The cost of the Obamalympic$ folly

(Photoshop: Reader Ben)
I’d say the cost projection of the failed Obamalympics crony-fest from the Associated Press is vastly underestimated:
President Barack Obama’s failed bid to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago cost more than a bruised ego.
Taxpayers shelled out probably $1 million or more for the president, his wife and others to fly to Copenhagen and back to woo members of the International Olympic Committee.
A 2006 congressional study pegged the cost of flying Air Force One at $56,518 an hour. The Pentagon recently said it cost $100,219 an hour to fly the huge, reconfigured Boeing 747 without Obama aboard. The Pentagon estimate included more costs for support needs, such as maintenance.
At those rates, the president’s 14-hour trip to Copenhagen and back cost about $790,000 to $1.4 million.
Remember the First Lady flew separately to Copenhagen — adding another estimated $395,000 to $700,000 in flight and maintenance costs alone — before joining her husband on Air Force One for the losers’ flight home.
And remember: Federally-funded Cabinet members on the Chicago Olympics entourage included White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Then there’s the Air Force One back-up plane, security, and overseas transport of the Obama’s armored presidential limousines.
“Sacrifice” for thee, but not for He and She.
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Categories: Olympics
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We do that in this country–spend millions flying Important People to places of little interest and importance to their jobs or the country. Our Imperial Presidency predates Obama by generations, sadly.
The Chicago Olympics were a scam and the Obamas are used to living on the public’s dime–but anyone paying attention knew that coming in. He and She are self entitled.
Finally someone has told the Obamessiah “NO”. He and the first lady are the most self-centered people I’ve ever seen. Anytime you hear one of them say “It’s not about me”, it usually is. Now maybe he’ll get thumped on Obamacare as well.
Don’t forget about all the evil CO2
CO2 is only evil when caused by jobs, production and living independent lives. Politicos, media mavens and the glitterati cause Good CO2.
People Who Need People only cause hot air.
(Barbra Streisand’s various homes in New York City, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Vail, Sun Valley and Ireland and the private jet to get her there)
How could they deny Chicago the 2016 Olympic Games?!? They’re racists I tell you! Hood wearing Klansmen!
Sorry, I’ve got to quit channeling moonbats.
If you diagree with Obama and his wife, then you are a RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSTT!!!!
(grin)
When you get into hidden costs like the diminished prestige of the office of POTUS is when things really start to add up.
I’m surprised that it wasn’t a done deal before he got there. But then, this is the guy who’s ceded an entrenched US policy on iranian nukes and offered unconditional negotiations with them while they continue to provide munitions to those who use them against US military personnel he serves as commander in chief over.
Don’t think this is occurring in a vacuum. When other nations look for strategic and trading partners, how many will turn to the USA when they see the way we treat our allies, our military, and our leader doesn’t care about anything other than the approbation of crowds to his teleprompted speeches.
Yep, the costs the Obamas are inflicting on this country’s stature as the leader of the free world are inestimable. Let’s pray we can mitigate the damage by throwing his Dem comrades out of Congress in 2010, before he does irreparable harm.
I feel stimulated…How ’bout you?
Yes indeed pray, work for throwing the bums out. And along with that prepare in case the Democrats decide not to go–some “man made emergency” forces Obama to declare martial law.The people voted for him once, that should suffice to make the man President for Life. He can’t be President for Life if he loses his comrades in Congress.
He can not serve both Allah and Marx well if retired to Chicago, Kenya or Hawaii. Now if Air Force One would take him away permanently-along with the Czars- I would gladly contribute to the cost.
Thanks, Michelle…I was wondering what this great sacrifice cost the taxpayer.
How much do we have to pay for each piece of luggage or is it free on that airline?
The guy doesn’t have to walk around in a cardigan sweater, but fer Christ’s sake, he’s been all over the place since his immaculation. It can’t be cheap to have him as President. You can rest assured his little anniversary jaunt cost boat loads more than $38.00 bucks a plate, too. Have they even spent a night in the White House lately?
