When Barack Took Michelle to NYC -- No Big Deal When You're POTUS

Still another column, this one in the Sunday New York Times about Barack Obama last week taking Michelle on a date to Manhattan.

Jan Hoffman writes glowingly about Barack; if he can find time for a "date night" after 16 years of marriage and a plate overflowing with downright scary issues, why can't any guy?

President Obama is not any guy. The reservation at a trendy restaurant and tickets for a Broadway show were surely obtained by one or more of scores of staffers and personal aides who are at the First Family's beck and call. Air Force One at the ready? Backup planes for security and press? Of course. Helicopters to shuttle them curbside?

And no worry about babysitters; not only is the most famous live-in mother-in-law likely available, but if she's not, someone can fill in. Bo need to be walked? Again, someone can fill in.

After the show (and the plane-ride to DC), there's no stop for milk at the all-night grocery or convenience store, no grubby kitchen to clean, none of the usual kid-caused messes; the inevitable price for an evening out that moms, especially, come to dread but expect.

Will the Obamas worry as they try to fall to sleep about money spent that night on a dinner already consumed and a play already seen? No. Obama is a multimillionaire, he earns a great salary, enjoys an expense account, and his earning potential is many times greater than any president in history. If Bill Clinton got $12 million for his memoir, just imagine how much Obama will command.

The conceit that President Obama is just a guy working to keep the romance in his marriage is ridiculous. He may well be working to keep the romance in his marriage, but he will never again be just a guy.

Comments

[RapidRay]

No Obama isn't a regular guy. We just had one of those as the decider and how did that work out?
I don't want regular guys leading the free world no matter how closely he may promise to follow a conservative agenda. Honestly don't all these guys look a lot older than eight years when they get out of the Oval Office. I know G. Washington looked like hell when he left for Mt Vernon! If the O-Bam wants a date night after saving us from a Depression, talking truths to a very sensitve Muslim world, visiting former death camps and getting cozy with Sarkozy, who am I to argue or to judge.
And it was New York City, not Chicago.

[bonmcgrath]

i'm jealous that he didn't come back home to see the latest rebecca gilman play at the goodman, or mary poppins or something.. and to eat at table 52 or spiaggia or dixie kitchen or italian fiesta pizzeria in his own home town...

[LeeScho]

With two daughters in middle-school, she a teacher in a public school and me an advocate for parents with children in public school, living in Co-op City, we managed dinner and the Broadway play or Alvin Ailey several times a year. Or we would simply walk across the way on a weeknight to the multiplex for a movie, Thousands if not millions of couples routinely make arrangements every year for child-care and dog walking so tha tthey can spend some date time together. We call for our own tickets, we drive our own car, and we arrive home to the added joy of picking up toys or washing dishes left by children and their babysitters. It is all part of the package. If you will later worry about the money spent on dinner and a play, then don't spend it. Rent a movie, microwave some popcorn, or justr settle in for an evening of board games with the children, or an eveniing of candlelight, tne-dollar a bottle wine, Johnny Hartman and Nancy Wilson.

I could find a dozen reasons why I fell out of love with my wife and lost my marriage. Money and romance and inconvenience do not make that list.

[sbrown80]

Interesting but it misses the point. Yeah, he doesnt have the same worries as us regular folks but he does have his own worries. First, security, privacy and the scrutiny of the press. Many pple would've opted for a private dinner to avoid such hazards and hassle. Last, it is romantic that even though he's got multiple crises to worry about he doesn't ignore his and his families' own personal needs. Many working adults become so overworked and tired that they don't work at keeping the marriage going. He could say, I don't have time like many working husbands tell their wives. He could find numerous excuses why he won't keep his promise to take his wife out but he didn't. These r the reasons why I respect him. He has more than enough reasons to be a lazy husband, including his security, but he wanted to do this.