Originally Posted by Gaza
Watching the endless coverage of the US elections over the last few weeks, I noticed that Dubbya is flying to his campaign meetings in Air Force One. Kerry, on the other hand, seems to be flying around in an old DC9. I am no expert in US politics but it would seem to be a gross abuse of taxpayers money for Dubbya to be using Government resources for political purposes. Do the Republicans have to contribute to the cost of using AF1? If not, does the US Government pay Kerry's bills?
There would be a huge stink if TB flew around the UK on the Queens Flight purely for election campaigning.
In theory, the Bush Campaign is supposed to reimburse the government for costs of AF1 related to campaigning. However, as it is virtually impossible to parse out the costs that are for President Bush vs. Candidate Bush, there are wild and -- hotly disputed -- estimates as to how well this system works.
No doubt, AF1 projects power and is an important perk. One of the many reasons it is hard to unseat a sitting president.
No matter which way he is sitting...picture W in the "brace" position, looking perpetually up his own @$$.
Cheers,
scibard
P.S. The British taxpayers should also know that, in addition to the two 747s, the U.S. found it necessary to maintain at least one -- perhaps two -- smaller versions (I'm not sure which type) for shorter field landings.