Do you mean Valerie Jarrett, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood or are you talking about Samsonite and such?
It was worth every penny and more to have Obama snubbed on a global stage.
This embarrassment may yet save our country untold lives and treasure, as it was a fairly inexpensive lesson to our Prom King of the limits of his power.
Since Michelle et. al flew back on Air Force One, do those cost estimates also include flying all those empty planes back to the U.S. ??? … I am sure we didn’t leave them in Copenhagen …
If it was a conservative president, the MSM would be instigating riots in the streets. But, then again, a conservative president wouldn’t have gone. There’s too much going on in the world and this country to bother with politics of Olympics.
Can’t we offset these costs by just planting a few trees somewhere?
Obama must have been very disappointed to learn that politics is not an Olympic sport, and that he would not be given a gold medal just for showing up and delivering a speech.
Worth every penny, IMHO, to see them get kicked to the curb.
I did a little research on the cost of presidential travel a while back. An exact cost is slippery as much of the info is classified. But the estimates cited already include the second VC25A (designation of the second 747 without the president aboard), as well as at least two C5A transports for motorcade vehicles, Secret Service vehicles, and related backup staff and equipment.
Re: congressional cost estimate, as usual, multiply by a factor of at least 2 or 3 for the actual cost.
It’s Bush’s fault all that money was spent in vain. Nobody in the whole wide world loves us. Boo Hoo!
Reminds me of a song my mother used to tease us with when we pouted.
Nobody loves me,
Everybody hates me,
I’m goin’ out and eat worms.
Big fat juicy ones,
Little bitty skinny ones,
I’m goin’ out and eat worms.
I totally agree!
This guy’s priorities are all mixed up.He stumbles around on an agenda of no importance to the American public. Number one we don’t need Obama and number two we can’t afford him. Why are there no congressional hearing on all the lies this clown has told and is telling now? When Bush was in office they were having hearing every week.
That’s a rhetorical question, right?
Poor Valerie won’t be making billions now for the Olympic Village what a shame!
Yet it was worth every penny to see BO coming home empty-handed after he expected to ride in and save the day with his “brilliant” oratelepromptery.
At least he’s not parading around on a golden throne carried on the shoulders of a bunch of Minnesota Somalians!
Shaka:Tell me – How do you catch a monkey?
Lt. Francis Farewell: Well, a gourd is used… with a narrow neck. Bait is dropped into the gourd: a piece of fruit, or – or something shiny. The monkey puts his hand into the gourd to get the bait, and then he’s trapped… because he can’t get his fist out.
Shaka: Once he realizes he’s trapped, why doesn’t the monkey let go of the bait?
Lt. Francis Farewell: Because his greed makes him blind.
Shaka: And what is he greedy for?
Lt. Francis Farewell: What he thinks he cannot have.
Because it would open up a Pandora’s Box of corruption hearings. Besides, no-one could be on the hearings; they themselves, would be under investigation. Let’s face it. Obama could go out and rob a bank down the street and, somehow, someway, the MSM and congress would have some sort of spin, forgiving him…probably blaming Bush.
And don’t forget rule number one–we never investigate Dumbo-crats.
Likely a variation on a not unfamiliar theme:
As Edwin Edwards, past
democratsocialist governor of Louisiana, had said:“The only way I can lose is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/edwin_edwards.html
With the Republican Revolution and Contract With America it was decided to try and include the Democrats and be nice to the sobs. And the whole damn time the sobs lied and whined “they were locked out”. A mistake I hope is not repeated IF the Democrats ever lose and will give up either House. Payback can be a good thing.
Elimination of Congressional Pensions and retirement perks would be a good start. Let the lads pay fair market for things such as medical insurance.While in DC they could take the Metro instead of a limousine.
Probably more like $5 million. There was probably a lot more involved in their little self-indulgent plea than just those flights.
