions, sir.  Pledge to vacate Guantanamo Bay once the man-made disaster suspects being held die of old age.

HILLARY:  That’s would be a powerful humanitarian gesture, Mr. President.  Cuba’s prison population is exploding, and Castro’s assured us the facility would house political prisoners who might otherwise be shot because there is no more room in Cuban dungeons.

OBAMA:  Well, Human Rights Watch will be pleased.  Eric, let’s also offer blanket amnesty and citizenship to Cuban provocateurs, assassins, and double agents who have been operating in the shadows since arriving in Florida as Marielitos in 1980.

JARRETT:  The right thing to do, sir.  Many of those people still pose as refugees, living in fear, running from safe house to safe house one step ahead of the FBI.  Let them do their jobs without us looking over their shoulders.

HOLDER: I’ll waive attendance at the mass recitation of the Oath of Citizenship for Cuban nationals who choose to skip the event rather than risk their cover.

OBAMA:  Good.  In the lead up, I’ll issue a general pardon to Marco Rubio for any activities he engaged in prior to. . . .

[enter First Lady]

MICHELLE: Michael Jordan’s here for your one-on-one.  Don’t let him blow by you on your left.  You hear me, Barack?

White House, Cabinet Room

First meeting of President Obama’s new team

OBAMA: Listen up, people. I got myself across the finish line but couldn’t bring Congress along.  That’s why you’re here.  Except for Defense, you represent the first entirely recessed Cabinet in American history.  Do me proud.  Michelle?

MICHELLE: I’m the new Chief of Staff. You want to see him, you gotta get past me. Waste my time, I’ll cut your budget 10%.

OBAMA: So, let’s hear some fresh ideas.  HHS?

MICHAEL MOORE: Now that the World Court has overturned the Supremes and ruled the PPACA [ObamaCare] constitutional, sir, amend the program to cover all humanity.  Eventually, include lesser beings, as well.  Innumerable uninsured creatures are suffering out there.

OBAMA: Easy, big guy; we’ll do it in stages.  After people, we insure the remaining mammalians; then, things with legs; finally, air breathers.  Treasury?

PAUL KRUGMAN: I’ve run the numbers, sir: Stimulus IV should tip the worldwide economy into depression within a year.

OBAMA: Good.  That gets us closer to the one-world government mankind will demand I lead to left the—I mean, to right the ship.  I’m getting bored with the Presidency, anyway. OMB?

BERNIE MADOFF: [videoconferencing from Butner Federal Correctional Complex] Paul’s overly optimistic about how long before we foment a global crash, Mr. President.  Economies can be annoyingly resilient.  We need a backup plan.

OBAMA: Agreed.  Eric, task DOJ lawyers to discover extra-constitutional justification for footing a European bailout.  We’ll call our proposal the, uh, “Bosom Allies Relief Fund.” BARF will overwhelm their systems with worthless dollars, bollixing up the euro and paralyzing trade.

RAMSEY CLARK: On it, sir, but, um . . . I’m your new AG; Holder’s been in jail since last month, after he was convicted of directing a Gunwalker conspiracy that was adjudged vast and injurious.

OBAMA: Oh, right.  I’d pardon him, or at least pull him out of solitary, except . . . word is he’s writing a book.  Hmmm.  Ramsey, notify Holder’s warden to allow him weekly unsupervised walks in Fort Marcy Park.

KRUGMAN: Sir, Republicans will yell bloody murder when they learn you’ve BARFed.

OBAMA: Too bad.  Alert Senators Snowe and Collins I’ll grant them private audiences if they agree to be bipartisan about my usurpation of Congressional power.  Moving on, CIA, what’s your take on the ruble these days?

MATT DAMON: Fine choice, sir; go for quality, color, and cut. . . .

OBAMA:  Never mind.  How are negotiations going with al-Qaeda?

DAMON: NSA and I are close to a Gentleman’s Agreement with al-Zawaheri, Mr. President.  He’ll give us nonspecific advance notice of an atrocity if we grant him U. S. citizenship and the right to appeal to the SCOTUS any decision to take him out. Proceed?

OBAMA: Yes.  Which reminds me.  Suppose I’m in the middle of a personal-best round and he manages to hit us?  I can’t leave the course just to rally the public with insipid assurances.  NSA?

SEAN PENN: Tape a general statement in the Oval Office to have on hand in case you’re busy, sir.  You know, “Let me be clear; Make no mistake; They’ll be held accountable,” so forth.  We’ll label it “live.”

