Nope, not even close to the same.
B.
Chicago Tribune Blog: 'GOP Attacks Obama Bus, But Bush Did Same'
By Mike Bates
NewsBusters
August 17, 2011 | 16:59
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-bates/2011/08/17/chicago-tribune-blog-gop-attacks-obama-bus-bush-did-same
Posted today on the Chicago Tribune's Clout Street blog is the story "GOP attacks Obama bus, but Bush did same," written by Rick Pearson. It begins:
As President Barack Obama traveled to the first of two “town hall” stops in western Illinois today, top national and state Republicans criticized his campaign-style visit and criticized his use of a taxpayer-funded Canadian-manufactured bus as part of a jobs tour.
But no mention was made by Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus or Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady that a re-election seeking President George W. Bush used a bus from the same manufacturer, Quebec-based Prevost, for a spring 2004 “Yes, America Can” campaign tour through the Midwest.
The writer reports, as the Associated Press has, that the $1.1 million Obama bus was purchased with tax dollars. But he ignores that the bus used by President Bush was leased by his 2004 campaign, using voluntary contributions. There's a world of difference, but why let facts get in the way of yet another effort to cover for the most inept president in history?
A May 5, 2004 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article titled "A busload of election fodder: Bush campaign rides into heart of manufacturing on Canada-built vehicle" reported:
The guts of the 45-foot-long bus were made in the United States, including the sturdy Detroit Diesel engine. And much of the value of the imposing coach was added during its conversion by a Nashville firm that also has included as its clients Aerosmith, Toby Keith, Britney Spears and Christian performers Amy Grant and Third Day.
And later:
The Bush campaign is leasing the president's bus and seven others from the Hemphill brothers of Nashville, from whom the campaign leased in 2000.
$1.1 million in tax dollars for Obama to travel in luxury for a few days as he bashes Republicans. We're the ones getting taken for a ride. But don't expect that to be worth a story in the mainstream media.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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