In a little over a month,
Barack Obama will
briefly bring the world's
biggest political roadshow
to Ireland, before
jetting off to London
for a state visit, and then on to
France for G8 meetings.
The sixth US presidential sojourn
to the Emerald Isle since
1995 may leave jaded cynics a bit
blasé about Obama's arrival.
But, given the logistical and financial
scale of the impending
operation, it's clear that presidential
tours still aim to wow any
and all in their path.
The purported price tag of one
of Obama's recent overseas jaunts
sent American conservatives into
a tizzy last November when it was
claimed that his state visit to India
would cost a staggering $200m
per day.
That figure, an anonymous Indian
official allegedly claimed,
stemmed from an entourage that
allegedly included 3,000 Secret
Service agents and 34 US Navy
warships and an aircraft carrier.
Right-wing media outlets went
ballistic. The White House and
the Pentagon branded the estimates
"wildly inflated" and "comical".
The website FactCheck.org
then exposed the absurdity of the
claim by pointing out that the
cost of all daily operations in the
Afghanistan war is $190m.
A National Security Council
spokesman told the Belfast Telegraph
that, leaving aside the fact
that the conservative rumour mill
greatly exaggerated that trip's real
costs, necessity dictates that presidential
visits are costly affairs.
"You've got the head of state of
one of the most powerful countries
in the world. And you've got
to protect him.
"It comes down to the security
of the president," he said.
"And there are a lot of things
going on besides the president's
meetings. There are a lot of side
meetings going on."
Discovering the full cost of such
trips isn't easy. Citing national security
concerns, spokespeople for
the White House, the Pentagon,
the State Department, and the
National Security Council all declined
to give specifics.
Neither would these spokespeople
discuss whether any members
of Congress, or Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, will be accompanying
Obama to Ireland.
One official familiar with the
trip's planning said that it is far too
early to finalise all the details.
What's certain is that Obama's
European trip, with stops in Ireland,
Britain and France, will be
between May 23 and 28. It is believed
Ireland will be his first stop.
An indication of the scope of
such trips is provided in the last
official breakdown of the costs of
a foreign trip by an Oval Office occupant
the General Accounting
Office's 1999 report on Bill Clinton's
visits to Africa, Chile, and
China the previous year.
According to the GOA, Clinton's
12-day African visit cost
$42.8m, while the tabs for his 5-
day Chilean trip and 9-day Chinese
trip were $10.5m and $18.8m
respectively.
Although outlays for Secret Service
personnel remain classified,
it's clear that the lion's share of the
expenses are military.
For example, Department of
Defense outlays accounted for
88% of costs in Africa, 82% in
Chile, and 74% in China.
These are hardly shocking percentages
given the hardware and
people the department moves on
these trips.
In Africa, for example, 11 fixedwing
aircraft were used to ferry
some 1,300 people accompanying
the president, as well as the
presidential limousine and five
military helicopters.
Of the people on the African
trip, 904 were military personnel,
205 were White House staff,
16 were members of Congress,
and the rest were from various
government agencies and departments.
"I was privileged to travel on Air
Force One on a number of occasions.
And, like everybody else,
was pretty awed and amazed by
the travel," said Jim Lyons, a Denver-
based lawyer who acted as
Bill Clinton's special economic
the Republic between 1997 and
2000.
Since Clinton's 1998 trips, America
was rocked by the 9/11 attacks.
And, with America now at war, it's
likely that Obama's entourage will
make an even heavier footprint
when it lands in Ireland.
By this stage, advanced Secret
Service teams have already visited
Ireland at least once to survey
the security landscape. In fact, it
is common for State Department,
Secret Service and the White
House staff to each make three visits
to a given country before any
president actually arrives.
The first visits identify potential
event sites. The second narrow
that number down, and the third
which usually take place seven
days prior to the visit see the
final sites chosen, and specialised
communications and security
equipment installed.
Given the time still remaining
before his Irish trip, the White
House has not yet released firm
details regarding his itinerary.
However, in addition to events in
Dublin including a likely speech
at Croke Park it's expected that
he'll visit the Co Offaly village of
Moneygall, the touchstone of his
Irish roots.