I know exactly why we didn’t get the Olympics in Chicago. I watched Michelle O give her speech…live. It was the dress!! Yes, it was. The committee members were snickering during the Chicago vote while they should have been voting. She looked like a pregnant canary with a huge butt. Seriously, the designer of that dress must have thought he was designing it for Twiggy. Does she ever check herself in the mirror? I know this sounds “catty”, but you have to see her walk away and how the dress hugs her bottom to know what I mean. From the front it’s not so bad. So, that is why Chicago lost. I am sure of it!!
Leave us not forget how many tons of carbon the Olympic dream team spewed into the atmosphere of our “emperiled planet” on their failed quest for Chicagoan gold?
Let’s see. A loaded 747 burns about 12 tons of fuel per hour, times 2 aircraft times 14 hours round trip: 336 tons
A C5A burns +/- 20 tons/hr, times 2 aircraft times 14 hours: 560 tons
FLOTUS flew seperately in a 757 – conservatively 250 tons.
Conservatively 1100 tons of carbon. Hmmm. A not so green dream team. How’s that turning back the “rising ocean” going Barry?
Made me happy scrapper
All this gallivanting around the globe is SOP with these ruling-class snobs. Country, what country? We’re too busy being worshipped! Their fans won’t object and they sure as hell ain’t gonna change their ways because of those of us who do. They HAVE to be voted out.
Just out. Obama admin just announced another stimulus bill but don’t call it a stimulus bill.
Looks like another job for Secretary Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Euphemisms.
You do know this is all Bush’s fault cause no one liked us when he was President.
* I saw it on the news this morning
*
this is the democrat party! we spend your money on our pet projects with wild abandon, and we always have our families fingers in the resultant pie. it doesn’t matter if it’s local gubmint, state gubmint or federal, the corruption and the entitlement attitude are always the same.
Even those in my family who HATED Bush are now rolling their eyes at the constant, tired old “blame-Bush” routine. I hope the Dems keep that up. It’s a losing strategy, with the failed Olympic bid being a precursor…..
I’m with those who have the opinion the expense was worth every cent. The more Obama shoots himself in the foot, the better for we conservatives. Keeping us out of the loop and he STILL ends up with egg on his face, that is priceless!
Off topic, but…
I just read on CNN that McCain’s people are putting down Sarah Palin again. WHY WON’T MCCAIN GO AWAY??? Damn RINO!
“The buck stops here and here is where Bush did all of those things that are to blame for everything.”
I wonder if her two ‘carry-ons’ fit into the requisite space?
You really can’t be this stupid.
Having someone in the WH, who is honest and conservative would be catastrophic for either party today. It doesn’t have to be Palin; anyone who “fits the bill”.
For the cost of just one flight to Copenhagen in a failed attempt to regain his mojo, Obama could have funded the WWII Alaskan vets that he cut off last week (see http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/76088.html ).
The man is stuck on stupid.
I hope Oprah paid to haul her lard butt over there.
I have little trouble believing that McCain would have been catastrophic for the GOP.
Steve Schmidt is not an idle GOP has-been. He was the chief advisor to McCain and Schwartzenegger and continues to be a hack-for-hire to the McCain-led GOP. That is why it so dumb to abandon conservative principles to hold your noses yet again just because of Obama hatred. We blocked the socialist programs when THIS Republican party was in power and we are doing an even better job now that their friends across the aisle are in power.
We have to deal with the GOP post-partisan problem before we can even hope to gain anything by voting for Republicans.
Bring the planes back. Leave the idiots there.
Wait till they get the carbon credits invoice from Al Gore.
“probably” “about” “a million”.
as if it wouldn’t be down to the penny if it were bush & cheney!
translation: north of $10 million.
