The Obama Daughters Surprised With a Swing Set

Best! Glad to see some good news!

did we pay for that??? my guess is yes, it is probably on the tab with the 100/lb kobe beef. live it up obamas…don’t worry we will pay for it…and our kids and our grandkids….

The President pays for his own personal expenses, and I am sure he paid for the swing set, if it was not an outright gift from the company.
Don’t see why you think the taxpayers pay for it?

I hope they enjoy their childhoods, because it’s their generation that’s going to have to pay for the deficits that their father is creating now.

Uh,while the Obama children should have a swingset if they don’t already have one(it’s a normal childhood toy)it doesn’t need to be in the headlines. There are millions of children suffering economically everywhere who don’t have much and don’t want to hear this. Why,also, are we in the habit of referring to the President’s family as the “First” Family? ALL families are important!

“Have fun kids, we’re busy mortgaging your future!”

Finally. Something the Obamas have done that I can smile about. What a sweet memory for their daughters.

Does anyone care about this? Is this “news”?

“I work with disabled people for a living and I’ll never see close to that.”
It’s good that you choose to do what you want to do and helping the disabled is admirable. But that is your choice, so why express envy of what others have or do with their lives?

“they pay for the food”
Who pays the chef?

How in the world can you justify being angry because these little girls got a swingset? It made me smile after reading all of the dismal news of the day.
Let us remember he INHERITED this mess and DID NOT put us where we are. GREED got us here and he is trying to get us out of this mess.
How sad that our society will criticize something so sweet for two little girls. UGH!!!!

I think it is a great idea. I seriously doubt the secret service wants Mrs. Obama or the children down at the local neighborhood park. this way, they can be in sight, have friends over, and have fun. I have no problem with a swing set, after all, President Bush had baseball diamonds installed and no one minded.
The White House also serves as the President’s residence, and it is good to see it used that way.

Wonderful for those sleepovers! And so nice for the girls, who can’t go to the park and play like other kids… I am excited for them. Now they can play with their new puppy and swing set!
Are some of you envious and spiteful? What a shame something as nice as this gives you cause to be evil and petty.
Your disability, poverty, or just a lack of good manners, is no rea son to not celebrate the kindness of others.
Obama is President of the United States. People who are president of Micky D’s have as much as what he just gave his girls.
Evil hearts breeds evil blog posts.
Pay them no mind, President and Mrs. O – the rest of us are smiling with you and your girls!

FYI…..I LIVE in the beautiful state of Kentucky and yes, we had the WORST icestorm in state history. However, that was OVER a month ago and unfortunately some people died from the combination of misuse of generators and the cold.
The National Guard was deployed to the hardest hit areas to search door to door.
Apparently you should do some reasearch before you decide to write about something so ignorant.
To think this story is about a SWINGSET and everyone is writing rediculous comments. How sad.
I would LOVE to see how the people who are criticizing him would try and resolve this mess that we are in. Get a grip would ya?

It is great for the Obama children to have a playground set in their new private backyard. Everyone needs daily exercise these days. However in our state of Michigan, and probably most states, all Child Day Care Centers have to have proper ground cover under all playgrounds were children can play off the ground. If fact this these rules are written by the Federal Government (Handbook for Public Playground Safety, PUB No. 325). I suggest Mr. & Mrs. Obama install some proper ground cover so nobody gets hurt. Possible by the guidelines of the Federal Government for public playgrounds and Child Day Care Centers.

“I think this president has taken the lead in giving.”
Are you serious? You obviously haven’t seen his tax returns:
“After Mr. and Mrs. Obama released their tax returns, the press quickly noticed that, between 2000 and 2004, they gave less than one percent of their income to charity, far lower than the national average. Their giving rose to a laudable five percent in 2005 and six percent in 2006, with the explosion of their annual income to near $1 million, and the advent of Mr. Obama’s national political aspirations (representing a rare case in which political ambition apparently led to social benefit).
According to an Obama spokesman, the couple’s miserly charity until 2005 “was as generous as they could be at the time,” given their personal expenses. In other words, despite an annual average income over the period of about $244,000, they simply could not afford to give anything meaningful.
(keep in mind that Mrs. Obama was holding down a $120,000/year job 2002-2005 until she received a spectacular raise to $317,000 after Sen. Obama directed an earmark to the hospital where she was employed)
Not hating, just stating…

That is very sweet. I hope those two girls have hours and hours of private play time on that playground over the next few years.