OBAMA: Sounds good.  By the way, Chico, congratulations on being adopted by Hugo Chavez.  A real honor for a “gringo.”

PENN: Gracias, Excelente.

OBAMA: Now, Matt, I assume the Zawahiri deal wouldn’t preclude apprehending him should the opportunity arise.   If you tried to lure him to Washington to sign off on our arrangement, would he bite?

DAMON: Very likely, sir.  I recommend we equip the arresting Delta Force team with the Ripp® Restraint Protective Mask system guaranteed to frustrate spitters and biters.

OBAMA:  [sigh] Ramsey?

CLARK:  I advise against such a provocative action, sir.  We should open a dialogue with the man.  He attacks us, we talk with him.  He continues to kill Americans, we talk some more.  He dirty bombs New York, say, we threaten to stop talking after another major event.  That’s how to get his attention.

OBAMA:  I’ll consider it.  Transportation?

AL GORE:  We need an alternative to automobiles, Mr. President.  The Constitution says nothing about a “right to drive.”  Phase out private ownership of vehicles by the end of your third term, when traveling by high-speed rail—whether or not it exists—becomes compulsory. We’ll get off foreign oil and save big on infrastructure.

OBAMA:  Tap the Amish for additional public transport ideas.  Let’s see–Defense, how do we go about standing down to demonstrate America’s not a threat to anyone?

ADAM BALDWIN:  I’d sooner arm ourselves to the teeth to make everyone fear us, Mr. President.

OBAMA:  Alec, this doesn’t sound like you.  We can’t . . . wha? Oh Good Lord, I picked the wrong Baldwin!

MICHELLE:  He’s been confirmed, Dumbo.  Too late to do anything now.

OBAMA:  All right.  But I’ve got my eye on you, Jayne.  State?

YOKO ONO:  Divvy up 95% of our nukes to every terrorist country and jihadist group–throw them off balance. When everyone starts from a position of strength, we can talk about our differences openly, without fear.

OBAMA:  Make it so, Sudoko.  After they’ve taken receipt of the nukes, confirm they’re targeting only us, not each other. God knows, we don’t want some third world conflagration breaking out because of a misunderstanding.  Homeland Security?

SHEILA JACKSON LEE:  [interrupting cell phone conversation] What?

OBAMA:  Um, any policy revamps, suggestions?

JACKSON LEE: In fact, yes.  Given the TSA’s current emphasis on body scanning, I’m changing the agency’s name to the T&A Administration.

MICHELLE:  Meeting’s over.  I’m heading over to Whole Foods for some arugula.  You folks better leave now to beat my motorcade, or you won’t get home before dark.

OBAMA:  But honey, we’re not done with. . . .

MICHELLE:  Cosmo’s coming in tomorrow to do a spread on you.  No nudity.  You hear me, Barack?

OBAMA:  Merde!  After I did all the heavy lifting.  Damn do-nothing Congress.

VALERIE JARRETT:  Good thing you’re leaving the country next week, sir.  No one can blame you if the measure tanks when you’re abroad on official business.

OBAMA: Where am I off to?

BILL DALEY:  You’ll begin your working tour of Scotland’s golf courses on Monday, sir.  Meanwhile, the First Lady and several dozen close friends and family members are already aboard the presidential yacht, Alinsky, en route to the Galapagos for a holiday.

OBAMA:  Message her confirmation that we’ll rendezvous a week from Friday on the Côte d’Azur.  When do I return home?

DALEY:  Um, we want to be flexible, sir.  Tell him, Poll Boy.

CHUCK TODD:  Recent surveys indicate hiring spikes and an uptick in consumer confidence when you’re away, sir.  It’s as if some great weight was lifted from. . . . .

OBAMA:  I get it, Chuck.  All right.  Add Ireland to my itinerary.  Inform Michelle I’ll join her on the Riviera October 1^st.  Eric, do you have this “Gunwalker” thing under control?

HOLDER: I believe I can stall the investigation until after the election, sir.  But God help us if they find out about “Nukewalker.”

JOE BIDEN:  Hey Boss, lookit this:  Maxine Waters is slapping you upside the head again on Good Morning America.

OBAMA:  What is Maxine’s problem with me?

JARRETT:  She’s ginning up a rift with you to distract attention from the Ethics Committee’s investigation into charges she peddled influence, sir.

