Cousin Eddie/Obama

I almost walked away from writing about Obama’s bus tour, it seemed too easy.  The President builds a bus, oops sorry the Canadians build a bus that I’m sure is not fuel efficient and he left Air Force One and the Limo at home to hop in the RV.  That’s when it hit me; Barack Obama is Cousin Eddie from the Vacation movies.  Yep, Clark that there is an RV, I live in it now.  I gave the Chinese everything and the Canadians gave me this tenement on wheels.  I think they are calling it Greyhound One.  The similarities between the two don’t just end at the RV.  I think Obama could have easily stepped into the role of Cousin Eddie.

The original Vacation movie, where Cousin Eddie first appeared, seems to be like Obama’s campaign and first year.  We were living the good life in America, just like the Griswold’s.  I think it’s kind of funny that the Griswold’s were heading from Chicago to Wally world or in this case Obama heading from Chicago to Washington, which is sometimes referred to as Wally World.  Along the way, just like the Griswold’s, we lost money (the economy collapsed), jumped an old American beater off a cliff, (The auto bailout) and picked up Aunt Edna along the way along with her dog (2 wars soon to be three) Aunt Edna brought along her medical problems, (Obama care) and her social security (social security).  If you remember the movie, Aunt Edna was picked up at Cousin Eddie’s house. 

We all remember Cousin Eddie from the first movie.  He was the fun likable guy who never really seemed to get down and had a great plan of how he was going to make it rich one day.  Cousin Barack/Eddie needed to borrow some money from us; just until he was able to get his plan in motion.  We give Cousin Eddie the money and take Aunt Edna with us who dies along the way leaving it up to us to deal with her.  Then when we finally make it to Wally World all the rides and fun are closed!  We then blame the rich Roy Wally for all our problems along the way and forget how Cousin Barack/Eddie helped us into this mess.  We even punch a moose in the nose for all of our frustrations.  A moose named Marty should have been called Sarah.  Ultimately the evil rich Roy Wally drops the charges and opens up his park for some good old fashion family fun, no thanks to Cousin Barack/Eddie.

The next movie was European Vacation, Cousin Eddie was not in this movie but Cousin Barack could have been easily in this movie.  Let’s take a look at Cousin Barack’s European Vacation.  First, we bow to foreign heads of state creating several awkward moments; I could see Cousin Eddie bowing to a door man in London.  Then, Cousin Barack signs the wrong year on the guest book. gets his car stuck in Ireland and then completely screws up the toast to the queen.  Maybe if the writers of European Vacation had Cousin Obama the movie would have been a success. “Hey Kids Look Big Ben Parliament!”  Sorry, had to throw out the only line from the movie worth repeating.

Now just to go a bit out of order here, we’ll take Vegas Vacation next.  Cousin Eddie/Barack meets us in Vegas but then kills off business by telling corporate America to stay away.  Once again, the American people, (The Griswold’s) loose all our money in the Vegas economy and Cousin Eddie/Barack takes us to the not so well known casinos to play some strange games with little to no chance of getting our money back.  Sounds a lot like Cash for Clunkers and the Stimulus program. 

The last movie is Christmas Vacation.  The Griswolds (American People) have gone over the top with the decorations and why not Clark has worked very hard at his job inventing the crunch enhancer.  Suddenly, Cousin Eddie/Barack shows up in a goofy looking RV.  Cousin Eddie/Barack has nothing left “Gas money give out in Gurnee” and Cousin Eddie/Barack tells us not to fall in love with the beast of an RV because they are taking it with them when they leave there next month (2012).  This time we go along with Cousin Eddie/Barack and blame our rich boss for all our problems.  Cousin Eddie/Barack ties up the rich boss, brings him to our house while kicking him in the butt.  Once again we blame the rich guy but not Cousin Eddie/Barack for all our problems.  In the movie it all works out as Clark gets the money and not the membership to the jelly of the month club but in real life we would simply be fired and left with cousin Eddie/Barack.

I think the final and most appropriate comparison is the scene in Christmas Vacation where Cousin Eddie/Barack is standing in the street behind the RV yelling “Shitter’s full”.