Here’s a story that seems to have slipped by the rest of the American media. It comes from the G-20 meetings in London a few weeks ago:
Obama arrived with 500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water.
And, according to the Evening Standard, he also came with “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters.” For sure, our president is not going to be at a loss for words.
The press duly reported on Air Force One and all its bells and whistles but also on the presence of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and a fleet of identical decoys to ferry him from Stansted airport to central London.
The article concluded with this note:
The president is entitled to all the security, communications and support he feels necessary to do his job but surely, when we’re trying to project a more restrained, humble image to the world, the president’s huge retinue could be scaled back to something less than the triumphal march from “Aida.”
Hey, Scripps, just exactly what are you trying to pull with that Aida reference? Aida is a Verdi opera that takes place in Egypt, which is in Africa. Was that some kind of birther comment?
Source: Scripps News
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
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"No matter which side of the political aisle you are on, if you love our country, you will see to it that this megalomaniac never attains a position of authority in our government again! "
Do you apply the same standard and principles to the last president, or is there a double standard? Were you outraged and indignant over the size of President Bush's entourages? Bush regularly traveled with an entourage 40% larger than that of Obama's. If megalomania is measured by the size of one's entourage, Bush has Obama beat by a large margin.
Bush’s entourage:
3 passenger jumbo jets.
2 jumbo jets carrying transportation
2 helicopters on the jumbo jets
2 motorcades of 20 armored cars each
700 people in total, 40% more than Obama’s 500
Doctors, nurses, Chef and cooks
Sniffer dogs
50 White House aides.
150 national security advisors
200 government specialists
Various other advisors
Various Friends
250 Secret Service agents
See below for a story about Bush's entourage of 700 strong in September 2007.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10461706
See below for a story about Bush's entourage of 700 strong in November 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/nov/19/uk.iraq
All of the above mail said it better than I ever could; let's just pray that there are enough American people who have his number to vote him out of office before we become an addition to his entourage. No matter which side of the political aisle you are on, if you love our country, you will see to it that this megalomaniac never attains a position of authority in our government again!
And this cost how much? While Americans can't pay their mortgages and feed their kids? Lovely. As a single Mom who raised 3 kids, I would have killed for ONE cook. How many do you need? And how insulting to the British hosts to bring your own food. They probably didn't care for chittlin's either, but were too polite to say so! This is just like GOre telling us all to radically reduce our carbon footprint, wwhilehis hme in Tennessee burned enough electricity for a small Town. Lemme at 'em, Lemme at "em.
PS ANd Americans are worried about how much the Queen costs British tax payers? Hellooooo!
Editor, nice catch on the Aida/Egypt/birther angle. ;-)
However, it could also just be a comparison with the Half-Cracker™ Presidents "staged performance", both being just pompous razzle-dazzle with no substance. ( but if I had to choose I'd go to see Aida. )
While the story is true, and the wretched excesses still continue (a separate vacation jet for the white house pet and presidential boy-toy last weekend), the G-20 was held in London in April 2009 - a bit too long ago for fresh outrage.
If you were Bo the dog, would you want to travel with that pain in the a$$ family? I don't blame the dog for anything, he the only trustworthy member of the family.
Headline: "King of the Road: British shocked at size of Obama’s entourage"
They shouldn't be. It takes a lot of vehicles to haul that much manure.
Could you post the link? I couldn't find this article.
This is the same man who's telling the American people that the people have to tighten their belts while he blows US taxpayer dollars faster than a rich dude with a bad coke habit. Un-bloody-believable.
Mistella, you hit on the head with the "George Jefferson" comment. Obama's filthy rich now, and it's all on the US taxpayers' nickel. The idiots that voted for him elected a power-mad narcissistic Marxist. He's just getting started.
By the way, Obama and family throw a lavish party at the White House almost every Wednesday. The average liquor bill: $300,000 a month.
The doctors are necessary too-they are probably neurologists, checking hourly to see if the last of his, his wife's, and his staffs' brain cells have perished from loneliness. Furthermore, the heavy security is because most of his friends are "former" terrorists-so at any time, they can strike.....think kennedy and his close association with Sam Giancana, and other nefarious mafia figures!
As irreleivent as many of those in his entourage are, he needs them. Since he can barely find his ass with both hands & can barely speak without his telepromter, he NEEDS these people. Just send us the bill.
It is amazing that it is necessary for all of these people to attempt at making him look good yet obviously (unless we are talking Kool Aid drinkers) it is a huge fail.