What's That Noise? Daddy's Home!
Once in a while, there's a roar and rumble that send vibrations through the mansion. It's bearable during the day – but yesterday, it happened at 10:45PM.
The silence of the evening was shattered as Marine One, with its two 3000-horsepower turbofan jet engines, brought Pres. Obama home from his first out-of-town trip that also included his first flight aboard Air Force One.
His return came after bedtime for daughters Malia and Sasha, ages 10 and 7. If the thunder of the chopper woke them, at least they knew that daddy was home.
"Hey guys, what do you think of this spiffy ride here?" he asked rhetorically about the 747 now at his disposal 24/7. "It's not bad," he declared in an obvious understatement.
He said he had been on Air Force One before – but as a guest of Pres. Bush. Now he was the Commander-in-Chief wearing the personalized flight jacket with the presidential seal over his right chest pocket and his name embroidered over the left. "Got my name on there," he said to make sure reporters didn't miss it.
"It's a spiffy jacket, isn't it?" he said with unabashed delight. He now seemed more convinced than at any time since he took office, that he was indeed – the President.
He enjoyed his first flight aboard Marine One too. "Very smooth, very impressive," he said. And he loved the view flying through the highly-restricted airspace of the nation's capital.
"Its spectacular," he said. "You go right over the Washington Monument and then you kind of curve in by the capitol. It was spectacular."
When it comes to the fleets of presidential aircraft, "spectacular" and "spiffy" appear to be the adjectives of choice.
He was still feeling the glow when he arrived in Williamsburg last evening to address House Democrats at their "issues conference."
"Thank you for giving me a reason to use Air Force One," said Mr. Obama. "It's pretty nice."
Okay. Add "nice" to "spectacular" and "spiffy."
Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House Correspondent.