# Obama's visit to India
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [November 4, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473 "2010-11-04T15:46:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/61 "2010-11-05T14:18:59Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#):
>
> For a moment I thought we had agra-vated you. Although I realize our puns are not likely to indira ourselves to you.
I think he might be taking our idle wordplay for Dehliberate attacks. Punned jabs, if you will.
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/62 "2010-11-05T15:28:36Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> I think he might be taking our idle wordplay for Dehliberate attacks. Punned jabs, if you will.
I think you’ve ganges overboard with your wordplay.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/63 "2010-11-05T17:34:06Z")
Geoff Morrell , Pentagon spokesman, said, I can not tell you how many ships or people we will deploy. But these numbers comical and just not close to the truth.
On one hand, Pentagon. On the other a fair and unbiased gnus network. Hannity and Beck are never wrong.
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### Author:  [@erez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erez)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/64 "2010-11-05T20:21:02Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#):
>
> Er, yes they do. Pages 26-29 describe the methodology by which the GAO arrived at the total costs. In particular:
Wrong.
> [@](#):
>
> Results in Brief: Presidential travel to foreign destinations requires planning, coordination,
> and logistical and personnel support. The estimated incremental costs of
> President Clinton’s trips to Africa, Chile, and China were at least
> $42.8 million, $10.5 million, and $18.8 million, respectively. The largest of
> these costs consisted of (1) operating expenses of the President’s aircraft
> and other military passenger and cargo aircraft; (2) travel expenses,
> including lodging for the travelers; and (3) telecommunications, vehicle,
> and other equipment rentals and procurement in the countries visited.
> These estimates **exclude** (1) **Secret Service expenses, which are classified;**
> (2) regular salaries and benefits of U.S. government civil and military
> travelers; and (3) agency planning expenses that may have been incurred in
> preparing to travel.
Also:
> [@](#):
>
> The estimated incremental cost of the President’s trip to Africa was at least
> $42.8 million, excluding Secret Service costs, which are classified.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/65 "2010-11-06T01:45:51Z")
> [@erez](#):
>
> Wrong.
Yep, you’re right. My bad for for missing that.
OTOH, I still don’t get what relevance you think this has to the cost claims for the India trip, and why you would (if I understand your point) reject the entire GAO report on that basis. DoD (military support and transport) in all three cases make up 75-90% of the total costs. Classified or not, I don’t see any reason to expect that Secret Services costs would be any more than a small fraction of that.
Lastly, why would the anonymous Indian official who supposedly broke this bogus story have any idea about Secret Service costs if such items are classified?
Sorry, I’ll still stick with the GAO data. Again, feel free to make a case for the $200 mill/day figure being accurate, if you’ve got one.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/66 "2010-11-06T01:59:41Z")
Obama’s costs will be less than Clintons, simply for the cheeseburgers. Mama don’t allow cheeseburgers.
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/67 "2010-11-06T02:04:46Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#):
>
> It’s a little unclear why the right-wing noise machine is separating out the India leg from the total costs of this trip.
They wear turbans there.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/68 "2010-11-06T02:07:09Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#):
>
> They wear turbans there.
Gas or steam?
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/69 "2010-11-06T02:07:25Z")
He is visiting the ex American jobs. I heard on TV today that IT&T have 75,000 jobs in India now.
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### Author:  [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/70 "2010-11-06T02:13:34Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> There are reports on Facebook and various conservative blogs that the President’s upcoming trip to India is wildly extravagant and over-the-top expensive, betraying is lack of understanding or concern of the economic struggles of the electorate.
>
> According to [this article](http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/obamas-india-visit-slammed-for-over-the-top-spending-64405?pfrom=Namaste,-Obama) and others from NDTV (byline: Press Trust of India), this trip will cost upwards of $200M/day, including: an entourage of 3,000 people, 40 planes, 3 helicopters, 800 hotel rooms, a “huge fleet” of armored cars and 34 warships sent from the US.
>
> I haven’t been able to confirm any of this in the mainstream press, although it has been repeated by the likes of Michelle Bachmann.
>
> The White House has called these figures “wildly overblown.” What’s the likely truth here? I’m highly dubious.
You’re looking for truth on right-wing blogs and Facebook? Or even from Michelle Bachmann? 😛
You’re right to be dubious.
It’s complete and utter bullshit, no matter how many times it is repeated.
But ya gotta love the outrage from the right at the wasteful spending even as they make their first priority the extention of the Bush tax cuts to the top 2%, which have increased the deficit, and will continue to if extended, by TRILLIONS of dollars. :dubious:
If the morons spreading crap like this would simply bother to check SNOPES or any other reliable source, they’d know it was crap. Hell, even if they could think critically, they’d know it; the cost of the WAR in Afghanistan costs about 190 million a day…sure, RIGHT this trip is costing MORE! :rolleyes:
> **[President Obama's Asian Trip - $200 Million per Day?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/foreign-currency/)**
>
> Will President Obama's November 2010 trip to India cost $200 million per day?
