President Obama didn't ride on the buses during the "Bus Tour"

Well, I wonder if Rush will have to eat his words tomorrow. Below is his quote from the show today, in which he says the President wasn't actually aboard the two buses during his recent bus tour, but rather went from town to town in Air Force one.

I checked the article he was reading from: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45857 , and while the top of the article still claims Obama took Air Force One everywhere, at the very bottom they have an "UPdate" which points out that it is very unlikely that Obama flew from place to place in Air Force one, because there would have been so much publicity of him landing at local airports that it woudl never have washed.

So we'll see Rush admits he was wrong to quote this, tomorrow.

Here's what Rush had to say about it:

Story #3: Fraud: Obama Didn't Ride Buses During Bus Tour

RUSH: By the way, did you know that Obama did not ride on the bus during the bus tours? I've got it here: "To facilitate Obama’s 'bus tour' of midwest America, the Secret Service bought two large buses and set about customizing them to fit the security needs of the president. The buses sport bulletproof black windows, puncture-proof tires, five-inch thick doors, and their own oxygen supplies ... And the Secret Service had to train agents specially to drive them.

"'Agents will be taught to back up at very high rates of speed using just the mirrors on either side,' says Ronald Kessler, author of In The President's Secret Service. 'It really takes guts to do that.' White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the buses were necessary because 'The president needs to get out in the country and meet with real folks in real places.' ... But here's the thing: Apparently President Obama only rode the buses for a couple of miles at a time, spending the rest of the time flying from community to community in Air Force One. What's more, the buses were flown from stop to stop as well." He didn't save any gas, didn't save anything. They're putting the buses on transport planes! The whole thing was a fraud. Obama's on the bus for a mile or two at a time.

There was no bus tour. (laughing) What do you mean, "What's the point?" Imagery! Imagery, Snerdley, pure and simple. It's getting out amongst the people, Snerdley. That's the whole point of this. (laughing) But he wasn't in the buses. (interruption) Well, no, no. It wasn't a waste of money because one of the buses is going to be used by the eventual Republican nominee, whoever wins the Republican nomination will use one of the buses to do his bus tours -- and Obama will use the other one. (laughing) Look. Look. I know.

And here's the article that debunks it:
Update: Blogger "Coldwarrior" strongly doubts the reports of aerial bus transportation, and offers some careful Google map work to disprove it:

First, just take a look at the route. It was relatively short (about 380 miles with a total drive time of under 7 hours from Cannon Falls to Alpha, IL) and the confirmed stops along the way were in some cases only 22 or so miles from each other and, it appears, the furthest distance between two stops was about 59 miles (Decorah, IA to Guttenberg, IA). I plotted on Google Maps the cities he went through, in this order: Cannon Falls, Zumbrota, Chatfield and Harmony, MN; Decorah, Guttenberg, Peosta, Maquoketa and Le Claire, IA; and Morrison, Atkinson, Galesburg, Alpha and Peoria, IL.

Here's a link to a Google Map showing all the places he visited: http://g.co/maps/4kmv

Here's the official route as it was announced: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/15/tune-president-obamas-town-hall-meetings-week and the itinerary for some of the events are also set forth, with the dates, locations and times.

That's about all you'd need to debunk this. I was under the impression, as you may have been, that this "bus tour" was a long, long trip deep into Iowa and then all the way across Illinois, but it wasn't. It was a trip that could have been covered in less than a day with a stop every 35 to 45 miles on average.

Because the distances between some of his stops were as few as 22 miles, and there's plenty of photos and videos showing him in all of these locations, practically it would have taken longer to get to an airport, load up, take off, land, unload, etc. than to simply just make the drive. And, as you'll see, there just aren't the kind of airfields need in that part of the country. I know. I've driven much of the route over the years.

So, secondly, even if they had wanted, despite the short distances involved, to fly the buses and/or Obama ahead to the next stop, there simply are not enough airfields in that area of the country that could handle the aircraft involved (certainly not the 747 AF1 and not the C-5A or C-17 cargo aircraft that would have been needed for the buses).

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