And Then There Was What?
If you failed to catch the latest blunder by the White House, here it is.
This caused a problem: Included was a shot of the Obamas posing with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, his wife Sonsoles Espinosa, and two daughters, Laura, 16, and Alba, 13, who've never had photographs of themselves published previously in print or online due to a Spanish law prohibiting the media from doing so. The photo of Zapatero and his family with the Obamas was quickly removed from Flickr at the request of the Spanish government but still lurks online (in the shot seen here their faces are blurred). The flap is adding concerns on the issue of the privacy of world leaders' children in the digital age.
Here is the picture. I took the liberty to black the kids faces out.
Here's what the New York Post had to say about it.
No, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama aren't at a "Twilight" convention. They're posing yesterday with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, his wife, opera singer Sonsoles Espinosa, and their Goth daughters. But that was front-page news back in Madrid, where the public had never seen Laura, 16, and Alba, 13, since Dad, under Spanish law, forces the media not to run their photos. Too bad the White House posted the picture on its Flickr page -- for all the world to see.
We'll start with the obvious. Long black dresses, metal charms on black ropes, black leather boots, black hair, leather wristbands. Yea, that would qualify as Goth. But they are teenagers. Isn't that to be expected?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what the heck is the First Lady wearing? I'm neither a high fashion expert nor a potato farmer, but that's either a bathrobe or a burlap bag from where I sit. And notice, the kids at least fit in in the picture. You have the Prime Minister, his wife and kids, and the President all in black. Then, sticking out like a sore thumb, is our First Lady in her potato sack. Is it just me, or is she taking the whole Farmers Market thing a bit too far? Even the shoes, all black except her brown ones, stick out. And the New York Post notices the Gothic kids?
And is it not absolutely stunning the total lack of etiquette this Administration shows on a daily basis? From the lack of the most basic understanding of gift exchanges to Lady O groping the queen, and now we have the unprecedented release of pictures of the Spanish First Kids. At this rate, buzzing the NYC Skyline is going to look like one of the smartest things this guy has ever done. Wasn't he supposed to be the genius? Did he bump his head on the window while he was trying to enter the White House? I don't know exactly how to feel about this. Should my embarrassment at having this rookie bumbling around the woirld braking every rule of foreign etiquette be subdued by sorrow for the kids who now have to suffer for having an encounter with the guy? Wasn't all of this nonsense supposed to end when Bush left office?
