# Manhattan Fly-by -- really a photo-op? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 1, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016 "2009-05-01T20:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/81 "2009-05-07T16:56:29Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Yes, The unemployed have always shown a great appreciation for $350,000 file photos of the king’s chariot during a recession. Let them eat cake.:rolleyes: Kinda like flying to Denver to sign a spending bill to show us our money is being spent wisely (which also cost over $300,000). I’m sure the voters will vent their anger at Ronald Reagan for requesting those exquisite flying chariots, which, adjusting for inflation, would cost nearly $580 million each today. I’m also sure that the unemployed will be pissed that George W. Bush apparently thought his chariots were showing some gray hairs after a measley 20 years of service, and had the Air Force start looking at [replacements.](http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/10/17/218681/exclusive-us-considers-airbus-a380-as-air-force-one-and-potentially-a-c-5-replacement.html) I’m still curious what the photo op has to do with earmarks. Was that just a freak-out in which you started throwing around political buzzwords? Like, “Earmark! Lockbox! The Freedom Agenda!” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/82 "2009-05-07T17:49:25Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You remember New York, It was were attacked by large low flying aircraft. Thousands killed. It was in the paper. Yeah, but the last large low flying aircraft was back in January and everybody thought that guy rocked. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/83 "2009-05-07T18:05:51Z")
Also, this is the New York Post, which is as much New York as the New York, New York hotel in vegas, or the New Yorkshire Terrier that my uncle got last fall, or the New York Giants. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/84 "2009-05-07T18:19:11Z")
Give it up, Magiver. Don’t fight with the Hopeum-addled. They have drunk too deeply from the Obama Kool-Aid pitcher. There’s no arguing with fanatics. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/85 "2009-05-07T18:21:47Z")
You are also a great American. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/86 "2009-05-07T18:23:19Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > Give it up, Magiver. Don’t fight with the Hopeum-addled. They have drunk too deeply from the Obama Kool-Aid pitcher. There’s no arguing with fanatics. You’re so cute when you’re being melodramatic. Kind of like when my daughter decides that she doesn’t like spaghetti (it was just fine last week), and she screws up her little face like she’s been asked to eat goat testicle and says, “EEEEEW! Spaghetti is yucky!” -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/87 "2009-05-07T18:35:35Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > Give it up, Magiver. Don’t fight with the Hopeum-addled. They have drunk too deeply from the Obama Kool-Aid pitcher. There’s no arguing with fanatics. Hey. I think I have a Buzzword Bingo! Wait, no. I still need “ACORN” for the center square. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/88 "2009-05-08T06:18:47Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I’m still curious what the photo op has to do with earmarks. Was that just a freak-out in which you started throwing around political buzzwords? Like, “Earmark! Lockbox! The Freedom Agenda!” Earmarks were/are a campaign issue with President Obama. What they have to do with each other is that the flight was a waste of money as are the earmarks. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/89 "2009-05-08T06:21:48Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > You’re so cute when you’re being melodramatic. Kind of like when my daughter decides that she doesn’t like spaghetti (it was just fine last week), and she screws up her little face like she’s been asked to eat goat testicle and says, “EEEEEW! Spaghetti is yucky!” > > -Joe Let us know how she feels when her dad spends $350,000 on family photo’s. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/90 "2009-05-08T06:42:19Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I wonder how much the former emperor spent on the photo-op consisting of showing us his admittedly much smaller chariot (but his came with a cod piece), when he - completely necessarily, mind you - flew to an aircraft carrier off the west coast to inform us that Mission Wasn’t Really Accomplished Despite What I’m Saying And The Big Fucking Sign Behind Me. > > Nah. I’m sure that doesn’t count either. Hold on, is this your idea of _defending_ Obama? Since when was “not worse than Bush” something to be proud of? ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/91 "2009-05-08T10:36:40Z")
Much, much, much not worse than Bush. Listen, one is a stupid bureaucratic fuck-up that Obama did not personally have anything to do with and in which nobody got hurt. The other is a massive personal photo-op in which the president himself got dressed up as a pilot and landed a plane on an aircraft carrier, carried out as the cherry on top of a disastrous unnecessary military adventure that he and his cronies lied their way into. One of these things is not like the other. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/92 "2009-05-08T12:11:54Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Let us know how she feels when her dad spends $350,000 on family photo’s. :rolleyes: That won’t happen. She’s only two and a half and well on her way to having far better grammar and spelling. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/93 "2009-05-08T13:08:13Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Earmarks were/are a campaign issue with President Obama. What they have to do with each other is that the flight was a waste of money as are the earmarks. You should have compared the flight to a $1.3 trillion dollar tax cut. Then I would have understood what you meant by something being a complete waste. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/94 "2009-05-08T13:51:34Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Hold on, is this your idea of _defending_ Obama? Since when was “not worse than Bush” something to be proud of? No it wasn’t a defense of Obama. It was a pointing out of the hypocritical nature of complaints of money spent on photo-ops. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/95 "2009-05-08T14:05:49Z")
Also … it was a counter in kind to the derrogatory “king’s chariot” comment. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/96 "2009-05-08T17:47:11Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > That won’t happen. She’s only two and a half and well on her way to having far better grammar and spelling. > > -Joe She will eventually be paying the bill for it so you might want to start practicing your excuses now. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/97 "2009-05-08T17:49:30Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > You should have compared the flight to a $1.3 trillion dollar tax cut. Then I would have understood what you meant by something being a complete waste. Obama didn’t make an unnecessary trip to Denver to sign a tax cut. He made it to sign a spending bill. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/98 "2009-05-08T17:56:10Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Obama didn’t make an unnecessary trip to Denver to sign a tax cut. He made it to sign a spending bill. Excellent point! Bush stayed right here in DC to sign a $1.3 trillion dollars in tax cuts. How frugal of him. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/99 "2009-05-08T18:16:45Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Excellent point! Bush stayed right here in DC to sign a $1.3 trillion dollars in tax cuts. How frugal of him. If you have a problem with your tax cut then give it to me. I’ll pass it on to my nephews to help pay for the trillion dollar spending bill Congress was too busy to actually read. Getting back to the thread. We have a President who talks about cutting out pork barrel ear marks while his staff spends $350,000 to scare the crap out of New Yorkers in order to make useless photo-op handouts during a recession. But by all means, keep this thread alive by blindly defending the actions of a President who already apologized for the incident. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016/100 "2009-05-08T18:38:22Z")
Hey, I just did a calculation. It takes 90 seconds to spend $325,000 in Iraq to prosecute a war for WMD that never existed! And when it comes to blindly defending actions of a president, I have said three times that the photo op was a mistake in that it should have been widely announced to New Yorkers, and Obama apologized for it. I’m not aware of any apology from anyone for invading Iraq. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-fly-by-really-a-photo-op/495016.md?page=6)