First Dog Bo, Obamas’ Prop with a Wagging Tail

Like most community activists, Barack and Michelle Obama rely heavily on ‘Street Theatre’. They can’t come on presidential and first ladyish with all those late-night TV shows available with which to to mock the not so long ago dignity of the presidential office.

---

According to the British never-miss-a-trick Daily Mail, Michelle Obama left for Martha’s Vineyard wearing pearls and a belt on a yellow and white sundress, but removed the pearls and belt mid-flight in time for the arrival photo-op. While he was in the air, Obama shucked his suit and tie for khakis and a blue shirt with rolled-up sleeves. Some would call this “rubbing it in”. The Obamas love to be on top of everybody’s conversation list. Along with raising the chatter level, their departure and arrival was played out in perfect street theatre.

---

---

Then there’s the publicity potential of high-flying First Family Pet Bo again. The canine, who takes his master’s initials as his name, was airlifted to his vacationing family in Martha’s Vineyard. The half a dozen Secret Service agents et al, pictured with the tongue-lolling Bo in a Daily Telegraph photo, look downright silly. Some think that Bo is not just the Obama family pet gifted them by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, but a sometime prop used for the purpose of diminishing the dignity of the office of the US president. It is now not only part of the Secret Service agents’ job description to greet Bo on his arrival to Martha’s Vineyard and to clean up after him, but to take charge of two large mesh bags full of basketballs, jobs that don’t come with any dignity. Wonder if the Secret Service Agents will get to grouse in the more than 70 hotel rooms, each costing up to $345 a night, booked for them when their days’ work is done, or if worries about the NSA spying on them keeps them quiet? Taking the Orwellian theory that some animals are more equal than others to new heights, Bo does not get to travel on the same plane as his family, so the ‘Prop with the Wagging Tail‘ costs the American taxpayer plenty. Bo joined his family on a MV-22 Osprey aircraft which costs more than $10,000 per hour to operate. The MV-22s are gradually replacing the CH-46 helicopters long used to help move presidential staff and luggage. (Daily Caller, Aug. 12, 2013). The Daily Mail-dubbed ‘Beloved’ Bo is rated at staff and luggage level. But Bo’s prop days may be coming to an end. There was not a single comment under yesterday’s Daily Mail story, a far cry from the public outrage that surfaced over his supposed two-plane Maine trip in 2010. Public roads will be closed in Martha’s Vineyard during the Obama vacation because the First Show-Off will be taking his motorcade to the golf course or bookshop. The Martha’s Vineyard Times newspaper warned residents to expect “extraordinary and lengthy up-island detours”. Locals must have got a good belly laugh when officials sent word by email advising them that “Anyone aggrieved by this closing should email or call the White House.” This is how Jay Carney explains the foofaraw over Obama traveling excess: “Obviously, when you’re president of the United States, you carry a little baggage when you travel. And that’s true whether it’s on a summit, international meeting, a domestic trip or for a vacation.” Even so, the Obamas, who would do most anything for publicity, are losing ground in the big game called Street Theatre.

---