"Hey, Baby. Wanna take a ride on Obama One?"
I am not much of a green guy, so I wouldn't normally pay much attention to these things, but something popped into my head when the President released his birth certificate and complained that he had so many other important things to do.
Like flying around the country to speak at fundraisers and appear on Oprah.
Just this past week, Obama flew Air Force One out to Los Angeles-with all his retinue of Secret Service and all that jazz-to appear at Democratic fundraisers from Brentwood to Culver City. According to local talk-jocks, John and Ken, that trip alone used up 53,000 gallons of jet fuel (so I guess that's irrefutable.) As usual when Obama visits LA (to raise funds), the city's traffic is tied up into a snarl as whole areas are blocked by police until the fundraiser-in-chief has safely passed.
He also dropped into Chicago to chat sweet nothings with Oprah. I won't complain about yesterday's trip to the South.
Just think how much money the President could save us tax-payers by limiting his trips to the essential things and cutting out fund raisers on the West Coast and appearances with Oprah. And to say nothing about that carbon footprint. Air Force One wasn't built for fundraisers. Besides, he could have borrowed Al Gore's private jet.
When George W. Bush flew all over the country for Republican fundraisers, he also used up tons of jet fuel and took along the secret service retinue. Ditto for Bill Clinton, GHW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter... just change the party label depending on which year it was.
ReplyDeleteThere are two choice: impose constitutional or statutory limits on partisan campaigning by the President, any or all of them, forever, which might not be a bad idea. Or, accept that when the featured key note speaker is The President, the Secret Service retinue has to tag along.
Even if the president can't campaign, I think maybe its OK if he takes his wife out once in a while, whether her name is Laura or Michelle. I haven't complained about either one.