There’s been a lot of whining lately that President and Michelle Obama shouldn’t have gone to dinner and a play in New York the other day, and definitely shouldn’t have taken any time out of their European trip to do any sightseeing.
Predictably, these complaints went nowhere. I’m pretty sure that most folks could not possibly imagine going on a business trip to, say, Paris, and not take some time out to see the town.
Lance Knobel over at Davos Newbies has an interesting take on this. He points out that not only did the Obama family choose to visit a modern art museum (the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Pompidou Center) while in Paris, they apparently like going to museums and looking at modern art! Quite a change from some recent Presidential office holders. (But right in line with most Americans: there were about 850 million museum visits in the US last year.)
(I’ve got more to say on this very American “all work/no play” attitude. It has huge impacts here in Cleveland. But I’ll save that for another post.)
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