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Another one thrown under the bus

Larrry

Well-known member
White House aide Louis Caldera loses job over Manhattan flyover fiasco involving Air Force One

By Kenneth R. Bazinet
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - The White House aide who authorized the controversial Air Force One photo-op flight last week around the Statue of Liberty is out of a job.

President Obama has accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office, the Daily News learned Friday.

A secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration, Caldera took the fall for the public relations fiasco arising from the April 27 flyover, which was designed to replace a publicity photo of Air Force One flying past Mount Rushmore with a similar shot of Obama's 747 jumbo jet over the Statue of Liberty.

Caldera's office insisted the flyover was a "classified" mission and should not be disclosed to the public, ensuring that thousands of New Yorkers would be blindsided by an event eerily reminiscent of the 9/11 terror attacks against the Twin Towers.

Federal officials notified Mayor Bloomberg's office and NYPD officials in advance, but Bloomberg was not informed, infuriating the mayor.

Caldera shoulders the blame in deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina's review into how the decision was made to go ahead with the photo mission.

"The FAA warned the Military Office that the media needed to be advised of the flight. There were red flags," said an administration source.

Many White House officials were angry at Caldera over the stunt. "This (incident) was just plain stupid," one Obama aide said.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apologized for the flyover in a letter Tuesday to Sen. John McCain, who posted the memo on his Senate Web site Friday.

"I am concerned that this highly public and visible mission did not include an appropriate public affairs plan nor adequate review and approval by senior Air Force and DOD [Department of Defense] officials," Gates said in the letter.

"We deeply regret the anxiety and alarm that resulted from this mission," he added.
 

Texan

Well-known member
It's almost inconceivable that the approval for this stunt didn't go higher into the White House. I really don't think that the President necessarily knew about it, but it's hard for me to believe that it wasn't approved by Rahm Emanuel.

And now they've ended some mid-level bureaucrat's career over it. Now they've released ONE picture. But yet....they don't mind releasing documents and photos to embarrass a previous Administration and to embarrass the people who protect us?

Is this the "transparency" that we were promised?

This White House continues to treat the people in this country like we're all fools - instead of just SOME of you. Why is this okay with you Obama supporters? Why aren't we hearing you neokoms speak out against more of this crap?
 

Texan

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
He messed up.....he got fired.....GOOD!!!
Do you actually believe that he made the decision to do that all on his own? You think he has the authority to just commandeer a spare Air Force One and have the military loan him a fighter and spend over $300,000 so he can take one picture? :lol:
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Texan said:
kolanuraven said:
He messed up.....he got fired.....GOOD!!!
Do you actually believe that he made the decision to do that all on his own? You think he has the authority to just commandeer a spare Air Force One and have the military loan him a fighter and spend over $300,000 so he can take one picture? :lol:


It seems that HE is the top man in the dept, so it also ' seems like' he made the arrangements and decision himself.


You guys always said that Bush could not look after every detail and that's why he delegated and had dept heads...and apparently this guy filled that bill.

He's gone...it's over....gonna have to find something else to biatch about. :wink:
 

Mike

Well-known member
It seems that HE is the top man in the dept, so it also ' seems like' he made the arrangements and decision himself.

White House "AIDE". In other words he's an AIDE to Zer0.

Sure hope Zer0 can appoint people with better judgment than this clown.

Wasn't he an AIDE to the Clinton admin?

This ain't "CHANGE" we're getting, it's simple stupidity on the part of the decision maker and the one who appointed him.
 

hopalong

Well-known member
The old saying that crap flows downhill is in effect here, NO way would an aide have that kind of pull to do this without someone higher up saying GO FOR IT :!:
That is why he got fired! low man on the pole always gets crapped on first!!
 

Larrry

Well-known member
If I would have had an aide that overstepped his authority like bamer claims there would have been fur flying before the plane landed. I woulda had him clear his desk before the day was out and informing the press of such. But the ole zero was mum for how many days?
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Cynics all of you.

You're reading too much into this.

This guy resigned, because he felt that it distracted from Obama's true agenda. That's probably why he didn't ask for the proper approval, everybody was busy, being leaders.

He should have been more observant, and noticed that this administration does not spend enough time on the President's public image, and pushed for the approval that is necessary.

"I am concerned that this highly public and visible mission did not include an appropriate public affairs plan nor adequate review and approval by senior Air Force and DOD (Department of Defense) officials," Gates said.

The photo was very nice though. It shows that the rightwinger nuts were just fearmongering over this. The F16's were only there, so they could be included in the photo op. That's why they needed 2, one pilot to be behind Air force one, and one pilot to take the photos.

This guy should have never ordered those pilots to break any altitude rules. He knows that they will follow any order given by an "aide", and should never have put them in that career ending position.

A picture taken from that altitude would never have frightened those NYorkers. No wonder the NY authorities were told not to inform the public, it would have just caused undue panic.

they musn't have been aware that air force pilots, will never question the orders or judgement of an aide to the "President".
 
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