COMMENTARY | Presidential candidate Congressman Michele Bachmann spent some time in South Carolina in the hours preceding Hurricane Irene’s landfall at Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Governor Nikki Haley asked Ms. Bachmann about how she would create jobs if she were to be elected President of the United States.
The first response, after thanking Governor Haley for asking the question, was to tell the Governor that she would take her phone call, making light of the fact that apparently Nikki the Cheerleader… sorry, governor, doesn’t currently have the clout to get through to President Obama by simply dialing in.
Not so if Michele Bachmann gets the top spot. “As President of the United States, first of all, I would take your phone call. As a matter of fact, we’d probably bring Air Force One down, or maybe we’d just go on Greyhound, we don’t need to [take a jet].”
Really, Michele? Did you really just say that?
Being the governor of South Carolina, or any state, for that matter, doesn’t give you a direct line to call the president whenever you like. Make an appointment, like everyone else, please. He is, after all, a fairly busy guy.
And if Michele Bachmann believes that she will have time to jump in a plane (on a bus, rather) to personally address the problems the state leaders are facing, she might want to revisit her day planner for a refresher course on the number of hours in a day, or days in a week. Or perhaps she is making an exception for this particular governor, Nikki Haley, and plans to cancel her nail appointment or bikini waxing to make extra time.
Finally, she amended her comment on the fly to move from wasteful practices like having a huge jet for the President’s use to the more frugal (read: common) travel arrangements of a Greyhound bus. Now, I have nothing against traveling by bus. This is a viable means for long distance travel on a budget. But are they really secure enough to transport a traveling President of the United States? Can you see the Secret Service getting to the station a few days ahead of time to make sure that the only people sleeping with their backs against the tiled walls are bona-fide homeless or your basic weary traveler? And the driver? How many weeks would the background check take? What about other passengers? Is there a chance that even one of the people traveling from Washington, D.C. to North Charleston, South Carolina might, in fact, be a little miffed with Ms. Bachmann because he is out of work, or his dog died, or his wife left him for another woman? Any or all of these problems can be blamed upon the President of the United States, right? After all, every problem we’re facing as a nation right now, according to Michele Bachmann, is President Obama’s fault.
Ms. Bachmann made her off-the-cuff comment as a way of showing excess spending and wastefulness in Washington. I will admit that there is plenty of that to go around, however, the expenses surrounding Air Force One are not wasteful, nor are they excessive. They exist to protect the President, and as September 11, 2001 showed, to protect our working government in times of crisis. I can only hope that Ms. Bachmann is not required to be on board Air Force One the next time she is needed to secure the working government of a burning nation 30 thousand feet below her.
Sources:
Michele Bachman Weekly Update, Michele Bachmann official website subscription
Michele Bachmann with Gov. Nikki Haley in North Charleston, South Carolina, You Tube as uploaded by Governor Nikki Haley
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