From CBSNews.com, "O-Force One" by Allison O'Keefe
This story will really help Obama with all of those arrogant/presumptuous storylines that have burgeoned in recent days. Apparently, He has spent his bountiful campaign funds (donated in dribs and drabs by poor people!) on a campaign plane worthy of an airborne Sun King:
Barack Obama's new campaign plane is nothing short of grand. Well, for the candidate that is.
Obama's section of the plane rivals that of any first class. Recently the front cabin of the Boeing 757 was retrofitted to install four individual chairs that resemble La-Z-Boys. They are free-standing and made of plush leather with pockets on the sides. There is also a booth which seats four for a meeting or a meal.
His chair has his name and campaign logo embroidered on the back top -- "Obama ‘08" on one line and "President" underneath. To one side is a small table stacked with newspapers ready for the candidate's arrival. The table of the booth is always covered in snacks and cheese and is where Obama spends most of his time during flights meeting with staff and sitting for the occasional interview.
"Typically the candidate's cabin is like business class -- roomier and less chaotic than the staff and press areas, but still short of the accoutrements of a pro team's charter," says Politico's Mike Allen, a frequent campaign flier.
After looking at a few photos of Obama's cabin, Allen quipped, "Air Force One may seem a tad claustrophobic."
I can already hear Obama defenders argue that we shouldn't be wasting time on such distractions, and that instead we should be training our intellectual energy on substantive issues like trying to figure out what Obama's position on off-shore drilling happens to be today. But Obama's plane is part of a pattern that reflects on his character, and since when has a candidate's character been a distraction? That whole line of argument is a little rich coming from the same people who tried to run against George W. Bush's decades-old drunk driving conviction and his even older record in the Texas Air National Guard.
When I asked since when has character been off limits, I was asking rhetorically, but there happens to be an answer. Democrats don't want to talk about character in a year in which John McCain is the Republican nominee. It's not so much that McCain's character is unassailable - Democrats are welcome to assail it all they want. But McCain happens to have a powerful answer to any character questions, an answer so powerful that his opponents would rather not discuss his character at all.
But just because Democrats don't want to discuss McCain's character doesn't mean that the character of the inexperienced newcomer they're handing their nomination to is off limits. Nor should it be.