It was from here that Fulmuth
Kearney, Obama's great, great,
great grandfather on his mother's
side, left for America in 1850.
Dublin-born Stella O'Leary,
who Obama recently named as
an alternate American observer to
the International Fund for Ireland,
said that the president's
Irish interest is heartfelt.
"He is absolutely intrigued with
his (Irish ancestry). He loves it
and can't wait to get to Moneygall,"
said O'Leary, who also heads
the Irish-American Democrats political
action committee.
"Not only has he shown enormous
interest, but he seems to
have read a great deal about (Ireland),"
added O'Leary. "He's particularly
interested in this Fredrick
Douglas-Daniel O'Connell association
in Cork."
During a White House St
Patrick's Day event with Taoiseach
Enda Kenny at his side, Obama recounted
how famed African-
American abolitionist leader
Fredrick Douglas had left America
for Cork in 1845 to escape fugitive
slave hunters.
Obama has been invited to visit
University College Cork to unveil
a statue to Douglas, but it's unclear
whether scheduling will allow the
visit. The chances of a trip to
Northern Ireland, while not nil,
also appear very slim.
Given state visit protocols,
Obama would first be expected to
visit London to meet David
Cameron before undertaking such
a journey a scenario considered
unlikely.
But why exactly is Barack
Obama visiting Ireland at all? And
why is he doing so now? No doubt
he's seen film footage of Bill and
Hillary Clinton's rapturous receptions
from cheering throngs across
the island. Perhaps he'd like a bit
of the rock-star treatment himself.
Or is Obama's Irish stopover
chiefly motivated by political pragmatism?
After all, if America's
economy is still in a rut next year,
the 2012 presidential sweepstakes
are bound to be tight, and Irish-Americans will be as valued a constituency
as any in the
US.
Jim Lyons said
such calculations
probably weren't foremost
in Obama's
mind when he
gave the thumbsup
to an Irish visit.
He added: "From my
sense, Irish-America, if there
is such a thing and I'm not
sure there is has become
more conservative
over time and
less liberal, for want
of a better word.
That's not strange.
That has been the
history of most immigrant
groups in the
country."
Lyons also thinks it's
unfair to compare
Obama's Irish involvement
to that of Clinton.
"If you look over the
forty-some-odd presidents
that we've had,
and ask 'Who's had
the greatest impact
in Ireland, North
and South?',
frankly, there's
Bill Clinton and
there's everybody
else. He's in a league all by himself."
Lyons said that's partly because
there were "unique circumstances"
of the developing peace
process that drew Clinton in. By
contrast, he added, Obama has
put "an enormous amount of time
and energy into his domestic
agenda, which culminated in
health insurance reform".
"Then in his second year,
like every other leader, he
watched the world economy
slide off the table.
And he's been dealing
with that ever
since," Lyons said.
Bruce Morrison,
a former
Connecticut
congressman
who helped
convince Bill
Clinton to
throw the
power of his
presidency
behind the
peace
process,
also feels
it's unfair
to use Clinton
as a
measuring
stick for
Obama's Irish involvement.
"It's not fair to President Obama
to compare his situation to President
Clinton's. Bill Clinton was
the lynchpin of the peace process,"
said Morrison, who was part of
Clinton's entourage when he first
visited Belfast in November 1995.
"The world is different now.
The environment in Northern Ireland
is different.
"The environment in the Republic
of Ireland is different. And
so it's a different chapter," said
the Maryland-based lobbyist.
Morrison thinks Obama is genuinely
interested in exploring another
chapter of his ancestral
story. "Once you become president,
the Irish find out even if
it goes back to King Canute
when you were connected with
Ireland," chuckled Morrison.
"It is the essence of Irishness to
believe that somewhere in history
everybody of achievement must
have Irish roots.
"This is the notion that this little
place has sprung forth millions
around the world.
"You know, it's a great bloodline,"
he said.
"That's the way Irish-America
welcomes people into the family,"
Morrison added.
"And even if people have no
known connection from an ethnic
standpoint to Ireland, adopted
sons and daughters are always
welcome."
