Obama's Buses Ordered Last Year. Why?

Glenn Reynolds and Ed Morrissey are writing about the completely out-of-touch optics coming forth from a White House, that — despite the president’s much vaunted, 3-day “listening” tour of the heartland — appears to be staffed with aliens from another galaxy, who really don’t understand why these earthlings aren’t loving their shtick.

Reynold’s notes that Matt Drudge is having enormous fun with these spaceman optics, where text and visuals make the messages clear to all but the president:

That was this morning. Now, if you check Drudge, he’s featuring this picture, which I actually love, because it’s colorful, the kids are adorable, and the president looks relaxed and happy:

But the headlines blaring all around the picture? Black Caucus Tired of Making Excuses for Obama and Waters slams Bus Tour; “he’s not in any black community”.

You read the headlines, you look at the picture and eventually you realize, “oh yeah…those kids are all white.” Not a helpful juxtaposition of word and image, for the president.

Of course, it’s not Drudge’s job to be helpful, but that stuff — plus multiple links about the luxury buses Obama (okay, we taxpayers) bought from Canada, bad housing news (about which he may not be so broken up) and the president’s apparent dismissal of concerns expressed by those to whom he is supposed to be “listening” — taken all-in-all, it’s a very bad day for the White House; a punch to the solar plexus delivered repeatedly by one hugely-read internet page.

But my question is about those buses.

As Seinfeld might say, “what is the story with these buses” which “the Secret Service Ordered last summer” and were delivered two months ago?

Why? Who asked them to order these buses?

I mean, were these buses always meant to be a taxpayer-funded mode of transport for Candidate Obama? Because that’s sort of what it seems like. Presidents don’t generally do the whistle-stop campaign thing on the public dime, and up to now, no president has needed a bus for official business.

Could the president have imagined he’d be in terrible trouble, poll-wise and debt-wise by now, and in need of a bus to take him into America’s “heartland” for a bit of damage-control? No, that’s just dumb.

Nothing about Obama and the Missus has suggested that they would have been planning a summer vacation spent “seeing the USA in their Chevrolet”, so to speak. Or, even in their Canada-built Luxury Bus.

So, I guess the buses were bought for Candidate Obama’s campaigning stops. And clearly, that’s what they were used for these past three days. Breaking-in the buses, for the Big Push.

As one of the purchasers of the bus, I hope he found it comfy. He would have done better, I think, actually taking his wife and daughters on a real sight-seeing trip through America.

To be fair, I understand how unfeasible such a trip would actually be. A president showing his daughters America — from Falling Waters to Mount Rushmore, with a pass through Wall Drug — would have been a headache to secure. And in the end, it might have seemed hokey and fake — certainly it would not be as exclusive, tony and deluxe as ten days on Martha’s Vineyard hanging with the ultra-rich.

But the optics would have been so much more helpful, and not just to Obama. The visuals might be enormously helpful for those wondering whether this president — who seems to spin within his own lonely, distant planet — even likes us very much.

Some tape of Barack and Michelle Obama, showing Sasha and Malia the evidence of America’s imaginative, innovative can-do days of yore, and then getting on their bus to . . . pass through town after town of closed factories, empty warehouses and shuttered businesses.

Alright, maybe those visuals wouldn’t help anyone, after all.