Kaine Defends Michelle Obama's Spain Trip: 'She's A Mom'

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine is defending first lady Michelle Obama's vacation trip to Spain, saying critics of her travels are trying to politicize the issue.

Kaine tells NBC's "Today" show he thinks "it's wrong" to talk critically about her trips. Critics contend they send a poor message at a time when many Americans are out of work.

Kaine said, "She's a mom." He said this was an opportunity for her to take nine-year-old daughter Sasha to a part of the world she hadn't seen before.

Kaine said President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are "focused on being good parents." Mrs. Obama returned with Sasha to the White House late Sunday. Her trip occurred as Obama was celebrating his 49th birthday and their other daughter, 12-year-old Malia, was away at summer camp.

Comments

[ProudChristian]

08:51 PM on 08/16/2010

i always really liked michelle obama............. im not sure if i like her anymore, i just dont feel dt fondness. Maybe i just projected my perfect family thing on her too much.

its not abt the trip cos shes entitled to live her life but i keep wondering why she would go on holiday during her husbands birthday? i mean, it doesnt make sense to me and it makes me wonder if she has some kind of prima-donna, princess mentality..... .
couldn't she have gone later or cut it short? was it an official trip we simpletons know nothing abt? Cos i dont get it.
Thats just my opinion.

[Joey Smith456]

08:13 PM on 08/14/2010

An obtuse, narrow and biased hypothesis from an out of touch media--you have got to be kidding? It's fascinating to read theories, conclusions and assumptions that are all disconnected from the reality of America. Now the reason Americans are uncomfortable with the First Lady taking a vacation to a Five Star Resort in Spain are due to the following:

Unemployment is at an all time high, 52 million Americans are out of work, have no job, no future, may lose their homes, can't pay their kids tuition, buy school clothes, replace broken down cars or fix computers. The middle class is eroding. The issue isn't about her taking time off--or the right to do so. I don't think anyone has an issue with our First Lady going to any five star hotel in Spain.
1. Imagine the small businesses that could have benefited if Michelle Obama would have visited anywhere here in the US?
2. Timing. Every smart person knows that timing and appearances count. It's called exercising good judgment. Americans know better. It's called moderation. I lead my children by example. I expect the leaders of this country to know better. Right now I'm disappointed. As an independent vote, who's voted both sides of the aisle, and as Chairman, they're fired.

[Seaniebhoy]

07:57 PM on 08/12/2010

Boo hoo everyone is taking shots at Michelle...so what she's the first lady of the United States for god sake not some over worked legal secretary, she shouldn't be going on holiday. I don't think any president or their family should be going on holiday when the country is in hard times. I apologize if some of you do not agree with me, but I am an Obama voter and will be next time, but timing and appearance counts for a lot and here is what I (and likely thousands more) see...the country is in the middle of two shooting wars that we are not winning, with teenagers coming home in bags every week; the country is in the middle of one of the worst ecological disasters with the gulf oil spill, with thousands of miles of coast line covered in grime, and finally the country is in the middle of the longest and most crippling financial crashes in memory. Those who still have jobs are having our salaries, hours and benefits slashed...I have already had to pick up a second job to make ends meet; and those who have lost their jobs have also lost their homes and most of their possessions...meanwhile the first lady is galavanting around in a five star resort in designer clothing costing more than my rent on a private spanish beach...

[gomezrules]

09:11 PM on 08/11/2010

So MRS. Nero fiddles while Rome burns. Interesting twist!

[LovelyVelocity]

11:22 AM on 08/11/2010

Wow there seem to be as many people who think this trip to Spain cost taxpayers zero dollars and who think Barack Obama wasn't born in Hawaii. What's the frequency, gang? What gets me is a.) the White House released different stories, first it was a mother-daughter getaway, then a friend in need break -- like Spain was the only place to do either! -- and b.) the White House refuses to release what this trip cost. I'm a Democrat, I will vote for Obama in 2012, but I think we're seeing an expanding disconnect between how they used to live, which was privileged but not removed, and how they live now.

[Redgriffin]

02:35 PM on 08/11/2010

The First Lady paid for her and Sasha's hotel accommodations what we as Americans paid for was the Use of the jet and the fuel and the accommodations of the Secret Service unit that "always travels with the First Lady and family members. The lunch wit the Spanish Royal Family was at their invitation so Spain paid for transportation of the family to Majorca.