OBAMA:  So, she’d stop if I pardoned her?

ERIC HOLDER:  Can’t, sir. It’s a congressional matter involving ethics, not criminality.

OBAMA:  That committee has been punting on her case for over a year.  She won’t get off my case until they rule, which may not happen in my lifetime.  I’d talk to her, but she scares me more than Michelle.

JOE BIDEN:  I gotta idea, Boss.   Make her an offer she can’t refuse:  resign her seat and she becomes your Special Envoy to Africa.  Big staff, her own plane.  She could put it on her mausoleum.

OBAMA:  You’re thinking Roland Burris, Joe.  Still. . . .   Val, reach out to the lady and feel her out on Joe’s suggestion.  Tell her I’ll throw in the Medal of Freedom.

DAVID PLOUFFE:  On another matter, sir: both Perry and Romney looked pretty good in the debates.

OBAMA:  I know.  Brian, you were a pussycat running the first one.  What happened?

WILLIAMS:  [defensively] I did my job, sir.  Politico’s Harris was a lightweight, let himself get pushed around.  Next time I’ll have Hoffa and Trumka as co-moderators.  Somebody dodges a question or comes after us like Newt did, they’ll break his legs.

BIDEN:  Perry worries me, Boss.

OBAMA:  Hmm.  Half of Texas is on fire.  How can we play that to our advantage?

PLOUFFE:  Designate the whole state a national disaster area.

OBAMA:  Don’t you mean, “natural disaster area”?

PLOUFFE:  No, sir.  In the heat of the moment, who’ll notice the substitution of “national” for “natural”?  If he gets the nomination, we’ll run ad after ad declaring that Texas was officially declared a national disaster and had to be bailed out by the federal government.

OBAMA: Good. Now, even though an election’s around the corner, we must continue our assault on private enterprise.  Let’s see:  transportation, check;  health care, check; energy, check; finance, check.  What’s our next target, Bill?

DALEY:  Agribusiness, sir. It’s too big to fail, and that’s our way in.  When we control corn, soybeans, and wheat, everyone on earth will be eating out of our hands.

OBAMA:  Saving Big Farma . . . for humanity.  I like it.  Tim, make sure our new TARP forces funds on any agricultural entity with more than two tractors.  They take government money, we own ‘em.

GEITHNER: Never get through the House, sir.

OBAMA: Congress is out of the loop on this one, Tim: TARP now means,  “Treasury Assets Requested by President.”  Consider it an executive order.  What other pies can we get our finger into?

PLOUFFE:  How about Hollywood, sir?  Most feature films flop.  The film industry could use the steady hand of government to right things.

OBAMA:  Agreed.  Tim, find some loose change and buy 51% stakes in the major studios. Then merge those entities into one film company called, um, DC Productions, run by the FCC in the public interest.  Look into a federal takeover of Big Porno, too.

[phone rings.  Daley answers]

DALEY:  Sir, it’s the First Lady on a secure line from the Alinsky.  I’ll put it on speaker.

MICHELLE:  I don’t care if they’re endangered.  Tell the Ecuadorians I promised a staffer I’d bring back a tortoise for her daughter’s show-and-tell. . . . Hello, am I coming in, Metro Guy?

OBAMA:  Yes, dear.  Loud and clear.

MICHELLE:  Book the shuttle Atlantis for our anniversary on October 3^rd.  This year, I’m in the mood for a romantic dinner over the earth and under the stars.  You hear me, Barack?

According to Obama’s defenders, Bush vacation days were disproportionately greater when compared to Barack “nose-to-the-grindstone” Obama’s. The left argues that Obama has earned 10 days in a haven for multimillionaires because Bush spent eight years in perpetual party mode.

Mr. Bush did spend time on “vacation.” But Obama and Michelle closing down Bar Harbor, Maine to dine in upscale restaurants with a “Latin flair” is quite different from G.W. fishing on his family’s estate in Kennebunkport prior to hosting a “Lobster Summit” for Vladimir Putin.

According to CBS reporter Mark Knoller, a vacationing President Bush would go into town for an annual cheeseburger. On the other hand, every chance he gets, Barack relaxes seaside, sipping sunset cocktails and eating lobster while the Secret Service keep peons at bay.

Maybe scorekeepers could refresh America’s memory and cite the instance when Mr. and Mrs. Bush nearly brought the Big Apple to a halt while they leisurely took in dinner and a show.

