Obama’s Ironic Emergency Stop

Barack Obama’s plane was forced to land in Saint Louis, Missouri, instead of Charlotte, North Carolina, as a precautionary measure on Monday, July 7th. The MD-80 Midwest charter transporting Obama’s team and journalists could not maintain it’s nose at an angle necessary for flying safely because of a safety slide that deployed during flight.

After landing, Barack Obama went to see the press at the back of the plane, joking, “I told myself that we were going to spice up the day a little.” The incident passed without danger. But although partisans said that they did not see any premonitions or signs in the incident, some of his opponents jumped at the opportunity, like Webutante: “The fact that Obama’s plane had to make an unscheduled landing because of control problems is one of these flagrant metaphors… Should we really believe that Obama will not be totally plagued by control problems if he is elected president?”

“No warning signs”

The incident was reminiscent of the deaths of Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, and Ron Brown, Secretary of Commerce under Clinton, both of whom died in airplane accidents. The two deceased men have been surrounded by conspiracy theories, and bloggers are using irony to describe the possible reasons for Barack Obama’s plane problems.

The assurance of perfect unity between the two principle Democratic presidential candidates is not convincing, because Hillary Clinton is the preferred guilty party. A blogger from the Huffington Post imagines a conversation in which the Senator innocently asks Howard Dean, head of the Democratic Party, about the party’s rules in the instance that a candidate cannot accept the nomination because of an airplane crash. Another account mentions being worked-up against those who accuse Mrs. Clinton of instigating the accident, before exclaiming that Hillary Clinton would have done a better job of handling the situation, and that “there would not have been an emergency landing.”

The accident also led to very right-wing news satires. The Wonkette blogger titled her post, “Obama Diverts His Own Plane and Forces it to Land,” ironically emphasizing that the plane landed in Missouri, a strategically important “Swing State.” Another commentator from the Huffington Post parodied the situation on televised news: “Even Obama’s pilots are flip-floppers.”