Right before Bush’s speech on the Abraham Lincoln, there were a lot of stories about how he had to take a jet because the carrier was too far out at sea for a helicopter landing, honest, it has nothing to do with the dramatic visuals.
Well, guess what:
ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN — President Bush didn’t have to make a dramatic tailhook landing on this aircraft carrier. He could have flown here on a helicopter as presidents normally would, the White House said Friday.
Officials also acknowledged positioning the massive ship to provide the best TV angle for Bush’s speech, with the vast sea as his background instead of the very visible San Diego coastline.
(Update) TAPPED notes:
Let’s get this straight. These men and women haven’t seen their families for ten months. They’re 30 miles from home. And Bush had them slow down the carrier so he could spend the night on board and generate some footage for his campaign ads?
Anyone who’s actually familiar with my work knows that I was not exactly a Clinton apologist. But can you imagine the uproar which would have ensued if Clinton had done this?
* * *
In a speech the next day at a defense plant in Silicon Valley, Bush said something to the effect that Saddam was evil because he let his people go hungry while he built huge luxurious palaces for himself. In America, I guess, we take the moral high road by letting people go hungry while we give the rich huge tax cuts so they can build luxurious mansions for themselves.