There are fewer people who want to fly around with Joe Biden than want to go for a drive with Ted Kennedy or hunting with Dick Cheney.
Biden’s flying around the country in an empty plane, wasting tens of thousands of dollars traveling to various fundraisers with a total of 11 media members on board.
Media are money-savers, if not makers, for a campaign. The plane the SoetorObamaBiden campaign leases is subsidized by the print and TV media: newspapers and networks pay a per day charge for every reporter they have on board.
It looks like Biden’s plane would hold about 180 or so people. He probably has a staff of 40 or so with him: campaign staff plus Secret Service and air crew. The other 140 seats should be packed with journalists, waiting to capture the latest revisionist history from Biden, such as his recent yarn of a time-traveling Frankling Roosevelt who leaped back to 1929 to invent television and appear in everyone’s homes, magically, to warn them of the Great Depression.
140 media seat multiplied by whatever the daily media travel rate is would add up to some serious savings to the campaign, defraying the cost of Biden’s traveling history lessons.
$400 a day does not seem like it would be an outrageous sum for a daily travel rate — we have never seen it published, so it might even be higher than that…we’re just estimating.
That means each day Biden loses $56,000 by not having a full press core travel with him.
That’s deducted from whatever take Biden brings in by going to various fundraisers: if he raises $500,000 a day, it’s really only $450,000 because he didn’t fill that plane. And then, on top of this, you have to subtract the costs for the fundraisers themselves (hotel, food/beverage, ground transportation, additional security, audio/visual). That’s probably another $50,000 as well.
So, now they’re down to $400,000 as a net take.
Impressive at first blush, but enough to reduce grown men to tears when they NEED to be bringing in that $100 million a month that they promised the superdelegates.
Because with the economy in this bad of shape, there’s just no reason McCain should be tied in Gallup polls with ANY Democrat…so Biden’s empty plane is good reason for him to cry. They are burning through WAY TOO MUCH money.
Especially if they’re buying Biden two ice creams wherever he goes.
September 26, 2008 at 12:41 pm
You are cracking me up Hillbuzz…You Rock!
Barky/Joey 08…Non Gadus Anus Rodentum!…lol
( not worth a Rat’s ass…chuckl…)
September 26, 2008 at 12:47 pm
As americans struggle to put gas in the car to go to work or even to go find a job, Joe Biden flies on this big plane with hardly anyone in it.
September 26, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Housing ‘bailout’ contains millions in earmarks for leftist groups
Jim Brown – OneNewsNow – 8/11/2008 7:30:00 AMBookmark and Share
There’s more to the housing bailout measure than meets the eye, says a Minnesota lawmaker. She contends that members of Congress need to be called back to Washington to reverse the measure that, among other things, sends millions of taxpayer dollars to a radical illegal immigration advocacy group.
The housing package signed into law by President Bush extends an unlimited line of credit to troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and rescues homeowners near or in foreclosure. The measure also increases the federal debt limit by another $800 billion — and sends millions of dollars in aid to La Raza and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, says she finds it “unconscionable” that the legislation included funding for the two groups, which serve as political action arms of the Democratic Party.
“At the same time that the American taxpayer was being asked to bail these companies out, Barney Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, instituted a sort of tax on Freddie and Fannie, and that tax goes into what’s called an affordable housing trust fund,” explains Bachmann. “It’s a really a taxpayer-subsidized housing fund, but that money will go to organizations like La Raza and…ACORN.” Both groups — “particularly ACORN,” says Bachmann — have been found to be involved in “activities where they have perpetrated voter fraud,” she contends.
Bachmann advises Congress to get back to Washington, stop the funding stream for ACORN and La Raza, and also get American taxpayers off the hook for bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
September 26, 2008 at 1:33 pm
what has Biden brought to the Obama campaign. about from saying that Obama’s ads were wrong.
he has just brought gaffes.
well joe there is always the Senate if u lose. because your still running.
my dream ticket would be Hillary and Sarah. they would make a great team.
September 26, 2008 at 6:27 pm
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/09/obama_campaign_urging_people_t.html
Obama sends out text message urging voters to watch the debate on CNN.
I wonder how MSNBC will feel about that?
September 27, 2008 at 10:54 am
Wish I could wake up tomorrow and nobama and biden were history. Can you just imagine the confusion in our lives if they were elected? They are nothing but total confusion while campaigning. I so want Palin to take biden to task on thurs.