The height of arrogance and economic and diplomatic idiocy is for this President to be flying around the country and the world, used primarily for his own motivations, that enormous jumbo jet named “Air Force One”. This monster absolutely sends the wrong message and should be immediately replaced by a jet more specific to an executive. The President is not some emir potentate yet the presidential jet plane has literally become a flying, in the air, grand hotel with or without swimming pool and hot tub spa. Such a tour de force makes for envy which is the antithesis of good diplomacy and foreign relations Never make your friends think more of you and your enemies think less of you which producing such a gross image is just what that plane actually does.
Markets are squeamish so Obama needs to build economic confidence yet he continues to cling to his trappings of presidential power. This is a case of cutting back on the nonsense and showing management by getting clear about priorities. There exists no argument that the president needs quick, fast, and comfortable transportation but a jumbo jet fit for deployment of over a thousand military troops just stinks of useless waste. For the record there is available the B-757 from Boeing which, at a fraction of the costs, has all the amenities needed by a sitting president including privacy suite and long conference table with extensive multi-media. Obama may dislike the fact that “The Beast” (armor plated ten ton limousine) could not fit in the cargo belly and be transported in the hole of this model jet plane but diplomatically that would be a worthwhile image benefit as seen by our international colleagues.
Pack rats make terrible managers and this President needs to prune the bush so that the roses can bloom. Grown-ups discard their toys which it seems to be a persistent problem being Obama. There is only so much fresh water in the lifeboat so the weak, irrelevant and cumbersome must go over the side. This is not a case of blindfold drawing lots; because, instead, this is a matter of executive will. In the face of all this, perfidy and pomposity reigns within the presidential ranks and managerial histories prove that those most pompous are those least loyal and willful to their executives’ means. So, then, the decision between canaries and peacocks now is the moment to eliminate those peacocks because there are several in his cabinet and staff of tsars that strut around in front of the cameras touting their high office and extensive executive powers bestowed upon them by Obama. These are those among them that think their importance outweighs that of their president and it is those that that will create their own endurable fiefdoms within the bureaucracy and the secrets they hold, about this president, they will use as weapons to retain power.