Free rein in Spain

Call it the fringe benefits of the top job: when dad is the president of the US, then mom taking the girls off on a cultural expedition means a lot more than filling up the SUV and setting off for the airport. No wonder Michelle Obama’s sudden penchant for showing First Daughters Malia and Sasha bits and pieces of Europe has tarnished the Obama gloss a bit. Just as the professorial president ticks off wayward Wall Street and exhorts fellow Americans to pull up their socks, his wife decides to let her hair down with some 40 of her closest friends in tow — besides Sasha — in sunny, sunny Spain.

The White House has been quick to say that the expenses of the top-flight hotel and gourmet meals are being footed by the entourage; and the cost of cordoning off museums, streets, stores and beaches are being handled by the Spanish presumably. But there is no word on who pays the $100,000 bill for the posse of secret service and White House personnel, not to mention the cost of taking Air Force Two on this little trans-Atlantic round trip. Last time the three Obama ladies decided to take in the sights (of London and Paris), they had hitched a ride on Air Force One, sort of like Indian families of ministers and civil servants commandeer official Ambassadors for shopping trips. But this time, Michelle and Sasha actually left the world’s most powerful man to celebrate his 49th birthday alone at home while they frolicked in Spain and Malia went off to camp.

Of course, the Western institution of the summer holiday has weathered the downturn, but most people have contented themselves with more modest breaks. Even Queen Elizabeth took her glum brood off for just a cruise around the few isles left in her shrunken domain, that too on a chartered ship, having dumped the Royal Yacht Britannia some years ago in the name of cost-cutting. Unfortunately, Michelle’s pricey preferences are leading to her being likened to a certain feckless (and eventually headless) French queen...