Barack Obama in the middle of Air Force One controversy

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/itMmk)

President Barack Obama finds himself in the midst of another storm. Apart from the issues presented to him by the economy and the war on terrorism, he now has to deal with an issue closer to home, that of the now renowned picture of Air Force One.

The White House was updating their pictures of Air Force One and had the idea of having the plane fly low near the Statue of Liberty with an F-16 flying above it, taking photographs. Despite the great managerial ability that the Obama government boasts off, they neglected to mention anything about the photo shoot to authorities in New York and needless to say, the people thought that it was a repeat of the September 11 attack and panicked.

News channels showed pictures and video of scared New Yorkers running for cover. When this incident was investigated further, it was revealed that this was for a photo shoot. Authorities in New York were not amused about this and many were visibly annoyed. They spoke out against the government and appropriately so, considering that this stunt scared residents.

Upon further investigation, it was found that the entire photo shoot cost the tax payer a little over $325,000. When President Obama heard about the Air-Force One photo shoot, he was extremely upset and asked for a full investigation. Then, his staff announced that the photographs would not be released.

When people heard about this, they questioned this decision and the decision to spend so much money for a few photographs. Almost immediately, President Obama’s team flip flopped and said that they’d release just one picture.

Now, the man in charge of this entire debacle, Louis Caldera has resigned his position as Chairman of the White House Military Office. He said that he was not aware of the shoot since he was out sick and didn’t read an email mentioning the shoot.

While this incident is a minor one, it exposed a lot of truths about the Obama government. Despite claims for transparency and watchful spending, this government has been guilty of both. They showed a complete lack of communication between Caldera and his team, disregard for tax payer money by spending $325,000 for a photo shoot and complete indecisiveness by deciding to not release the photographs and then changing their mind less than 24 hours later.

Is the Obama government already breaking its promises of responsible spending? Despite claims of being completely open to the public, they have tried to cover up this issue before they were exposed and they have indulged in an act that has left them with their reputation less than it was before. Is this the change we can believe in?