The 30 Million Dollar Christmas Vacation and the Disillusionment of Barack Hussein Obama

A 30 million dollar holiday? That's what it is costing us for the President-Elect, his family and close friends to spend Christmas in Hawaii. Mr. Obama promised change, but he is quickly learning that the office of the President comes with some built-in costs that not even he can change.

Regardless of the campaign promises, there are some things that can't change. Presidential security is one. No matter where the President goes, there are built-in costs associated with security, communications, and transportation that no President has the ability to change. Don't think for one second that if Obama wants to ride in an open convertible on inauguration day, the Secret Services won't tell him, "No!" in no uncertain terms. No matter how much President-Elect Obama wants to cut greenhouse gases, we won't see the bullet-proof SUV replaced by the presidential Prius.

The Secret Service did go a little green when they laid out a seaweed "off-limits" zone on the public beach where the First Family-Elect was spending the day. I'm sure the Obama's feel just a wee-bit guilty for ruining a few other people's day by hogging the public beach, but such is the price American's pay for the security of their leaders. We insulate them until they lose touch with the common man. Of course, I'm not suggesting that the Obama's Ivy League schooling prepared them for any sort of life of privilege. I'm sure this is all quite a shock to them.

Obama is currently rethinking many of the campaign promises he made. Now that he has been briefed on hundreds of classified documents, he's having some real, "Oh, shit!" moments. He's thinking, "Well, sure. Now I see why we had to bomb there. Now I see why some of these asshole terrorists really do deserve to rot in Gitmo. Trial, shmile." He's spending part of his Christmas vacation with his advisers thinking up ways to not keep a few of those changes he promised.

Obama cast himself as a Washington outsider. His limited occupation of his junior Senator's seat certainly ratified that claim. Behind the scenes, his transition to President is not a warm splash of Hawaiian waters. Of course, he must continue to give the appearance of cool confidence. What says confidence better than a paparazzi-style snap of a shirtless, healthy Obama romping on a golden Hawaiian beach? In reality, he is recycling Clinton-era advisers because he knows he's in over his head. Those campaign promise checks can't be cashed in light of the eye-opening classified picture.

When the inevitable cry of the masses swells up, "Why, oh why, hast thou forsaken us!" Obama will be unable to quell the crowds with a rhetoric-filled "Change" speech. Eventually, we're going to want to see some of this change and some of it just can't be. In school, I'm sure Obama learned that the Presidency is bigger than just the man. The reality of that lesson is sinking in like a vaccination shot from a blind doctor with palsy.

Addendum
Before anyone says anything about the use of Obama's middle name in the title of this article, it must be pointed out that is how the President-Elect will take the oath of office. He will use his full, proper name with his hand on the Bible. Which Bible? Why, Abraham Lincoln's Bible. The Bible Lincoln used for his 1861 inauguration will be brought from its home in the Library of Congress for Obama's swearing-in.

I find it odd that he is trying to connect himself with his Illinois predecessor. First, neither of them are really from Illinois. Second, Lincoln was a Republican and the first Republican to boot. What is the symbolism? The only connection I can fathom is civil war. Lincoln took his oath on the precipice of a looming, bloody, horrible war. Can Obama be expecting the same? Will he drag us down into the depths of a class-war where the economic down-turn is perpetuated until civil unrest erupts? That spike in post-election gun sales is starting to make sense.