The costs our erstwhile Hamlet is exacting on the American taxpayer, is greater than a tangible dollar figure. After years of denegrating the GW Bush administration for their handling of the Nation’s World Image, the Joker from the Windy City, showed all the character flaws he previously blamed on Americans passed…
Arrogance
Greed
Waste
Carbon Ignorance
Acting in Self-interest
Turning a blind eye to the needs of other countries
News from the Danish press pretty well sums up the IOC’s reaction to the aura of Adonis…his arrogance was rather off-putting, and they resented the fact that HE thought his mere presence could sway the vote.
In the “hood,” Obama could be viewed as a “Buster” or a “poser.” In the realm of mental health, many in that community could make the case that he suffers from “Delusions of Grandeur“, and Narcissistic Disorder.
In the old South, they would simply consider him,
(as my late grandmother would say,) as “Touched in the head.”
I know he is our president, but I wonder what it’s going to take to get Congress to wake up to the real threat his poses to this country?
He has proven. more than adequately. that he is no money manager. Quite the contrary.
He has shown true unpatriotic feelings about America, time and again.
He has surrounded himself with equally incompetent mobsters who have no compulsion to do the right thing.
Now, he fiddles while our troops, needing assistance, are picked off, one by one, by Islamic mobsters whose mentality and lifestyles remain prehistoric. What’s next?
The million bucks or so was well-spent if it brings the Obamas massive egos down a notch. And think of how much further Chicago would go into debt if they actually got the Olympics! Just ask Montreal – they’re still paying the debts on the 1976 Olympiad.
That puts it into perspective like nothing else can! Someone needs to get this out there. I will be sending the comment to my address list!
Better 2 mil in the toilet than 2 billion in the wallets of Chicago corruptocrats.
I’d like to see the entire tab since he stepped foot in the white house for all of his and MO’s trips around the country and overseas on his apology tours….that should be a huge whopper of a bill…
Michele anyway to tabulate all that info??
I really couldn’t believe it when I saw that they were blaming this on Bush… It is incredible. My coffee’s cold… Bush’s fault… FLOTUS’ dress is ugly… Bush’s fault… POTUS is half white… Bush’s fault… (God forbid)
***
We shouldn’t be complaining about the $1 million cost every time we send The Messiah out of the country.
***
I wish we could send President Obama (PBUH)on a 24/7/365 permanent vacation at a million a day cost–a total of about $365 million a year. This would be a hell of a lot cheaper than having him in Washington signing the $1000 billion health care bill we will paying for soon. And don’t forget to include C(R)AP AND TAX, “greenie” energy policy costs, higher tax and unemployment costs, loss of National Security, etc.
***
SEND HIM!
***
John Bibb
***
Let ACORN pay the bill.
Fixed it…
Would you people please stop talking about her skirt?
Some Dems like to pretend that Obama is like JFK.
Hardly.
When JFK failed at something (like the Bay of Pigs), he took ownership of it:
If Chicago had been chosen for the 2016 Olympics, Obama would have taken the credit.
But who gets the blame after Barack and Obama gave extremely self-centered speeches and Chicago lost their bid?
Did Obama act like JFK, and take ownership of his failure?
No, he let his lackeys blame Bush!
from the heads we’ve seen so far, Sarah is the only one, my money says in 3.5 years she’ll still be the 1. She’s the only one with true Republican ideals, “true” referring back to the days of Lincoln’s Republican Party.
Congress and the Obamas spend money as if they didn’t realize that it doesn’t grow on trees.
Even having Palin presiding over Senate debates, as President of the Senate, would have been catastrophic for the socialists in both parties.
I wrote a post yesterday entitled President of the Senate that shows how the Senate’s own web site admits:
Palin understands the role of VPOTUS is more than just ceremonial. And she would have exercised her rights and responsibilities as President of the Senate. That is why the liberal media attacked her on that very issue.
I am sure that someone here can correct me if I am wrong…
But wasn’t the trip to Copenhagen unofficial? Then Obama would have to pay for the trip. Meeting with McChrystal for that 25 minutes turned it into official business and the burden falls upon us taxpayers?