President Obama with Barb Starz, Dax Schieffer and Brian Stumpf of Big Sky Resort. Photo courtesy of Big Sky Resort
Posted on 08/20/2009 11:53:52 AM PDT by kristinn
The White House booked 400 (FOUR HUNDRED) hotel rooms at the Big Sky Resort for Barack Obama's overnight visit last week for a town hall meeting in nearby Bozeman, Montana. Two floors were completely taken over, including the penthouse suites.
While the national news media is ignoring the story, local media let the news slip in their gushing stories of how thrilling it was to have Obama in their midst.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported on Tuesday on Obama's visit, quoting Big Sky Resort spokesman Dax Schieffer:
The First Family stayed in one of the eight penthouses on the tenth floor of Big Sky Resort’s Summit Hotel on Friday night, said resort spokesman Dax Schieffer. The entire tenth and ninth floor were reserved for the Obamas and family as well as White House and Secret Service staff.
“All in all we had about 400 people as part of the group,” Schieffer said.
NewWest.net spoke with Big Sky Resort general manager Taylor Middleton for an article published Sunday:
“We ultimately had 400 rooms reserved,” said Middleton, noting that there were various entities within the Presidential entourage - security, press, admin staff, culinary staff - and their arrangements were “somewhat coordinated and somewhat uncoordinated.”
President Obama with Barb Starz, Dax Schieffer and Brian Stumpf of Big Sky Resort. Photo courtesy of Big Sky Resort
From Montana, Obama and his entourage went on to Boulder, Colorado on Saturday for another town hall and then flew to Phoenix, Arizona Saturday night for a speech to the VFW convention on Monday. Obama and entourage stayed at The Phoenician which describes itself as "Your Premier Luxury Destination". There are no apparent media reports on how many rooms the White House took at the Phoenician, but it would seem that 400 rooms would be consistent with the trip.
Obama and his family took time for various sightseeing and recreational activities on their Western tour.
Obama is scheduled to vacation next week at the 28.5 acre Blue Heron Farm in Martha's Vineyard.
The Vineyard Gazette reports weekly rentals for comparable properties run from $35,000 to $50,000.
There is no word yet on how many rooms will be rented by the White House for staff staying on Martha's Vineyard with Obama.
Obama spends our money as fast as he can print it.
It was more like an inadvertent revealing moment than an overt threat. I saw the vid on FNC as of this morning but now there’s nothing about yesterday there.
The man’s a friggin pig. That’s not his money.
26 ladies-in-waiting and likely more.
That date night in NYC was also the subject of a recent post supposedly from someone in the Air Force who flew a transport (making it somewhat suspect, because the set of pilots doing that is tiny, so ...) The total cost of date night — a couple of million.
Yeah, and she still looks like hell.
sw
I just want to know if we the people are paying for all of this travel and lodging? If the taxpayer isn’t footing the bill, who is? ——————————— I worked for a major luxury hotel for many years and we hosted many heads of state. Typically the USSS, military communications, president’s family and personal staff and the white house staff can take up 100 rooms minimum and higher depending on the type of trip. Press and support team take 60 or more rooms and they pay their own bills. Usually there are state, county and city employees who claim to need to stay in the same hotel. Often these are fire, police and security people as well as PR & consulting and local political types who specialize in being seen with the presidential party. Various rooms are needed called “down rooms” for fire department and police department rest, coffee, tea and soft drink stocked rooms near entrances or exits ideally. Secret service and security personnel (police) work in shifts so there is a need for at least twice the support staff for security, sometimes more. Again it depends on the type and purpose of the trip but several hundred rooms is a pretty good minimum need figure. 400 was never requested of my hotel but we didn’t always know if they were using other hotels as well so it could have been. Hosting a head of state is exciting but very difficult as often security attempts to take over the entire hotel, even the elevators, driveways and garages and control all foot and auto traffic.
Ummm, no offense. But the Secret Service does that for every President. The floors above and below have to be vacant.
She’s disgusting. Talk about trashy at the Grand Canyon (while they were ruining my state).
Too right those buses aren't from Florida.
Every one marked like that is from right down the road from me. School District 2, Billings, Montana.
Think I'll go snoop and see who might have paid for all those charters.
Got two sets of senator's local offices within a couple blocks of the School District office, so I'm thinkin' I've got a coin toss choice going before I turn over a single rock.
Yes, whatever happened to going thru the budget line by line? Obummer used his first Cabinet meeting in April to "send a signal that we are serious about trimming the fat of government spending.
And, whatever happened to "everyone must sacrifice" and "“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times …"
Once again, it's the old "do as I say, not as I do" from Hussein and the rest of the Washington political elites.
Hussein continues to globe trot in luxury around the world on the taxpayer's dime. The Ritz in Russia. The Phoenician in AZ (below). The five star resort in MT. The $35-$50K a week mansion in Martha's Vineyard...How's that for "cutting the fat" and "saving the planet?".
Must be nice to live in five star luxury at the taxpayer's expense as he intentionally destroys the US economy.
Thanks for the luxury vacations America!!! I am enjoying destroying the middle class, the US economy, the energy sector, the auto industry, the banking industry, the health care industry, the US Dollar and the US Constitution in Style! Cheers!
Takes a lot more than change to pay The One’s bills!
It wouldn't be a fair comparison.. It's not HOW MANY - but HOW OFTEN the Clintons did it & Obama is doing it.
We should have someone calculating what this bunch is costing us in the few months he's been president & what the tab will be at the end of 4 years.
“Pretty soon, that will add up to real money...”
Let's do the math. There are about 110,000,000 households in the US. In one year, Obama has managed to increase the debt on each household to the tune of $18,181.82 PER HOUSEHOLD.
And he is just getting started. He is selling us into debt slavery. Welcome to trickle-up poverty.
So every person got their own room?
Any comparative numbers for a Bush trip?
Chances are he takes members of the media along for the ride.
“Put me on the list for pi$$ bucket boy.”
According to 0, that should say “wee wee bucket boy!”
Fubama is full of woo woo!
Re: “This sounds like an episode from “The Jeffersons”.”
*************
I used to watch The Jeffersons — I’d say they were of a higher class - this crew reminds me more of Sanford and Sons.
Back in the day people would let out a room to help make ends meet.
That was a state trip to Sydney Australia, likely for high level meeting and all that. Thus the extra people and having to ship a bunch of stuff. Hardly comparable to a town hall within the country where you are bringing a bunch of family as well. Bush’s trip to Australia was without Laura.
It’s a given that the President does not travel light so to speak. But to have a bunch of extended family along is what irks me.
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