You may have read about Barack and Joe's trip with the presidential motorcade to get a burger today. If you've never seen such a motorcade here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday during my walk to work when the president zoomed by:
Essentially what occurs is that the streets the president travels on are cleared of all traffic. In this instance every road leading to 18th St. was obstructed by a police car. You'll note that in the top picture you can see 3 police cars. There were many more such cars along 18th St as well as along U St where the motorcade turned on to.
The motorcade itself is comprised of a police motorcycle vanguard followed by a mix of limousines and SUVs with an ambulance trailing in the rear. Here is a video clip I took that was cut short due to an overflowing memory card:
I count 11 vehicles total not including the motorcycles. All this for a $7 burger. They could have just walked to Five Guys -- lower carbon footprint too!
Update: CBS News makes an obvious point that I missed -- they could have just stayed in:
The president’s schedule today showed he was to have lunch at 12:30PM with Vice President Biden in the Oval Office. There’s pretty much nothing they couldn’t order from the staff of White House chefs.But I guess that would deprive them of a PR opportunity.
Update: The Washington Post weighs in:
Mission accomplished.The lunch date lasted 34 minutes and by the time Obama and Biden stepped back into their motorcade, after posing for cellphone pictures with the restaurant's staff, dozens of people had gathered outside the restaurant to cheer. The outing was broadcast on national television. And as a public relations move, it appeared to be a success:
Bonnie Cosby, 51, a technology consultant who picked up burgers on her way home from work, opined: "It shows that he's in touch with the people, that he's not up in the ivory tower. He's a real person -- with a burger."
1 comment:
Two things:
1. I've noticed that for such a "green" President, and one who wants to cause our energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket" - he sure burns a lot of needless energy by hoppong on AF1 to fly the family back to Chi-Town for dinner, and then taking a whole motorcade to a burger joint. Let's not forget about the 350K AF1flyover of New York - oh, but he didn't know about that, did he? I believe he also had the White House thermostat set at 72 degrees all winter. Wish we could afford to do that.
2. It's no secret that I think Obama is a lousy, irresponsible President who is putting America under a load of needless debt. However, I don't think I like Obama AND Biden going "out" for a photo op (and a burger) to show how close he is to the "common folk" at the risk of making Nancy Pelosi the next President. Is there any way that Americans, as his collective "boss" can tell him and Joey to keep their butts inside and stay away from the windows? Is it too much to ask?
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