No more room on the Obama plane anymore for Washington Times and others

The Washington Times, N.Y. Post and Dallas Morning News -- three newspapers that recently endorsed John McCain -- have been kicked off Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's plane in the final days of his campaign.

The Obama campaign informed The Washington Times Thursday evening of its decision, which came two days after The Times editorial page endorsed Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama. The Times editorial page runs completely independently of the news department.

"This feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars covering Senator Obama's campaign, traveling on his plane, and taking our turn in the reporters' pool, only to have our seat given away to someone else in the last days of the campaign," said Washington Times Executive Editor John Solomon.

News organizations pay campaigns for the cost of traveling on the candidate's planes.

Read The Washington Times' editorial on the endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.

Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass said the changes on the plane had "absolutely nothing" to do with the organizations' coverage, an explanation echoed by Obama advisor and communications chief Anita Dunn.

"Demand for seats on the plane during this final weekend has far exceeded supply, and because of logistical issues we made the decision not to add a second plane. This means we've had to make hard and unpleasant for all concerned decisions about limiting some news organizations and in some cases not being in a position to offer space to news organizations altogether," Ms. Dunn wrote in an e-mail to The Times Thursday night.

However, the Politico reported Friday that political considerations also were part of the decision. Bill Burton, another Obama spokesman, said the seat shuffles were an effort by the campaign to "reach as many swing voters as we can."

Bman wrote:Hey there paper endorsed the opponent we have so many seats aboard OUR plane ... let them fly commercial if they want to cover Obama still. I want my campaign protecting the press that endorsed up to be honest with you. If my contributions are paying for that fuel and there are limited numbers of seats this donor says those seats better have NICE asses in them.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them, because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted...

Jugomugo wrote:http://www.umwa.org/index.php?q=news/mccain-campaign%E2%80%99s-last-minute-distortion-obama%E2%80%99s-coal-record-act-desperation

McCain campaign’s last minute distortion of Obama’s coal record an act of desperation - United Mine Workers of America