by I know the thought of Barack and Michelle going on safari in Tanzania conjures up confusing images. It does for me. I just can’t see the anti-gun metrosexual president stalking a lion or shooting a charging Cape Buffalo with his Holland and Holland or Westley Richards double rifle in .500 Nitro Express while being urged on by both Michelle and his professional hunter.
According to the Washington Post, the White House decided to cancel the safari part of his African trip due to “costs”. Those costs would include snipers to kill any lion or cheetah that got too close to the First Family.
The president and first lady had also planned to take a Tanzanian safari as part of the trip, which would have required the president’s special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat, according to the planning document.
But officials said Thursday that the safari had been canceled in favor of a trip to Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner.
When The Post first asked White House officials about the safari last week, they said no final decision had been made. A White House official said Thursday that the cancellation was not related to The Post’s inquiries.
“We do not have a limitless supply of assets to support presidential missions, and we prioritized a visit to Robben Island over a two-hour safari in Tanzania,” said spokesman Josh Earnest. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t do both.”
Internal administration documents circulated in April show that the Obama family was scheduled to go to both Robben Island and the safari park, according to a person familiar with the plans.
I’m sure President Theodore Roosevelt is spinning in his grave. After all, when he went on safari it was for more that two hours and, by God, he carried his own rifle which was a Winchester 1895 in .405 Winchester.
Yeah I was going to say, how the heck would security work for something like that?
Not all safaris are hunting trips. It was really to be just a 2 hour wildlife viewing trip.
@Rob K: I realize that there are such things as photo safaris. Still, in my heart, safaris will always be those wonderful manly adventures that Ernest Hemingway, Robert Roark, and Peter Capstick wrote about so well.
Safaris should not be for hunting. Wildlife viewing trip are for fun and interesting. There are some animals that are unique to this region, such as Gerenuk, Grevy's Zebra, reticulated giraffe, Somali ostrich, oryx Beisa, Greater kudo. So it is not a good idea to kill some one only for fun…When you cannot give back life, so you shouldn't take it..
Tanzania Students Safaris
Hmmm, hopefully el Presidente will take a long swim offshore of that island with a couple of small bleeding cuts… ooops I didn't mean that, NSA. Hello test-testing 1,2,3.
I don't know about all that. I think that a classic safari like John Richardson alludes to could do the President good, as it did for Francis Macomber. Just keep Michelle away from the rifles, I doubt she'd like the transformation any more than Mrs. Macomber did, and it would be good to have that story end well in this case.
Remember, when dealing with leftists, better than driving them all before you and hearing the lamentations of their women is to know they are living long and ignored lives after their turn on stage, watching their every principle and dearly held beief be refuted on a daily basis by happy and productive Americans of every race, creed, color, walk of life and ilk (whatever that is).