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### Author:  [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/71 "2010-11-06T02:18:46Z")
Goddamn, just when I think the right wing can’t get any more stupid, they do. Does anyone ever bother to fact-check things anymore?
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### Author:  [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/72 "2010-11-06T02:26:04Z")
> [@Kolga](#):
>
> Goddamn, just when I think the right wing can’t get any more stupid, they do. Does anyone ever bother to fact-check things anymore?
No. And I don’t put most of it down to failure to fact check; it is outright LYING being perpetrated by those who know better and swallowed by those who want to believe it and DON’T know better or care to. The fact that an elected representative repeated this crap, either not bothering to check or not CARING that it was a LIE, is amazing.
They (Fox, beck, Limbaugh, et al) operate on the principle that if you repeat something often enough, people will believe it. (and, to quote Hitler, “The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it”.)
I get these thing all the time in my email from an Aunt…every single one has been a load of bollucks, and now and then I reply to all and tell them all so. She eats it up because it “confirms” her pre-existing biases.
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### Author:  [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/73 "2010-11-06T02:46:01Z")
Oh, I know all that. I just…for some reason, I keep thinking that people might possibly want to not look like idiots if it turns out that the information that they’ve been spouting is completely false.
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/74 "2010-11-06T03:19:02Z")
> [@Kolga](#):
>
> Oh, I know all that. I just…for some reason, I keep thinking that people might possibly want to not look like idiots if it turns out that the information that they’ve been spouting is completely false.
They don’t want to look like idiots. The issue is they never get called out for being idiots. The story becomes the truth and they get to claim they were actually intelligent for picking up on it.
In my opinion it’s why White house responses like ‘wildly exaggerated’ don’t work. Implying those numbers are simply exaggerated gives them a level of credibility they do not deserve. They are completely false to anyone with objective reasoning. People perpetuating such rumors should be called out for being the fucking idiots they are.
Obama failed miserably early on trying to attack FOX news as an organization. They are a well established network with huge amounts of supporters. Attacking them head on a a strategy for failure and complete alienation from those supporters.
However if every time they made stupid claims like this one, the White house pointed out how they where not credible in this instance, they could widdle away those supporters who don’t want to be taken for fools.
Don’t attack the person, attack their ideas. If their idea’s are proven to be bullshit again and again the person becomes irrelevant.
Or in this case attack the reporting not the news agency promoting that reporting.
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### Author:  [@Apollo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollo)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/75 "2010-11-06T21:49:12Z")
It seems the presidents visit is already paying dividends for his fellow countrymen, one could even say the trip has **paid for itself** using whatever ludicrous inflated travel cost on wishes to use.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11703626](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11703626)
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### Author:  [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/76 "2010-11-07T00:57:59Z")
The power of the presidency to either spend money or push policy is overrated. No amount of money Obama could spend on travel would make a noticeable dent in the already impressive budget deficit. On the other hand, it’s ludicrous to credit him with creating trade deals from the ether, as though macroeconomic conditions, business interests, and diplomatic institutions in both countries had nothing to do with it. I know humans are subject to anthromorpization bias, but let’s be realistic here, on both counts.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/77 "2010-11-07T01:29:18Z")
> [@athelas](#):
>
> The power of the presidency to either spend money or push policy is overrated. No amount of money Obama could spend on travel would make a noticeable dent in the already impressive budget deficit. On the other hand, it’s ludicrous to credit him with creating trade deals from the ether, as though macroeconomic conditions, business interests, and diplomatic institutions in both countries had nothing to do with it. I know humans are subject to anthromorpization bias, but let’s be realistic here, on both counts.
Creating something out of thin air and closing a deal aren’t in the same ballpark.
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### Author:  [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/78 "2010-11-07T01:42:12Z")
Building the building and cutting the ceremonial ribbon aren’t the same either. Presidents have a couple instances a term where they’d do something different than any other man would do in their shoes. A routine trade deal isn’t one of them.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/79 "2010-11-07T02:18:29Z")
I just love how pubbies get their collective panties in a twist when it’s a demodoing it. I kinda sorta remember how Bush went bike riding in Versailles, France in June 2008? I wonder what that cost? I mean, sure the Frogs ate the ticket for closing off a tourist trap so Bush would be safe and all, but vichy water ain’t cheap and as a lame duck Bush didn’t even pretend to be doing anything useful…
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-visit-to-india/559473/80 "2010-11-07T02:56:57Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#):
>
> You should give these Western idli-alogues a dosa their own medicine.
>
> (Better?)
Stop this and say you’re sari.
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