Replies

After posing for pictures on the windy tarmac with the ground crew, Obama, wearing a navy suit, blue tie and black overcoat, boarded a Boeing 757 painted like Air Force One. This particular jet is frequently used to carry the vice president, first lady and other top officials.

Much ado about nothing. It's a C-32A (757) used to haul all sorts of Government officials around, NOT one of the VC-25s (747) normally associated with the "Air Force One" moniker. Or the E-4B that hauls the SecDef around.

Obama is the President-Elect. As such he has a pretty significant Secret Service footprint and requires a special level of security and protection. There's nothing inappropriate about putting him and his contingent onto a fairly generic government aircraft (again, giving him the keys to the VC-25 would be a different story) at this point. It should be expected.

Also note that in the pictures the Air Force door-guards (not sure what their title is) are not saluting Obama, since he’s not CinC yet.