OMG! People!! First of all, read! They paid for it themselves. If we expect the Obama girls to not have any fun EVER because of the plights of other children then we should impose that rule on ALL of our children. Would that be fair? The children had nothing to do with anyone’s hardships. And that Rainbow Set they’re playing on is no different than the hundreds installed by the same company all over my middle classed neighborhood. It’s just a swingset. It doesn’t make the lawn look tacky, it makes it look like children live there and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s given to someone deserving when the girls grow out of it. And before you start griping about hand-me-downs or whatever those Rainbow play systems have a lifetime warranty and I’ve seen one that is 17 years old and looks brand new. Bottom line, he’s a dad with two kids. Let it go and gripe about real issues.

Good, every kid should have a swing set

“I would LOVE to see how the people who are criticizing him would try and resolve this mess that we are in.”
=======================
I would LOVE to have the opportunity to resolve this mess. Without bragging, I think I could do better than The Community Organizer as I am actually interested in taking actions to improve the economy than pushing a pent-up ideological wish-list (see “stimulus package, proposed 2010 budget, “Housing Recovery Plan”, etc.) that impede recovery. I would stop the fear mongering on the economy and work to instill confidence in investors that the government is not interested in picking winners and losers. I would stop demonizing private industry at every turn. I would scrap a “cap and trade” policy that makes the fringe Green Left happy but that will result in higher prices for energy and manufactured goods for EVERYONE.
How’s that for a start?
BTW – The daily “we inherited this mess” (woe is me) talk is getting old. This is NOT leadership.

It’s a lovely swing set. May those precious girls have hours and hours of enjoyment in the fresh air and sunshine.

I think this swing set maybe a political photo op.

I think to myself, if I were president of the US and I could look out the oval office window and see my children’s swingset, I believe I would be able to make better decisions. These are great parents, and he is a great man. I cannot wait to see how history judges him, I know he will be a good thing for our country.

It’s about time some Americans started surrounding the White House. God only knows whose priority list it was to wait so long on the puupies.

…While ever other child rots because their parents are out of work.
Posted by: Peace Train
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I think the South Dakota swing set company Rainbow was glad they got this extra business during these times. See, government DOES produce jobs.

TJB612- As I recall, the economy fell apart BEFORE he took office. Let us not forget the last eight years.
Deregulation, war, and greed got us here today and it wasn’t all caused by Bush. Even though I would love to blame him for everything it was not all his doing.
He has only been in office less than two months and this took us YEARS to get to where we are today. Give him a break!

President Obama, please put the proper pea gravel under that swing set. You need the gravel in case they fall off the swing or slide etc…

Oh please!! The Obama’s bought their kids a swing set and this is news? No, this is more media Obama love. It’s kind of frightening.

Frankly I find it rather enjoyable to have little kids at the WH again. I know republicans who like that aspect as well.

INterestingly, if they needed a swingset so badly, why didn’t they have one in Chicago? Could have had one there!
But HERE, it’s a photo op instead!

Mrs. Kennedy wanted to have an area on the White House lawn for Caroline and John to play. J. B. West in his book “Upstairs at the White House” (©1973) wrote, “She designed a play-yard, hidden under the trees near the President’s west wing office. … We soon had a treehouse, rabbit hutch, a barrel tunnel, a leather swing, and a slide.” By 1961, she was concerned about gawkers lining up at the fence to get a look at her children. Near the southwest gate, she said, “We’ve screened off the playground on the south by the mound and by the trees, but if you stand right here, you can get a good view of the children playing. Do you think you could plant rhododendrons or something along this fence so that everybody can’t stare in?” The next day, the National Park Service arrived with thirty large rhododendrons.

Thank you for a happy article. I had to google the headline for MANY stories of the swingset. What a joy for them and a joy for us to have President Obama in office. He said he is your President too. Maybe some people here need to swing on a swing. Thank you again for the story.

It’s nice to see so many nice comments on this thread. Obama has a nice family and two adorable girls that seem very smart with nice manners. Unfortunately, there is one very hateful post at 9:01 time that kind of ruins the thread and it is from an Obama supporter. Scroll down.

Thanks for rubbing your good fortune in the face of America obama family, gonna get your payback I suppose you suck

Comment on post written 9:03:06 pm on 3/4/09: How nice, the two little girls have a swingset. Enjoy it, you two angels. How nice the Obama girls aren’t swigging $100 bottles of vodka and aren’t known as the “tarty party girls” like the Bush twins were. Guess it’s all about upbringing.
————-
The Obama girls are children. At their age, the Bush girls were not partying with vodka and we would not have heard about the Bush twins partying if their father was not president or a high profile person. We all hope our children will not go overboard when they have a drink. If you wish to put the President and other high profile people under a microscope, do so; leave the children alone.

Truly amazing how people will find a way to complain about something as simple as a father giving his daughters a swing set. Why can’t we just let children be children and leave the political BS out of this story.

It’s nice to have kids in the White House again. Too bad they’re Obama’s.

