Susan's Blog » AZ Teachers Villainized, but has Obama set the Precedent?

Can we all agree that civility dictates that “manners” should be evenly assessed, not hypocritically judged? The story a few days ago read, “Arizona teachers at 4-star resort, and you're paying for it.”  I’m wondering about the fairness of this accusation when our President has at least twice shunned diplomatic duties while on official business trips to enjoy taxpayer funded “date nights” with the First Lady.   

Arizona teachers were spotted enjoying the pool during class time at an educational conference they were attending.  Now, I don’t know if the teachers were given guidelines about what was expected of them, but protocol would suggest that learning new job skills had a higher priority than enjoying the pool. The reaction from state lawmakers and some citizens was “outrage” that the teachers appeared to be taking a taxpayer-funded vacation.

To be fair to teachers who generally work hard for little pay, let’s look at what has been modeled to them by our own President.  On April 4, 2009,The Times Online reported “Barack Obama puts romantic meal with Michelle before Czech politicians” Apparently, President Obama declined dinner with President Vaclav Klaus at the Prague Castle.  He additionally refused Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s invitation to dine at a traditional Prague Pub, opting instead for a breakfast meeting with both leaders.  However, rather than dine with either diplomat (and their rival status did complicate matters), the Obamas opted to ignore protocol and enjoy for a romantic dinner “alone” at a lovely restaurant along the Charles River. Now, I’ve had the pleasure of engaging in all three of these options in Prague and they’re all fabulous, but that’s not the point.  Rather, the President was in Prague on official diplomatic business, which he shunned that evening for date night. 

Ditto in Paris.  I have already written about the stunning breach of protocol exhibited by our President when he refused dinner with the Sarkozys and opted instead to dine with Michelle at La Fontaine de Mars also a lovely restaurant, but I digress.  Again, President Obama is a diplomat traveling on official business, and he violated clearly understood diplomatic protocol to engage in personal pleasure at major taxpayer expense.  Such protocol has been drafted and committed to print by the Department of State and he has an entire staff on hand to help him figure it out.  I’m not sure that the teacher’s business protocol was so plainly apparent to them.  Additionally, the financial magnitude of their bad manners was a fraction of the cost of the Obama’s  “date nights” which incurred considerable security expenses paid for by the French, Czech Republic, and United States governments.  Just saying, let’s be fair and expect good global manners from all who are on taxpayer funded expense accounts.