Plane and Simple
WASHINGTON -- It was a typical morning on the trail with the Hillary Clinton campaign, with reporters gathering early at the assigned traveling press hotel here in Washington. Across town, the traveling press corps for Barack Obama was doing the same thing. Both candidates took a timeout from campaigning yesterday to be in Washington for hearings on Capitol Hill, but today, it's back on the trail again.
The press was scheduled to depart from Dulles International Airport, about 45 minutes outside of Washington. We boarded the bus where coffee and bagels were being served. As we do most mornings, the bus pulled up to an empty parking lot where Secret Service and police awaited our arrival. Part of the routine of traveling with a presidential candidate is having to deal with strict security procedures put in place by the Secret Service.
For example, our departure time may not be until, say, 11 a.m., but the press is required to arrive at the airport as much as two hours before the flight (and two hours before the candidate arrives) in order to undergo what is called a "security sweep." Police officers with K-9s search our luggage to make sure there is no security threat to the candidate and reporters are also patted down. As we stood in the chilly morning air to be "swept", another bus arrived, this one carrying a larger Obama press corps.
At this stage in the campaign, there are several factors that help determine a candidate's standing in the race, such as polls, how much money a candidate has raised and how much press coverage a particular candidate is getting. There is no doubt that in this close Democratic nomination, both candidates are at the center of news coverage, but Obama certainly has many more reporters following him and therefore a larger press airplane.
As the Clinton press corps arrived onto the tarmac, there sat two planes: a Boeing 757-200 series with 35 rows and 190 seats. Beside it, the Clinton plane, a Boeing 717 with 22 rows and 88 seats. Although there are not 190 people traveling with Obama, there are more reporters, more still photographers and video crews onboard his airplane.
A larger plane means more cost, and although the press subsidizes a good portion of the chartered flight cost, the campaign pays a part of the bill for its traveling staff. The smaller airplane is evidence that the Clinton campaign is watching every dollar; she is being outraised by her opponent 2 to 1 at this point in the campaign.
A smaller airplane also means less privacy. Clinton now sits nine rows ahead of the first press seat and will have to share a lavatory, as the airplane is only equipped with one. Clinton was used to much more privacy in the early months of the campaign when she traveled throughout Iowa on private jets, a move some critics point to as part of her ongoing money troubles.
Although the current plane is not a permanent one, at the moment, it's a sign of the ongoing struggles facing a campaign where just months ago the sky was the limit.