Obama Gets Heat for Lavish White House Party

No expense was spared for this gala event

Washington DC, Jan 9. 2012. According to the new book “The Obamas,” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, tells us about the lavish Halloween party that the President and his wife hosted at the White House in 2009. It was so over the top that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas sent the original Chewbacca to mingle with invited guests.

Up until this book was released, the party was kept a top secret, because the President didn't want the public to know about his lavish lifestyle while so many people were unemployed and living on food stamps.

Somehow, even the media cooperated and never reported this opulent fete over two years ago.

And that is the real outrage. It's not that Obama threw himself a lavish and expensive party, while the nation was suffering in a deep recession... it's that the media knew about it and kept their lips sealed for over two full years. This is an unprecedented alliance between the media and the White House. Even FDR didn't get this kind of special treatment from the press during World War II.

Had President GW Bush done this, the media would have had three inch headlines saying "INSENSITIVE AND ARROGANT" and Nancy Pelosi would be screaming for investigations, hearings and special commissions to get to the bottom of it.

All pretext of objectivity is completely gone now. The press is now shilling for President Obama and will protect him whenever they can. They never treated President Clinton this well. They reported every misdeed, bribe and scandal during Clinton's two terms. Every pardon sold was duly reported.  But President Obama is different. He gets special treatment

The White House party was themed as an “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball , and was put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton.

Jodi Kantor's book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair, coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s health-care plan were staging protests, quickly vanished down the rabbit hole.

“White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” the book says.

However, the White House made certain that more humble Halloween festivities earlier that day, for thousands of Washington-area schoolkids, were well reported by the press corps.

Then the Obamas went inside, where an invitation-only affair for children of military personnel and White House administrators unfolded in the East Room.

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 the book, 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 President goes trick or treating.

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.”

Kantor’s book details more personal aspects of the Obama White House, serving up glimpses of the first couple’s marriage, parenting, sometimes tense handling of staff issues and even the president’s sly sense of humor when it comes to race.