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commented on the blog post Obama Administration Cheers Defeat of Prop 19
Care to lose all your respect for the Obamas? How about a 2 billion dollar vacation?
Obama India Trip: 3,000 Personnel, 150 Journalists, The Obamas, The New American Royalty
Next time you book your flight on CheapTickets.com, shuffle through the security line at the airport, endure the full body scan then board the stuffy, cramped plane after an anxious wait for an on time flight, recall the President and First Lady Michelle on board Air Force One winging their way to India, the first stop on Obama’s upcoming ten day Asia trip. Obama’s entourage, 3,000 personnel including 200 of his own ‘people’. The President’s $200 million a day trip, funded by your taxpayer dime.
Obama’s upcoming ten day trip to Asia is seen in some quarters as a ‘test’ related Obama’s international leadership skills. We see it as another test, a test which, based on news reports, the President failed before he set foot on Air Force One. The test of the President and his administration in the midst of the worse recession since the Great Depression choose to take a grandiose, extravagant trip on the scale of ancient royalty. Whether the Obama’s believe they’ve been elected as the new American royalty?
Within a week of suffering the biggest midterm drubbing in generations, President Barack Obama will depart on a trip to India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. How the president handles this trip will speak volumes about how he sees his agenda for the next two years and how much of an international president he really is.
Obama’s planned trip is already ‘speaking volumes’ to Americans. The questions raised as to whether there is a Presidential disconnect between the reality of the millions of Americans who’ve lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Americans who have had to curb their budgets. The President, who can’t budget an overseas trip for less than $200 million per day.
Foreign Press:
‘The next test will be how the president handles ten days of hounding from the press about electoral defeats while he is in Asia. And the press will hound — no doubt about it.’
If Obama was worried about ‘ten days of hounding from the press’, then why are up to 150 journalists, according to an India newspaper The Hindu, part of the Obama entourage?
Six thousand Americans needed to help facilitate an Obama four day trip to India? One can only wonder at the number of ‘personnel’ needed to facilitate the six days Obama will visit Korea, Indonesia, and Japan?
More info on Obama’s trip to India from The Hindu:
Mr. Obama will be coming with three Boeing 747 jumbo jets and two others will be coming before him with equipment. An advance team of U.S. officials is set to arrive here on Wednesday. The U.S. is spending about $200 million a day towards Mr. Obama’s visit, the official said on Tuesday.
Forty aircraft – including the Air Force One military plane – and six heavily armoured cars will follow the president around the country.
The huge security operation comes days after a suspected bomb was found on a cargo plane at East Midlands Airport.
The entourage will be the biggest ever in terms of logistics and manpower for any US president.
The president himself will be ferried around in a black Cadillac – dubbed ‘Barack Mobile’ – which has its own built in communications centre – to enable Obama to be in touch with the White House, US vice president and the US strategic command.
