Royal Batmobiles

Monstrous $1.1 million bus for Obama campaign

"Folks in the Midwest are lining up along highways to catch a view of the most sought after vehicle of the week. It’s not a souped-up sports car or the latest in biofuel engineering. It doesn’t even have a sick spoiler.

It’s Obama’s million dollar tour bus and it’s making people think twice about the president’s plan on saving America.

Despite ongoing acknowledgments that the country is on hard times and millions are without jobs, US President Barack Obama is in the midst of a Midwest tour this week in the luxury of a $1.1 million behemoth of a bus outfitted with the bells and whistles that’d make even the most royal of rock stars blush.

Funded by tax payer dollars, “Ground Force One” is a bulky bus outfitted with dark tinted windows, flashing sirens and a not-so-nighttime-friendly paint job of jet black. Hemphill Brothers of Whites Creek, Tenn. manufactured the bus for the White House, and though details about the interior aspects of the righteous ride — as well as the security features — go undisclosed, Ed Donovan of the Secret Service tells The New York Times, “You can assume that most of these things have a security component.”

Gizmos and gadgets for sure, but is it more Batmobile or Popemobile for Barack and his crew as they cavort around the Midwest this week as part of a caravan that calls for other cars to protect the president from campaign stop to campaign stop? Between the $1.1 million price tag and having to pay preposterous prices at the pumps, is it the best idea for the president to be parading around in his personal stagecoach?

And if you thought $1.1 million was bad, double it; the US government has bought two of these vehicles. The other will serve as a transport for the Republican presidential candidate that vies for the 2012 vote.

Donovan adds to The Times that the Secret Service was “overdue” for having an asset like “Stagecoach,” the big-brother to the presidential limo “The Beast.”

Speaking of overdue, how is that road to recovery coming, Obama? I suppose it’s not as long as you might think when you’re riding in the equivalent of a Learjet on land."