Not so magical bus

As I understand it, the President cannot use government resources as a campaign tool. There's some leeway because of his unique status and the need for security. Because of that the President gets away with using Air Force 1 to make what are clearly campaign speeches all over the county.

Personally I believe there should be a Travel Reimbursement Committee that determines the percentage of any given trip that's job related and the percentage that's political. The President, or his party would be required to repay the taxpayers for the political portion. The cost of the committee would be low in comparison to the amount recovered for the taxpayers

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Flashing lights, sirens, dozens of vehicles, black buses, black armored SUV's an assault vehicle and and ambulance..  I doesn't really convey a friendly message, in fact it looks ominous, ( Didn't Stalin use black buses when he rounded up dissidents?)  It also looks expensive, and it is. Starting with over two million for the buses, the travel and lodging and meal expenses for the president, his staff, and the Secret Service.. add the costs of the dozens of escort police.. and the ones lining the road. it's a lot of money

As far as I know, Harry Truman was the last president to do a whistle stop campaign tour. His was by train.(Obama is clearly trying to imitate him).  We know who is paying the bill for Obama's little excursion.  I don't know who picked up the tab for Truman's trip. pretty sure it wasn't the taxpayers.  Harry Truman was an ethical politician ....

While the "Chosen One" is billing this a chance for him to get to know the peasants and strongly denying this is a campaign trip (to avoid paying for it) the media seems to think otherwise, look at the headlines..

I wonder how many taxpaying Americans think we should be paying the bill?