Who assembled it???
I bet Obama didn’t. He lacks the ability. So who did? If ANY of the wh staff or security touched it, Obama should be billed.
That set would have taken him 2 weeks straight to put together so I know full and well he didn’t put it up himself in one day.
Dig into it ABC, there is taxpayer dollars being wasted here.
How much extra time now does the lawnmowers have to charge for mowing around it? Obama must be billed each time!

Reading through these comments not only makes me feel like a glutton for punishment, it also makes me wonder if I am witnessing some sort of high political satire. That’s it right? You people aren’t really this – um – limited in thought? Not all of you obviously, but injecting invective into a story about a swingset … truly pathetic.

To: Obamacrat for Palin | Mar 4, 2009 7:31:48 PM
“…Sarah Palin wouldn’t punish a state’s children for their representatives’ political inclinations. Palin ’12, PUMA!”
You are right, Palin wouldn’t do it to get even. Palin let whole towns in AK freeze and starve for no reason at all. Guess she was too busy being the GOP darling in the lower 48.
If Kentucky has kids freezing maybe they should look to their local governments and tell Sen. McConnell to get help instead of obstructing everything others try.

WE are losers?
Does this idiot realize that WE ARE IN THE WORST DEPRESSION IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD?
(says Obama.)
WE ARE GOING TO EXPERIENCE TRAGEDY UNLIKE ANY EXPERIENCED EVER?!
(says Obama.)
IF WE DO NOT DO EVERYTHING HE SAYS AND JUST FOLLOW BLINDLY, NO QUESTIONS, WE WILL ALL EXPLODE?!
(says Obama.)
Guess it can’t be THAT bad…there’s Stevie Wonder, and Michells’s shopping for dresses at Fashion Week, and special rice at the White House made out of PEARLS or God knows what.
WE are the loser?
Yes, the American people ARE the losers, and anyone who voted for this hypocritical, narcissistic man should be ashamed of themselves.
I’ll take a stupid but compassionate George Bush over a smart but insensitive Obama ANY day.

I’m from Ky and there aren’t any children freezing to death there.

I thought they might have outgrown the swingset stage….

The people that’s being so negative over a swing set for the Obama girls is really sick. Because the country is going thru though times right now that means every one must suffer? If you can afford to do something for your kids are you not goint to do it? You’ll better look to God for answers, man does not have the answer to our problems. If you you’ll read your bibles you will know that know matter who in office America is going to pay for the sins of this nation. No one can stop it. TRUST GOD HE IS YOUR SAVIOR

Maybe this isn’t the most earthshattering news, but some of us enjoy hearing how the first children are getting on. They are just children, and even though I disagree with every Obama policy, I am still glad they have a swing set to enjoy.

If the Bushes did the same thing for their kids, there’ll be hell to pay.
When barrack asked everyone to sacrifice, it meant everyone except for the obamas.

I am very happy that the Obama’s have chosen to support our economy by purchasing an American made product such as Rainbow Play Systems to create childhood memories for their daughters. For those of you who don’t realize, Rainbow Play Systems was started in a Minnesota backyard shed 25 years ago by a young man who was trying to earn money during college and has grown to be a multi million dollar American success story. If anything, the Obama’s have shown their appreciation for the hard working folks who build these right here on American soil. They are not brought here on the backs of some container ship. I wonder if it would of been news if they had purchased them a foreign made Wii so that they would not leave the house all day and eventually become fat adults who then buy Wii fit for excersise.
As far as this being an outrageous item for the Obama’s to buy in these horrible economic times- They could of gone bigger and grander, trust me!!! The set they purchased is not the top of the line or the most expensive by any means and other than the custom engraved plaque, these same models are seen in many backyards of many “Ordinary” families. As far as billing him for White House staff to install it- Absolutely ridiculous- The owner of Rainbow, (a regular Joe CEO worth millions and actually gets his hands dirty) and some factory installers put it up. It takes my guys about 5-7 hours to put up the same set and we are not as good as those guys!!
I would like to say Thank You Obama’s for #1-Letting your children enjoy their childhood outside on an American made product instead of on the couch playing some made in china video game, #2 Putting a few dollars back into the economy and #3 helping to drive some much needed traffic into my dealership today! Cedarworks are also wonderful American made child playsets too!

“The White House’s chief usher flew out to the Brookings, S.D., swing set factory, per the first lady’s instructions,……………………”This is an excellent way for Americans to purchase a swing set. Rather than having the swing set manufacturer come to your home, ask your chief usher to fly off to them to examine the manufacturing facility. If you don’t have your own chief usher, or even a regular usher, just find a government employee in your community and ask them to go shopping for you. Having the government pay for this will save you money and time.

It sounds very interesting.Also we can see the presdient loves his children very much.

Cedarworks are beautiful and are clearly superior to Rainbow which is also sold at warehouse stores. Maybe Rainbow donated it as a Sam’s Club promo.