President Barack Obama, fourth from right, and family visit the Thomas Jefferson Memorial i tonight. Also pictured are first lady Michelle Obama, second right, and daughters Malia, right, and Sasha, third right, and Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's sister, second left, with her husband, Konrad Ng, third left, and their children Suhaila, left, and Savita Ng, in harness with father. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
by Mark Silva
What do American families do when they go to Washington?
See the monuments.
What does the first family do in Washington?
Tonight, they saw the monuments.
They didn't take a sightseeing bus. They motorcaded.
It was cool and mild this evening in Washington, where President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and some of their extended family took a brisk tour of the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial, both of which are visible from the White House, but neither of which look quite the way they do, well, close up.
The tourists tonight included Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president's half-sister, her husband, Konrad Ng, and their daughters Suhaila and Savita. Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson.
First stop, the Jefferson Memorial. This reportedly was Obama's own first personal outing to the memorial (and an uncomfirmed report from a National Park Service official suggested that it was the first non-event visit by a president since Franklin Roosevelt, who has his own monument on another side of the Tidal Basin. The president was inside for less than 10 minutes, emerging to cheers from fellow tourists.
Next stop, the Washington Monument, with a crisp, steady wind whipping American Flags encircling the lighted obelisk as the family headed inside. A few dozen tourists stood nearby, enjoying an unexpected addition to their evening tour.
A half moon and clear night sky completed the picture.
They motorcaded home to the White House -- which is someplace else a lot of families like to see when they're in Washington.
The family was home by 8:05 pm EDT.
It's a school night.
Comments
Who'd a thunk it?
A politician in Warshington who actually exemplifies family values rather than talking about them....
Posted by: ornery | September 27, 2009 10:42 PM
I hope that's a White Sox hat he's wearing.
Posted by: Pete | September 27, 2009 11:12 PM
Oh, sure. He really exemplifies family values. This is why he threw his illegal immigrant aunt under the bus earlier this year and also why he allows his half-brother to live in squalor in Kenya. He is a hypocrite like most politicians. Obama is the most self-serving, egotistical, arrogant, lying man I have ever seen. I really hope he fails for the good of the country.
Posted by: Charlie | September 27, 2009 11:16 PM
Family values? duh I'd like to see some American values too.
Posted by: jfr | September 28, 2009 3:16 AM
Did he include his illegal alien aunt on the trip? Your remember, the one on welfare in Boston.
Posted by: Dan C | September 28, 2009 7:05 AM
This is why he threw his illegal immigrant aunt under the bus earlier this year and also why he allows his half-brother to live in squalor in Kenya. He is a hypocrite like most politicians.
Posted by: Charlie | September 27, 2009 11:16 PM
Hypocricy knows no bounds....had he done anything different, Charlie would be complaining then too. Great Americans all!!!!
Posted by: bill r. | September 28, 2009 7:22 AM
THey spent a whole 10 minutes inside the JeffersonMemorial?
Glad to see they really absorbed some of the history there...
Posted by: Beth | September 28, 2009 7:42 AM
Charlie, spread your twisting of the facts to suit your agenda on redstate, it's more fashionable there.
Posted by: Joe | September 28, 2009 8:54 AM
I see " Beth " took her moaning pill. It just wouldn't be a morning if the Republican-Libertarians weren't out, moaning about something. Probably next on their moaning agenda will be:
Why hasn't President Obama and Vice-President Biden cured cancer, already !!?
" Alice, you're a real riot !! One of these days..."
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | September 28, 2009 9:48 AM
Way to go Obama. The people who really care about our country's future love what you are doing. And it's entertaining to see how it drives the whiners nuts.
Posted by: Kenneth Janowski | September 28, 2009 11:32 AM
Under the Nationality Act, Obama cannot petition for a "half brother" on his father's side to come to the US, because father only had student status here and returned to his home country. (He could petition for half-siblings through his mother, a US citizen.)
Nor did he throw his aunt under a bus.
She has an asylum hearing coming up, and she may well be granted asylum.
Asylum applicants are permitted certain means-tested benefits while their claims are being adjudicated, under the humanitarian provisions of the asylum laws and related laws.
So, Dan C and Charlie, go peddle misinformation and hate somewhere else.
Posted by: ornery | September 28, 2009 10:41 PM