This is from Mark Knoller of CBS.
The pilots and crew of Air Force One are flying more hours than a rookie on a beer run. They are tired of it too, and are adding more crew to Air Force One. I know this for a fact because I'm one of the instructors who trains the crews. Our company (Atlas Air) has had the Air Force One and E-4 contract for over two years and I've been doing it for about eight months now.
Last year (2010), Obama flew in Air Force One 172 times, almost every other day. White House officials have been telling reporters in recent days that the Democrat doesn't intend to hang around the White House quite so much in 2011 (and he hasn't, so far).
They explain he wants to get out more around the country because, as everyone knows, that midterm election shellacking on Nov. 2 had nothing to do with his health care bill, over-spending or other policies, but everything to do with Obama's not adequately explaining himself to his countrymen and women. And with only 673 days remaining in Obama's never ending presidential campaign, the incumbents travel pace likely will not slacken.
At an Air Force-estimated cost of $181,757 per flight HOUR (not to mention the additional travel costs of Marine One, Secret Service, logistics and local police overtime), that's a lot of frequent flier dollars going into Obama's carbon footprint.
We are privy to some of these numbers thanks to CBS' Mark Knoller, a bearded national treasure trove of presidential stats. According to Knoller's copious notes, during the last year, Obama made 65 domestic trips over 104 days, and six trips to eight countries over 22 days. Not counting six vacation trips over 32 days.
He took 196 helicopter trips, signed 203 pieces of legislation and squeezed in 29 rounds of left-handed golf .
Obama last year gave 491 speeches, remarks or statements. That's more talking than goes on in some entire families, at least from fatherly mouths. In fact, even including the 24 days of 2010 that we never saw Obama in public, his speaking works out to about one official utterance every 11 waking hours. Aides indicate the "Real Good Talker" believes we need more.
Related : Obama spends nearly half his presidency outside Washington , plans to travel more.
Related : Vacationer-in-Chief spends $1.75 million to visit Hawaiian chums.
Obama has spent over $100 million taxpayer dollars flying around in Air Force One, and probably another $100 million on his entourage. He is just another tin-pot dictator living lavishly at the expense of his subjects.
