National Review Online
Is it worth it? Obama is spending time and money to vie for the Olympics
A reader adds a few points to my back-of-the-envelope math on the cost of President Obama’s trip to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee and (probably?) witness the announcement that Chicago will host the 2016 games.
The cost of Obama’s trip will not be close to $1 mil. It is well over $10 mil if it is a dime. The figures you quoted (accurately) are for flying a VC-25 (Presidential 747). Presidential trips require both 747s,as one is a backup. However,the costs soar when you realize that from the moment a POTUS indicates he wants to go somewhere,dozens,if not hundreds of people start preparing every detail. These details include security,communications,protocol,logistics that boggle the mind and transportation that most people never see. Several Air Force cargo planes of equipment are loaded and flown to the destination with armored limos,security personnel from the Secret Service and the relevant military branches,fuels specialists,etc. A National Airborne Operations Command Post 747 from Offutt AFB,NE will accompany him to keep POTUS in constant communications in case of national or word emergency.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Expose Obama. Expose Obama said:New blog post:The Cost of Obama's Copenhagen Trip http://bit.ly/391nqR [...]
Exactly! How many military grey tails support the movement of AF 1? A C-17 for example costs somewhere around 30,000 per hour with fuel,crew and maintenance.
The real cost to the Nation in lost prestige worldwide is immeasurable. The President of the United States demonstrated he is a poor saleman and negotiator. He talked about himself,not the benefits of the selection of Chicago as a location for the games as even a novice salesman would have done.
If he can't pull this off how do we expect him to be effective in nuclear arms negotiations,ending wars in the middle east,or stopping the Iranians from building atomic weapons with the nuclear material they told us they weren't producing. Oops! they lied! The big O (Obama) will just talk to them nice like he did the Olympic committee and get the same result —a big 0 (Zero) nada zip. While the world waits for Iran to sling a nuke to usher in the 12th Imam.