Boehner Demands Obama Campaign to Pony Up For Trips

A small handful of states will determine who will be the next president and University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato explains the landscape:

This is the electoral map as of today, as predicted by Larry Sabato:

It is a little-known Electoral College tidbit that a president reelected to a second term has always added a state to his coalition that he did not win during his first successful run. Sometimes, in the early days of the Republic, it was a state that didn’t exist during a president’s first bid. But it appears that Obama, if reelected, will break this trend. The only state John McCain won that Obama appears to have a chance of flipping is Arizona, but that is a long shot that would require a massive turnout effort by the Obama campaign among Hispanic voters.

You may have noticed President Obama's frequent trips to these swing states. He has traveled to them so frequently that Speaker of the House Boehner has called for the Obama re-election campaign to repay the taxpayers for some of this activity. The Obama campaign claims he will only truly be beginning to campaign next week.

“Presidents have the ability to use Air Force One and all the tools of the federal government to do official business, and when you look at almost all of the presidents, they find official business to do along with their campaigning,” Boehner said. “But this one does not pass the straight face test. You know it, and I know it. So it’s time for the Obama campaign to pony up and reimburse” taxpayers.

If he hasn't been really campaigning yet, Katie bar the door.

The RNC has a complaint about the excessive travel, too:

Boehner made the comment Thursday - one day after the Republican National Committee filed a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office accusing the Obama reelection campaign, or Obama for America, of misusing tax dollars for the president’s reelection.

“Obama for America has been cheating the American taxpayer by using taxpayer dollars to fund their general election efforts,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “The president, who has held more campaign events in 3.5 years than any other president did in their full term, should refund the taxpayers for the cost of these trips through his campaign account Obama for America.”

As with everything else in the Obama administration, the re-election team is milking the taxpayer for all they can. Barack Obama has far surpassed any previous president in his penchant for traveling to pander for swing state votes.

Is this the change the voters hoped for in 2008?