Barak Obama's Campaign Plane

This is an email I received regarding the renovation of Obama's plane between the primary ending and the beginning of the general campaign. There is a link in the email to snopes verifying the renovation.

I know there are people out there smart enough to create email that looks like authentic corporate emails from banks and such, but in reality are phishing links. So, being the sceptical person I (usually) am, I used my bookmarked link to snopes and entered the phrase "obama campaign plane" which took me to the same page. So, I verified the link in the email as well as the email itself. I know that some people consider snopes to be a more liberal leaning site. I don't believe that's true and I haven't found it to be so in my own wanderings around the site. But, that's just my opinion.

As the email had no text other than a suggestion to visit the pertinent snopes page, and snopes doesn't allow copying of it's site, I can't offer anything but the link itself and some photos I found on other sites.

and the original paint job

I remember an episode of M*A*S*H where the issue of (the character) Dr Sidney Freedman not signing his officer's loyalty oath came up. Sidney commented that isn't that the first thing a communist would do is sign the oath to infiltrate the mainstream? The wearing of a lapel pin strikes me somehow as a similar thing. Wouldn't someone bent on doing America harm use, say, or do whatever they found necessary in order to show their "loyalty" to infiltrate the system? I don't believe that the wearing of a lapel pin automatically guarantees that the wearer is a "loyal" American any more than not wearing indicates the person is not.

So, while Obama not wearing a pin bothers me a little, it's not something I am overly concerned about. I will admit that removing the flag from his campaign plane bothers me. I don't think it's the removal of the flag so much as the replacement of the flag with Obama's logo. This is the plane he used on his recent Grand Tour. He was representing the United States, and if he had used a regular commercial plane, I probably wouldn't think twice about the flag not being there.

But, this was his campaign plane which was repainted specifically for the general campaign. And he was campaigning even on his Grand Tour. Yes, even in Europe and in the Mid-East, he was campaigning. But, Europe and the Mid-East don't vote in our elections, you say.

You see, being a politician, and a especially being a candidate for an office such as the President of the United States is a twenty-four hour a day job. No matter what he is doing, he is Mr. Candidate, Mr. Presumptive Democratic Party Candidate, and whatever he is doing is subject to being scrutinized as such. There are ex-pats living in these countries who still vote, and let's not forget the military and their families stationed overseas who vote.

In campaigning overseas, he is presenting himself as presidential material. Some would say that he presented himself already as the President and that the election is a mere formality. I'm not getting into that now. His Grand Tour was to introduce him to the citizens of and, more specifically, to the leaders of foreign nations who will be presumably working with him if he is elected.

So this was a campaign tour, and being so I think he should be proud enough of his country to prominently display the flag somewhere on his plane. I see nothing wrong with a new paint job that represents his campaign. I just wonder about the reasoning behind the removal the flag.

It hasn't been widely reported, at least not so as to make it the sensation that not wearing a flag lapel pin caused. Perhaps that's why it hasn't became the national debate ala the lapel pin.