The Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Regime: extravagant and out of touch

London Telegraph Blogs (U.K.) ^ | August 7, 2010 | Nile Gardiner

[kabumpo]

The difference being thst Marie Antoinette was a virtual prisoner at Versailles due to the court etiquette and customs of that time, had never been to other parts of France, let alone traveled to other countries (since leaving her native Austria as an adolescent) — there were no television shows with 24 hour news updates on what was going on around the world...

What bothered people was not what Marie Antoinette did, but who she was. Previous kings had all had mistresses who spent extravagently about whom they complained — and the people would love the (virtuous) queen. Louis XVI adored Marie Antoinette and never even thought of having a mistress, so the love/hate split that the people usually experienced got short-circuited. Apart from that, she was hated from her arrival in France simply for being Austrian — the Austro-Hungarian empire having been an enemy of France.

[Brugmansian]

I'm worried someone will shake some sense into their heads before the election.

Probably too late but they could still mitigate the damage they've done to their image and party. Not a lot but some.

[John W]

On an earlier thread someone pointed out George actually worked for and earned his “move up”.

[Verginius Rufus]

France and Austria had traditionally been enemies, but they were allies in the Seven Years' War, which went badly for France, so Austrians were not popular.

The atmosphere at Versailles was poisonous--all sorts of false stories were spread about Marie Antoinette. She had become very unpopular with the French people before the Revolution even began.

As a Far Side cartoon once made clear, what she should have said was "Let them eat cake and ice cream."

[libstripper]

The Illegal and the Wookie seem to have forgotten a bit of Chicago history that bodes ill for them.

In 1977 Michael Bilandick (sp?), the then mayor of Chicago, went for a winter vacation to Florida, which he apparently paid for himself. Shortly after he and his wife arrived in the Sunshine State, Chicago had a 500 year blizzard, one I personally experienced. Bilandick, et al, stayed in Florida rather than return to help while everything, including the CTA, broke down. When Bilandick ran for mayor again, the Chicago voters took revenge, booting him out of office because of his conduct during the blizzard and electing Jayne Byrne.

Looks like the Obamas are crassly doubling down on that very kind of arrogance.

[libstripper]

She is an Angry Person and to the extent she perceives that she is not getting the respect she thinks she deserves, she will become more and more angry.

I think she bitterly hates America and Americans. Hence, this mostly taxpayer financed, unbelievably, obscenely crass and expensive trip in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression is her way of giving us all the finger, spitting in our faces, and following up with a thumb to our collective eyes.