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I heard that Obama's car is the new gripe

Travis

Misanthrope of the Mountains
Travis
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
24,133
That's right I heard today some people saying that Obama can't talk about climate control again because the Presidential Limo is a gas hog.


What do you all think?
 
Let's suppose the Presidential Limo gets ½ mpg. Why in the world would that prevent him from speaking about climate change (I know you don't mean "control"). Also, does your interlocutor posit that Obama picks out the Presidential Limo?

I sure hope you laughed in his/her face.
 
It is really stupid.

It is this simple:

The President needs to get around.
The President's limo needs to be heavily armored because he is the most important man in the world and a lot of people want to kill him (4/44 Presidents have been assasinated on the job, another shot and almost killed, and a number of other attempts - it might be the most dangerous job in the world).
It is impossible to have a heavily armored limo that is also fuel efficient.
 
dtugg said:
It is really stupid.

It is this simple:

The President needs to get around.
The President's limo needs to be heavily armored because he is the most important man in the world and a lot of people want to kill him (4/44 Presidents have been assasinated on the job, another shot and almost killed, and a number of other attempts - it might be the most dangerous job in the world).
It is impossible to have a heavily armored limo that is also fuel efficient.
Click to expand...

Very true. Armor adds thousands of pounds to a vehicle. For that vehicle to be the least bit maneuverable you need to have a powerful engine. A dinky little electric/gas engine that is fuel efficient just simply wouldn't cut it.

Here is some good info:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/1269716?page=1
With 5 in. worth of ballistic armor under its skin, and added height and length, the presidential limo tips the scales at close to 4 tons. It's probably based on a modified Escalade platform, riding on run-flat tires. The dark leather interior is environmentally sealed against chemical attack.
Click to expand...

Whoever made that silly statement about not being able to speak about climate change is very, very ignorant.
 
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That Popular Mechanics article is from the Bush years. Obama has a different one.

Limo One is believed to weigh between seven and eight tons, and spy shots suggest it rides on a GM medium-duty truck chassis propelled by a diesel engine. The body is sheathed in military-grade armor as much as 8 inches thick on the doors (each of which weighs as much as the cabin door on a Boeing 747, Motor Authority says). The armor reportedly is a mix of dual-hardness steel, aluminum, titanium and ceramic. The windows are ballistic glass said to be 5 inches thick, and Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times says there’s probably a woven Kevlar mat covering the floorboard to protect the car from blasts. The cabin is believed to feature a sealed air recirculation system to protect its occupants from chemical attacks.
Click to expand...
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/01/obama-rolls-a-s/

Diesel's relatively efficient, isn't it?
 
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Alan said:
That Popular Mechanics article is from the Bush years. Obama has a different one.


http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/01/obama-rolls-a-s/

Diesel's relatively efficient, isn't it?
Click to expand...

Ah yes you are correct. Seems he has quite an upgrade. Yes diesel is relatively efficient. If I were president, I would definitely roll around in that limo. His limo has got nothin on what I currently roll around in though:
MRAP.jpg

:p
 
Travis said:
That's right I heard today some people saying that Obama can't talk about climate control again because the Presidential Limo is a gas hog.


What do you all think?
Click to expand...

That for that to be practical you would need to create a situation that the president is not worried about attack?

I mean sure you could just have him in a tank or something but that would send the wrong image especially when he goes abroad. So you want something that is armored to resist serious attack, but looks classy and respectable.

Fuel efficiency is nice, but he needs a vehicle that is heavily armored and can still have a chance to get out of a dangerous situation if it needs to. That means it needs some reasonable acceleration, and so needs a powerful engine.
 
Fact: The carbon footprint of the Presidency is, by necessity, pig disgusting.

There's really no getting around it. When the President moves, he has to move big, and he has to pollute big.

So if the person holding that office purports to take pollution seriously, or fuel efficiency seriously, or global climate change seriously, one would naturally expect to see serious policies for minimizing the Presidency's impact in these areas.

Policies about how often the President moves, the size of his entourage, the length of his stay, etc.

