Watching President Obama’s lavish publicly-funded lifestyle, extensive taxpayer-supported campaigning, and increasingly outrageous power grabs, it’s tempting to ask what media coverage would have looked like if George Bush had behaved the same way. If you have resisted that temptation until now, you’re about to give in.
The UK Daily Mail reports on perhaps the most jaw-dropping extravagance of President Downgrade’s royal lifestyle:
Right as the economy was going down the rabbit hole, the Obamas decided to host an Alice in Wonderland themed Halloween party, complete with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Tim Burton-arranged decorations.
They even talked to Star Wars director George Lucas and convinced him to lend them the original Chewbacca costume for the entertainment of their guests.
The New York Post offers some more details of the fabulous holiday bash - which the White House knew would absolutely outrage the public, so they kept it secret while heavily promoting more modest celebrations to the media:
Unbeknownst to reporters, the State Dining Room had also been transformed into a secretive White House Wonderland.
Tim Burton decorated it “in his signature creepy-comic style. His film version was about to be released, and he had turned the room into the Mad Hatter’s tea party, with a long table set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies,” reports [a new book called The Obamas], which The Post purchased at a Manhattan bookstore.
“Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar. Burton’s own Mad Hatter, the actor Johnny Depp, presided over the scene in full costume, standing up on a table to welcome everyone in character.”
The Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, then 11 and 8 respectively, “sat at the table, surrounded by a gaggle of their friends, and then proceeded to the next delight, a magic show in the East Room.”
This all happened in 2009. No matter what steps the White House might have taken to bamboozle reporters during the Halloween party, it’s simply inconceivable that none of them found out about it later – probably later that very evening. Nevertheless, the big bash was kept Top Secret, by the same media that has few qualms about revealing actual Top Secret data, if it serves their agenda. We’re only finding out about the “Alice in Wonderland” party now because the beans were spilled in a new book, The Obamas, written by Jodi Kantor… who is a New York Times correspondent.
It’s interesting that Disney didn’t use the occasion of a major White House event to promote its then-upcoming movie, isn’t it? According to IMDB, the film had a two hundred million dollar budget. And yet, everyone involved in producing the royal family’s White House party was happy to keep mum about such a fantastic opportunity for publicity. Are we supposed to believe that nobody at Disney breathed a word to anyone in the press?
Something tells me that “bamboozling” reporters to cover up the “Alice in Wonderland” party involved nothing more than politely asking them not to cover it, with the full expectation of total voluntary compliance. The Red Queen’s court does not obey her with such total devotion. Imagine George Bush, or a hypothetical President John McCain, doing the same. The resulting scenario that plays out in your head will be much more entertaining than Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” was.
