It’s not too complicated. Michelle Obama is rich, as in really, really rich. Richer than most of us will ever be. I’d like to be that rich, and one of the nice things about being that rich would be to take beautiful vacations to exotic locations with the people I love. And if, heaven forbid, my wife should ever become president, that would not change my desire to have such vacations in the slightest.
There’s the extra wrinkle of the Secret Service requirements for such travel, but it’s not my requirement, and I don’t see how such a requirement should somehow bind my choices to the lowest common denominator. What would be acceptable, to live under virtual house arrest for four to eight years?
If you have genuine political disagreement with someone, don’t try to score cheap points by focussing on hypocrisy. You might someday find yourself facing an opponent who’s true to his or her beliefs. If you’ve acted as though hypocrisy were the highest of sins, where will you be then? Focus on the essentials.
q.v. Al Gore’s big friggin’ energy suckin’ estate. He wouldn’t be a better person if he lived in a yurt. He’s a dipshit because he’s wrong and wants to impose his wrongness on you and me, not because he’s a hypocrite.