The president stopped by the Upper West Side on Tuesday for a brief fundraiser and lots of locals turned out to watch the motorcade whiz by. Check out the video below by Max Afonov at 90th street and Columbus, along with audio of him explaining to his daughters what’s going on.
Flossy! The Obamas are here!! Hey kids, come look out the window!!
police motor cycles — 11
Black SUVs — 10
Black Vans — 9
Limos — 2
Ambulances — 2
cop cars — 7
41 vehicles
all things considered, the message this entourage sends is not a good one.
The motorcade is maintained by the secret service and the WHMO (for 60 years). It’s standard. If you were elected president, you too would travel with the “entourage.” It sends the message that the president is safe. Not a good one?
The President doesn’t like to travel the way he does. It isn’t some showy sense of entitlement. This is forced upon him because of security issues. If people didn’t try and assassinate presidents they wouldn’t travel in these military style convoys.
What message is that? Generally it is called a motorcade, not an entourage.
There is no way he was able to raise more money in his hour at this fundraiser than the total cost of getting here from the Waldorf.
This motorcade was paid for by your tax dollars, but it was used to attend a fundraiser for a political party, NOT to conduct government business. That is a bad message. Out aside that every time Obama comes to NY to raise money – and he has done that a lot – it creates snarls and traffic jams, and other collateral economic costs to the local economy. Consider fundraising in a suburb for a change with less impact.