[NatTurner1]

07:31 AM on 08/11/2010

The first lady made the trip because she wanted to spend time with her best friend, Chicago physician Anita Blanchard, who lost her father this summer. Blanchard (who is married to President Obama's best friend, Marty Nesbitt) planned a Spanish vacation with her daughter and invited the first lady and her daughters to come along. Michelle, who missed Blanchard's father's funeral in July, agreed and brought along her 9-year-old daughter, Sasha. The first couple's older daughter, Malia, is away at camp.
According to Sweet, one other mutual friend came along with her own two daughters. And according to the White House, all parties paid for their own hotel rooms and personal expenses.

To complain about this trip and the President entertaining the wounded troops with the basketball game is heartless!

[jamaicalover]

06:23 PM on 08/10/2010

"First Lady Michelle Obama took a lot of grief for her decision to vacation in Spain last week, a glitzy getaway that prompted one New York Daily News columnist to liken her to Marie Antoinette. But now we're learning more about the trip, which, despite the furor over its alleged excess, seems to have been launched with good intentions."

"According to the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, the first lady made the trip because she wanted to spend time with her best friend, Chicago physician Anita Blanchard, who lost her father this summer. Blanchard (who is married to President Obama's best friend, Marty Nesbitt) planned a Spanish vacation with her daughter and invited the first lady and her daughters to come along. Michelle, who missed Blanchard's father's funeral in July, agreed and brought along her 9-year-old daughter, Sasha. The first couple's older daughter, Malia, is away at camp.
According to Sweet, one other mutual friend came along with her own two daughters. And according to the White House, all parties paid for their own hotel rooms and personal expenses."

[shp]

07:39 PM on 08/10/2010

"....the first lady made the trip because she wanted to spend time with her best friend, Chicago physician Anita Blanchard, who lost her father this summer. Blanchard...."

Well, that would just blow the heck out of the White House's first story that this vacation was planned last year.

Like, before her best friend's father died?

[jamaicalover]

08:13 PM on 08/10/2010

Link, please.

[paganmist]

05:22 PM on 08/10/2010

"Michelle Obama paid for 40 friends with tax-payer money."

OBVIOUS LIE.

Michelle + Sasha = 2 people
Anita Blanchard + daughter = 2 people
Another friend + two daughters = 3 people

That's a total of 7 people. Three mothers, and four daughters.

And each of these women paid for themselves - airfare, room and board.

Blanchard promised to take her daughter to Spain for the girl's birthday.
She would have been there regardless of whether or not Michelle joined her.
She invited Michelle to bring her own daughters. Since Malia is at camp, she took only Sasha.

Secret service determined where the ladies would stay.
They chose a place they felt they could adequately secure.
They secured the hotel and a nearby beach.
THEY made the security choices, as they always do.

The fact that staff and assistants went along indicates that she was working at least part of the time while she was there.

Work, by the way, that we're getting out of her for free. We don't pay her a salary, so she isn't required to work for us, and her security is covered as we protect the President AND his family.

[Linds West]

08:11 PM on 08/10/2010

COME ON PPL...What are the requirements for abusive? there is no rude or derogatory language in this post. was it hit by accident, or is someone ACTUALLY offended by this??
BTW. faved. already fanned!

[Cleo McDowell]

04:46 PM on 08/10/2010

PolicyWonkette 34 minutes ago (3:51 PM)
526 Fans SAID

Refresh your memory. He flew all around the country in Air Force One so no one would know where he was. I don't begrudge him that -- any more than I begrudge FLOTUS a trip to console a grieving friend.

Man -- this IS the summer of HATE, isn't it?

*****************************

So now you're comparing the plight of President Bush being flown in a security pattern, escorted by a fleet of fighter jets, during the worst attack on our nation in our Nations history.......

To the plight of Michelle Obama closing a beach to privately sunbathe in the Spanish Riviera...

You can't really be serious....

[paganmist]

04:53 PM on 08/10/2010

Michelle Obama didn't personally close the beach.

Secret Service determines how much security is necessary, be it simply waving people back, or closing an entire beach.

THEY determine these things, and they function separately from any other office.

So the only way Michelle Obama can avoid potentially causing something like a beach being closed down entirely? Is to NEVER EVER go to the beach.

The same goes for every other place that gets closed down or blocked off when she's around, which is pretty much everything (same for the President.)

This has been true for every President and First Lady since LBJ. Whenever the President is around, it is an inconvenience simply because he needs protecting.