For example: Telecommunications, especially teleconferencing.
  • Does the President really need to be there in person? No? Why not teleconference?
  • Yes? Why not take a small entourage with a minimal footprint, and use some of the best telecommunications gear in the world to stay in touch with the larger staff back home?
  • Whenever possible, why not send a trusted envoy with a smaller entourage and footprint, to provide "in person" contact?
  • Whenever necessary, why not send a technical team with a smaller footprint to set up high-end teleconferencing gear, where necessary
  • Worried about information security? What's more secure--telecommunications using military-grade crypto gear, or bringing along a staff of several hundred people, each with their own information security footprint, plus an entire press pool, etc.?

I don't expect the President's footprint to be smaller than mine. I do expect it to be smaller than it used to be. And if he's going to profess serious personal concern about global climate change, then I expect him to take a serious personal interest in reducing the footprint of his office, either directly, or be assigning such responsibility to someone in his senior staff.

One frequently reads complaints about American hypocrisy: America can't lecture China on human rights, because America violates human rights as well. America can't lecture Iran on nuclear proliferation, because America has far too many nukes of its own.

I don't see how this is any different, or why it should be: As long as Obama continues the American tradition of having the biggest, costliest, pollutingest, global-warmingest footprint of any head of state in the history of the world, it's hard to take him seriously when he lectures on these subjects.
 
Quad4_72 said:
Ah yes you are correct. Seems he has quite an upgrade. Yes diesel is relatively efficient. If I were president, I would definitely roll around in that limo. His limo has got nothin on what I currently roll around in though:
[qimg]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Zaitsev72/MRAP.jpg[/qimg]
:p
Click to expand...

I'm curious about what that is and what is the stuff on top of it?
 
Puppycow said:
I'm curious about what that is and what is the stuff on top of it?
Click to expand...

That is an MRAP, Caiman variant. The two tan poles coming off the top of it are DUKE systems which jam RC and cellphone signals, the black square box in the front is a RINO system, which is basically just 2 very hot heat coils, and all of those ridiculous looking pvc piping are called wire mitigation kits, so instead of low wires in Iraq getting caught on the vehicle and torn down, they instead slide over everything. There also radio antennas there too.
 
The moaning about his limo is ridiculous, but that said prior to his election as President there was a medium-sized SUV parked on his driveway, a Ford Explorer IIRC. I don't know if it was his though, but someone who lived there must have owned it.

Just sayin'.
 
dtugg said:
It is really stupid.

It is this simple:

The President needs to get around.
The President's limo needs to be heavily armored because he is the most important man in the world and a lot of people want to kill him (4/44 Presidents have been assasinated on the job, another shot and almost killed, and a number of other attempts - it might be the most dangerous job in the world).
It is impossible to have a heavily armored limo that is also fuel efficient.
Click to expand...

It probably has one honker of an engine, too, as well as solid tires, 6-inch bullet-proof glass, etc.
 
SezMe said:
Let's suppose the Presidential Limo gets ½ mpg. Why in the world would that prevent him from speaking about climate change (I know you don't mean "control"). Also, does your interlocutor posit that Obama picks out the Presidential Limo?

I sure hope you laughed in his/her face.
Click to expand...

Well, (and I have no problem with the POTUS using whatever car is safest and best, no matter the gas mileage) the reasoning goes like this:

1) I think AGW is a hugely serious issue and everyone needs to do something about it. Therefor I'm asking every citizen to make sacrifices and on top of that, I want government legislation that will cause people to make even more sacrifices. Some may lose their jobs, many will have increased bills in an already shaky economy.

2) However, not only am I not going to have to live with the reality of the policies I'm creating, I'm going to flaunt them by being extremely wasteful myself, because I'm actually above the people.

If you ever used the term "chicken hawk" to describe a rightwinger who avoided combat military service, but who asks others to do so... it's the same reasoning. It's the "My policies will force people do one thing, but I will do another."

You may or may not be persuaded by that line of thinking, but just because you personally aren't, that doesn't mean that others can't be.
 
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