Obama’s Childhood Greyhound Bus Rides, Howard Johnson Stays

Last week President Obama tried to distinguish himself and his vacations from those of Mitt Romney. He said the following at a stump speech in Poland, Ohio:

When I think about my family or Michelle’s family, what made us rich was spending time together.  (Applause.)  And the idea was that if our families were of good character and had good values and you were willing to work hard, then you could find a job that paid a decent wage and eventually, saving up, you could own a home.  And you knew that you wouldn’t go bankrupt when you got sick because you had some health insurance, and maybe you took a vacation every once in a while — and it wasn’t necessarily some fancy vacation at some fancy resort. The best vacation I had when I was a kid was we — my grandmother and my mom and my sister, we traveled around the country on Greyhound buses and on trains and we stayed at Howard Johnsons — (laughter) — and I was 11 and so if there was any kind of swimming pool — (laughter) — it didn’t matter how big it was, right, you’d spend the whole day there and then you’re real excited to go to where the vending machine was and the ice machine and get the ice, and that was like a big deal.  (Laughter.)  And you would just see the sights, and stop by a diner someplace.  So you’d have that chance to take a little bit of time off to spend with your family, and then when you retire you were able to retire with dignity and respect.  And you were part of a community.

You get the feeling like Obama at this point believes he can say whatever he pleases without the media ever bothering to fact check him. But let’s take a look at Obama’s statement in which he tries to contrast himself with Mitt Romney, who we are supposed to believe went on magnificent resort vacations growing up even though he’s much more likely to have gone to Mackinac Island than anywhere else. Or perhaps worse, Obama is trying to contrast vacations he allegedly went on when he was 11 to Romney’s recent getaway over the 4th of July. Either way, his statements are almost unbelievable in light of what we know of Obama’s childhood.

We are to believe that Obama took the Greyhound Bus. We know that Obama didn’t even visit the mainland of our nation until he went to college. He spent his time in Hawaii and Indonesia. Greyhound doesn’t service Hawaii, so Obama is lying when he claims that his family took vacations on Greyhound buses when he was 11. He then claims to have stayed in a Howard Johnson, which may or may not be true. It’s possible that his family took vacations within Hawaii and thus would have reason to stay at a Howard Johnson. But considering that he’s lied about taking the Greyhound Bus, it’s unlikely that his mother ever took him to stay at a Howard Johnson.

Keep in mind, we’re supposed to be comparing 11 year old Barry’s vacation to Romney’s recent vacation at his vacation home in New Hampshire. But that of course is a ridiculous comparison that doesn’t even make any sense. Why ever would we compare Obama’s vacations from the early 70′s with Romney’s vacation last week? Of course it’s all razzle dazzle, we’re not supposed to be thinking here. But if we must compare Obama’s vacations to Romney’s, we ought to look at Obama’s recent vacations. These include yearly trips to Hawaii, Martha’s Vineyard and Chicago. Mrs. Obama has taken trips to Spain and South Africa. Young Malia Obama took a trip to Mexico, without either of her parents. The Obama’s have spent a fair amount of time on vacation since Barack to office, nearly all of it at exotic and expensive locations.

Romney seems to spend most of his vacation time at his vacation home in New Hampshire. No doubt it’s a nice property and likely quite expensive. But there’s a difference between a vacation home, which is something most Americans aspire to own, and endless trips to exotic locations which is something completely out of the reach of most Americans. There’s something galling about Obama’s comparisons, as though we’re all to stupid to catch on to its absurdity. That Obama feels the need to make a false comparison (11 year old Barry’s vacations vs. Romney’s vacation last week) and worse lie about it (his mother never took him on a Greyhound Bus growing up) tells you what Obama thinks of the American public. He thinks we can be fooled by cheap stories.

This is of course a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. Where 11 year old Barry went on vacation and where Mitt Romney goes on vacation today doesn’t matter much. What matters is that Obama is lying to the American people (again) about his childhood and that Obama thinks he’s making an important point about the 2012 race. He really believes in class warfare and the best way to push class warfare for Obama is to make Romney look like a vacation snob. If that means Obama has to lie about his own past, well, Saul Alinsky says it doesn’t matter as the ends justify the means. What Obama doesn’t take into account though is that the public is watching and no one believes he took the Greyhound Bush while island hopping in Hawaii.