It's the president's show (Dumbocrat whine over Top Gun landing dissed)

STAR LEDGER ^ | Monday, May 12, 2003 | EDITORIAL

[Liz]

President Bush's triumphant "Top Gun" landing on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln had political photo op written all over it from the start.

But the sniping over whether it was an outrageous waste of money is silly.

[Liz]

...Democrats' calls for an investigation and their carping about adding to the federal deficit (estimated at $240 billion-plus this year) have the distinct feel of sour grapes.....

Dumbocrats wish they had thought of it. But can you envision BillyBoy, Hitlery, LIEberman or Al Sharpton in flight gear landing on a carrier? LOL.

[SubMareener]

Registered, can you materialize the imagining?

[Liz]

Here, creepo Dumbocrats, take a look at the American might you despise.

The Abraham Lincoln at sea.

[DB]

"And yes, the carrier marked time in the water, even circling for a bit, to give the president time to arrive."

And that is simply not true. This writer is passing on the Dems lies as fact.

These types of ships always arrive at their scheduled date and time and no sooner. It is a major deal bringing in a ship that size. You can't just pop into port whenever you like. There is also family that is scheduled to meet them. If they came in early their family would miss their arrival and the crew would have nowhere to stay.

[anoldafvet]

"the carrier marked time in the water, even circling for a bit, to give the president time to arrive." B.S., the carrier marked time because it wasn't schedules to arrive until the NEXT DAY and nobody would be there to meet it. Also, I suppose Bush could have mailed the PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION to the carrier, that's what Clinton would have done.

[7thson]

You said nothing but the the truth. I was on the Independence from 82 to 84. I found out shortly after I got on - in August 1982 - that some bozo set fire to the officer's mess so that the ship could not get under way. The fire - which was right next to radio central where I worked - burned about a third of radio central. Guess what? The ship got underway the next day - as scheduled! In 1985, there was another fire that buckled the flight deck and knocked out two of the catapults. We were in GITMO and it was the only time I knew of that that the ship came in early - by one day! In fact, the only time I can remember when ships could not get underway as scheduled was during the Carter years. Our ship - the Gridley - could not get underway on time several times because of lack of parts. Once was in the Philippines. A one day stop turned into two weeks. Not to much to complain about that time! And from what I have read on FR, the ship was scheduled to get inport May 6th and did. Also, the Dems complaining say nothing about the cost of heloing out the six dems to the carrier.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

the carrier marked time in the water, even circling for a bit, to give the president time to arrive.

If you are scheduled to arrive in triumph at a certain time, and relatives are expecting to greet you at the dock, how happy would they be--how happy would you be--at having your arrival a day early--when your loved ones weren't there yet?

So in that context, you are grudgingly contet to let the ship wait for the scheduled arrival time--but also quite ready for something to do--like cheer the arrival of the man who validated your decision to join the Navy by doing something useful with the ship you served on!

So GWB had a great audience. He also made an entrance which was dramatic precisely in being more humble--a routine arrested landing in a plane, and aboard a ship, designed for that function--than showing up in a helicopter dedicated to your own official transportation. And dramatic because it illustrated the obvious reality that the president, like any former military pilot, would enjoy flying in that humble military plane. Just as the aviators who are at the point of the spear are known to do.

The party of preference for members of every group least likey to identify with the naval aviator shrieks impotently when the truth is dramatized.

[2timothy3.16]

Didn't comrade herr clinton, aka the slickmesiter rapist, one time hold up every flight at LAX so he could get a hair cut from his favorite sodomite barber?

[George W. Bush]

This article is still carping on Bush. It cost $7 more to fly on the jet instead of a copter. And there was no delay. The arrival in port of these carriers are scheduled for weeks or months in advance because of the support ships (tugs, etc.) and port facilities and because the thousands of families who are waiting to meet the ship, coming from all over the country, need a specific time that it will arrive. Whether the carrier is being visited by a president means nothing to its arrival time. It's routine for a carrier to wait outside port for its designated time slot. There were Navy officials who were citing other instances of carriers waiting outside port for exactly these reasons, citing a carrier that arrived 20 hours early and still had to wait because it was not scheduled to arrive. This is Navy policy and has nothing to do with Bush.

[DB]

Thanks for the info.

[Happy2BMe]

"But Democrats' calls for an investigation and their carping about adding to the federal deficit (estimated at $240 billion-plus this year) have the distinct feel of sour grapes."

[stevio]

This was his(Dubya's) show of support for our troops. I can't think of a better moral booster.

[Clint N. Suhks]

It cost $7 more to fly on the jet instead of a copter.

Yeah but that 7$ could have gone towards national health care, the states’ budgets or prescription drugs for wealthy seniors…how dare you GWB.

[AbsoluteJustice]

Isn't it funny when Republicans do things it is for election reasond but when DemonRats do it it is not photo-op or for re-election purposes it is for the better of the public.

[MarkL]

I can't remember where I heard this the other day, so I can't properly attribute it...

When President Lyndon Johnson was being directed towards his Marine Hellicopter, parked among a number of choppers, the crewman told him, "Mr President, your hellicopter is over there." LBJ is reported to have replied, "Son, those are ALL my hellicopters!"

Mark

[Liz]

The Jesse pic is priceless. Aren't you worried airheaded bimbos might call the number? LOL.

[Liz]

Wrong, all wrong. Dubya shoulda used the seven bucks to raise Congressional salaries. LOL.

[alnick]

If everything were the same except that President Bush were in his second term, would he have conducted that visit to the Abraham Lincoln in the same manner? I believe that he would have.

No doubt that the pictures will make great ad copy for his reelection campaign, but that is secondary to thanking the troops and he would have thanked them in exactly the same way even if there were no reelection campaign.