weaselzippers;
Mooch's $8,400 Per Night Hotel In China Was Deemed Too Expensive For Joe Biden When He Visited In 2013
Then again, she is queen and he’s the lowly jester.
The White House has been tight-lipped about the cost of First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to China, but based on the choice for lodging, it could be considerable. Mrs. Obama and her entourage, which numbers seventy according to the Washington Times (including her two daughters and her mother), booked the Westin Chaoyang Hotel close to the U.S. embassy in Beijing for their first stop. According to USA Today, the presidential suite at the hotel is listed as $8,400 per night.But when Vice President Joe Biden visited China in December 2013, he and his team stayed at the St. Regis Hotel after the contracting officer responsible for booking rooms determined that the Westin Chaoyang hotel “price was prohibitive when compared with St. Regis.” This is according to the justification and approval documents just released on a government contracting website:
Also via weaselzippers;
I highly doubt she would be offended.
Thank You Weekly Standard and Zip.According to a pool reporter who was at the Great Wall of China for Michelle Obama’s visit there today, “Chinese authorities made sure, for a day, that Mutianyu [a section of the Great Wall] was visibly free of Obama-Mao t-shirts.” For $60, however, a merchant told the pool reporter that she’d sell him one of those t-shirts.Here’s the relevant part of the pool report:After taking the gondola back down to the parking lot, several reporters fanned out and stopped at t-shirt stalls to investigate a tip — that merchants had been told to temporarily suspend sales of t-shirts that show President Obama in a Mao hat.That tip turned out to be true. Several merchants denied carrying such items, but one merchant quietly took this correspondent to the back of her tent and showed off a whole box of the popular, normally seen t-shirts. As we were negotiating prices – she wanted 360 yuan, or roughly $60, an outrageous starting price – other merchants came by, and in Chinese, told her to be careful. The merchant became visibly rattled and put the t-shirts away.Another reporter in the pool had a similar experience with a separate vender, but managed to snap a photo of one of the t-shirts. I would be glad to share with anyone who wants to investigate why Chinese authorities made sure, for a day, that Mutianyu was visibly free of Obama-Mao t-shirts.
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