Intermittently, George W. did head home to conduct business from the “Western White House” in Crawford, Texas. For fun, Mr. Bush would be seen with a “power saw in his hand going after brush and dead trees.” President Obama has got to know that no one would condemn a decision to head home to his Tony Rezko-acquired property on South Greenwood Avenue in Chicago, instead of his $4,000 a night “Winter White House” in Hawaii.

Moreover, is there a liberal apologist honest enough to calculate the difference between Bush floating around in his father’s row boat in Maine and the untold millions Obama spent, mixing business with pleasure, on a 250-person, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt-enhanced traveling entourage that reserved 500 rooms in the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai?

During his tenure, Bush was regularly criticized for making 77 visits to Prairie Chapel Ranch. What detractors rarely mention is the former president voluntarily doing double-duty by entertaining 19 world leaders in his home. For those keeping track, that averages to be 2.375 working vacations a year.

When not gathering cedar wood, Bush spent many a vacation day serving “Southern-inspired” meals to dignitaries like China’s former leader Jiāng Zémín.

Some other notables feted at Mr. Bush’s heartland ranch were: Tony Blair; Putin and his pectorals; King Abdullah; Australian and Italian Prime Ministers John Howard and Silvio “Bunga Bunga” Berlusconi; Vicente Fox; Hosni Mubarak; Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain; German Chancellor Andrea Merkel; and Israel’s Ariel Sharon.

On the other hand, Barack prefers to reserve fine dining for family getaways.  Unlike his predecessor, Obama’s unique down-home style includes treating Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to greasy spoon at Ray’s Hell Burger, a hamburger joint in metro DC that Obama frequents with trusty sidekick Joe Biden.

Listening to liberals justify the President spending more time in a golf cart than with his feet up on the Resolute Desk, one would think Barry needs to be pried from the Oval Office and convinced to take a few days off against his will.

What is never mentioned is that the Obamas get a reprieve every time they’re visited at the White House by Motown stars, ex-Beatles, “Desperate Housewives”/Border security advisors, and Super Bowl party guests like the ex-Mrs. Marc Anthony, JLo.  Moreover, the Obamas regularly blow off steam with at-home Latina cultural events and on Wagyu beef, cocktail parties, and Conga lines.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama also shuffle together official business with throwing back pints of Guinness and Diwali dancing. Makes one wonder how liberals, who define Bush entertaining world leaders in Crawford as a vacation, can consider Obama touring Rio with Michelle, Sasha and Malia official business.

However, had George W. Bush not boycotted the Earth Summit in 2002, there’s a good chance he too could have delighted poor Brazilian kids with his adroit soccer ball dexterity.

Bush aside, the Queen of R and R is Michelle. In between vacations, Mrs. Obama manages to sandwich in NYC tasting tours, BBQ eating romance, jaunts to Oregon, “whirlwind” shopping in Paris, ancho-chile short ribs and skiing in Vail, and miniature golf sessions in Panama City Beach. After tuckering herself out on a $375,000 Spanish pre-vacation/vacation and a fried fat-cake-eating African safari, the woman deserves two-weeks off in August.

Nevertheless, the debate isn’t about Michelle; it’s about Barry and George. The question is how Barack Obama body surfing in the cool waves of the Atlantic while the economy tanks and desperate Americans stand in line at job fairs baking in the hot summer sun compares with Bush holding official meetings at Camp David and choosing to spend time in Crawford brandishing a chain saw and a cheeseburger in a strong economy.

The truth is, despite 9-11, while Bush was president and until the Pelosi Democrats took over Congress, both the stock market, and nation’s employment rate remained relatively healthy. Yet Bush, who quit playing golf during the Iraqi war because he felt it sent the “wrong signal,” still maintained a low vacation profile.

For Barack Obama, whose horrendous fiscal policies are responsible for much of America’s misery, to take a highbrow vacation during a double-dip recession reveals a lot about his character.  Although George W. defines himself as a “windshield rancher,” it’s Obama who clearly lacks class, because his habitual insensitivity and self-indulgence proves he cares for no one but himself.

The President’s defenders should quit comparing the arriviste-nouveau riche-Obama side show with the restraint and discretion Bush exhibited throughout his presidency.  George W’s vacation days were just another excuse for him to extend a unique brand of “ranch diplomacy,” as opposed to the frivolous opulence that, despite America’s ongoing economic despair, a shameless Barack Obama continues to enjoy.