This is also why the President/First Lady often choose to use private transportation by air - even when they are traveling by car, the security detail ends up blocking up the streets. People who live in D.C. have often said they appreciate that they make use of alternate travel methods, because it'd be a big hassle otherwise.

[Cleo McDowell]

04:37 PM on 08/10/2010

Honestly, Liberals are only digging themselves deeper with the ridiculous 'Console a Grieving Friend' and 'Just Being a Good Mom' Mantra to defend Michelle Obamas extravagant European Vacation..

They're closing down stretches of the Spanish Riviera so Michelle and Co can sunbathe in private.. And that's fine with me. The FLOTUS should be treated like a Dignitary and have the best possible accommodations .

But now liberals want me to view Michelle Obama as an inspirational martyr FOR TAKING THIS VACATION IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Reality is a distant memory to you liberals...

[paganmist]

05:01 PM on 08/10/2010

Who wants you to view Michelle Obama as a martyr?

[jamaicalover]

06:26 PM on 08/10/2010

"Ridiculous?" "Consoling a Grieving Friend"

The only people digging a hole are people who think like you.

[ElsaIndy]

04:32 PM on 08/10/2010

She could not comfort a friend at Camp David? Her daughter could not spend time with her and their other friends and family at Camp David? She had to spend all that taxpayers' dollars to fly to a posh resort in Spain and be followed by a contingent of secret service and Spanish police with crowds trying to see her, with no privacy on the beaches, the whole world watching and an international media frenzy, in order to comfort her friend! To be a mother! Oh no how ridiculous! MO wanted the attention, did not care how it looked or how it hurt her husband. Her child and "friend" are afterthoughts. She did not show her daughter Spain. She showed her a media zoo....Our petulent and vulgar arriviste First Lady needs to be told that presidents who own no vacation homes of their own go to Camp David for vacations in the middle of a recession/depression. MO is a First Lady not a Queen. She has no right to spend tax dollars on lavish oversears, or domestic vacations . Shame on her for not understanding simple ethics for our public officials.

[Donkey Party]

04:55 PM on 08/10/2010

"Our petulent and vulgar arriviste First Lady needs to be told that presidents who own no vacation homes of their own go to Camp David for vacations in the middle of a recession/depression. MO is a First Lady not a Queen. She has no right to spend tax dollars on lavish oversears, or domestic vacations . Shame on her for not understanding simple ethics for our public officials."

Something tells me you didn't exhibit this much HATE and DISRESPECT for previous, fairer-skinned First Ladies.

[delawarefan]

09:31 AM on 08/22/2010

Maybe her friend wanted to go to Spain!

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

04:30 PM on 08/10/2010

Katrina....don't say a G*D DAMN word about THIS white house's vacations

[bgood0822]

04:04 PM on 08/10/2010

Why is this such a BF deal. So they went to Spain, on tax payer's dime, oooh that why.

[PolicyWonkette]

04:21 PM on 08/10/2010

Just as Laura Bush went to Paris and to Africa for safari. I don't remember any dustup over that.

Just shows progressives have more class, common sense, and better manners than the right wing noise machine.

[paganmist]

04:57 PM on 08/10/2010

Wrong. They paid for their trip. Everyone who vacationed with them paid for their own airfare, room and board.

The ONLY thing we tax-payers paid for was the security detail.

And Secret Service are the ones who determine how many to send - neither the President nor the First Lady have any say in it.

We've been paying to protect the President and his First Lady since LBJ, and that involves security with them where ever they and their families go.

Never complained when security went all over the world to protect the Bush Twins, did you?

[bgood0822]

05:34 PM on 08/10/2010

I ment to put a ? at the end of my statement, thus making it a sarcastic remark. The FLOTUS and children are entitled to vacations as well as the POTUS, AT tax payer expence.

[shp]

06:22 PM on 08/10/2010

They might of paid for their hotel and their food, that's about it because it was a mixed official and unofficial visit.

[claudiam]

03:50 PM on 08/10/2010

This should not even be an issue. If I had to live with the hate mongering that was being thrown around 24/7 about my family I would want to get out of this country too. She and her daughter deserve their time together. claudiatucsonaz

[DCDave]

03:27 PM on 08/10/2010

Hmmm lets compare, at about the same time in their first terms, one first lady takes a vacation to Olympia Washington, and does not use air force 1, and one goes with 40 people to Spain and uses air force 1. Which one took their trip in a period of economic catastrophe, and belt tightening?

Guess what its not Laura Bush.
http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/july_2003/first_lady.htm

The Obama's are shameless hypocrites period and end of story.