Obama's Armored Bus: A Good Campaign Idea?

From what we on the outside can tell from a respectable distance, it is definitely a monster: The bus, used by Barack Obama on his three-day tour from Minnesota to Illinois which was launched on Monday, is a completely black vessel with bulletproof windows and walls, and red and blue blinkers indicating the importance of its passenger. Even though the president took to the road to get closer to the people, each of his buses (there are two of them) cost the Secret Service — which ordered them to ensure the president’s maximum security — $1.1 million. As the Secret Service is already claiming, the buses can serve not only the president, but also his Republican rival in the 2012 presidential campaign, if that person so desires.

At each step of this three-day journey, the Obamamobile — as well as the procession of armored limousines carrying the president’s bodyguards — has been parked far from curious people and even the White House press corps. “It is the Secret Service that wants it this way. The decision wasn’t ours,” explained White House spokespeople.* These days, even while he is on the road in the heart of America, the president must not only be safe but also able to communicate with the world in the most direct and efficient ways. This black monster allows that. One can only wish Obama well, given the White House’s difficulty in establishing an Internet connection at the press center in Decorah or in the two press buses following the presidential motorcade (the buses were equipped with Wi-Fi that works only intermittently).

Obviously, this armored bus, costing more than $1 million, has already got a lot of people talking. Obama is “using tax payer dollars to spin his failure to put America back to work,” jabbed the chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, on Monday. Rush Limbaugh, a talk radio star, suggested a bumper sticker for the Obama bus: “We shall overspend.”

*This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.