The Daily Beast 'Bus Hoax' Hoax; Updated

Here's another (f)lie to swat:

On her book tour, Sarah Barracuda pretends to be one of the people. But she's really winging across the country on a private jet. As much of her entourage, including HarperCollins publicist Tina Andreadis, risked a collective case of White Line Fever, covering more than 3,000 road miles during the book tour’s first week, Sarah Palin herself seems to have remained above it all, apparently cosseted in the luxury of a Gulfstream II 12-passenger jet rented from Universal Jet Aviation of Boca Raton, Florida, at a cost of more than $4,000 per hour.

(...)

The bottom line is that the plane’s goings and comings track Palin’s tour perfectly: from Grand Rapids to Washington, Pa. and then to Rochester, N.Y., Roanoke, Va., Fayetteville, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., and Jacksonville and Orlando.

On the scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most disingenuous piece of crap I've ever read, that scores a solid 11. Let's look at the facts - it's not something journalists are supposed to do anymore these days, but humor me:

- on Wednesday the 18th of November, private jet UJT 750 flies from Teterboro (NJ) to Westchester (NY) to pick up Gov. Palin and her family members and personal aides to fly her to the place of the start of her bus tour, namely Grand Rapids (Mi). That same afternoon, the jet flies ahead to Washington County airport (Pa).

- Gov. Palin and her entourage then set off on a three day whistlestop bus tour of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. That's 650 miles in three days, with six stops in total. Not a bus tour?

- It's only three days later, on the 21st of November, that they use the private jet again to fly to Rochester (NY). Should they have done the five hour, 300+ mile journey by bus, just to satisfy Mr. McGinniss' craving for authenticity?

- On the evening of the same day (still the 21st), the jet flies them to the place of the next event, namely Roanoake (Va). A mere 550 miles, so Gov. Palin could easily have taken the bus, right? I mean, she would certainly have made it on time for her next event, which wasn't till 11am the next morning. Sure, she'd be dead on arrival, but hey: if Joe McGinniss says that's what it takes, then that's what it takes.

- late at night on the 21st, after having dropped the Palin gang off in Roanoke, the jet flies on ahead to Fayetteville (NC). Gov. Palin does the book signing in Roanoke, then jumps on a different jet to fly to Asheville for a private meeting and dinner with the Rev. Billy Graham and his son and daughter. Since this meeting was mainly devoted to the subject of religion, Joe McGinniss would probably have preferred if Gov. Palin had donned sackcloth and ashes and crawled the entire 260 mile distance on her hands and knees. Let's call that one a missed opportunity.

- Gov Palin and crew rejoin the jet on the 23rd in Fayetteville, following the book signing event at Fort Bragg. Apparently, the Palins did the math and came to the conclusion that it was impossible to cover the 500 mile stretch from Fayeteville to Birmingham (AL) in the two hours they had until the next event. Let's put this one down to bad scheduling (we gotta blame her for something, right, Joe?).

- The Birmingham event is a great success, with thousands of people shouting her name and... Sorry, that's not what McGinniss wants to hear. Let's talk flights. On the evening of the 23rd, the private jet (that's private as in: not state-owned. Is that still allowed in the age of Obama, you ask? That will be the subject of our next investigation) takes Gov. Palin from Birmingham to Jacksonville (FL), the place of the first of her three stops in the Sunshine State. The jet flies ahead to the destination of her final stop in the state, Orlando.

- Gov Palin covers the distance between the events by bus. That's another 2 stops and 200 miles on this non-bus tour. At the end of the first part of her book tour, for some reason, she decides against covering the 2,990 miles to Tri-Cities (WA) by bus, and instead opts for flying. Strange, I know.

So what's the point of this non-story? Ultimately, it's the same as the wardrobe saga. Liberal propagandists want you to believe that Palin is a fake populist, someone who claims to live frugally but really loves to live the high life. A sort of John Kerry in drag, if you like. It's their desperate attempt at stopping people from saying that she's "one of us". After all, how can she really be "like me" if she flies a private jet? Answer: she can, because she is. Doesn't matter if she flies a private jet, or even Air Force One: to your average, hard working American, she'll always just be Sarah from Alaska. And that's the way it is, Joe.

Update by Doug: When it comes to writing "disingenuous pieces of crap" about Governor Palin, Joe McGinness has a lot of experience. We have written multiple posts in the past about his efforts in this area. I thought it would be useful to quote from one such post:

Last week, Gov. Palin once again proved herself to be a woman of charity and grace when she refrained from calling the writer Joe McGinniss an idiot. She simply stated that the headline of his ill-informed hit piece in Condé Nast Portfolio is "idiotic." (I would have called him a lying smelly toenail fungus, but that's probably why I've never been elected to higher office.)

McGinniss was interviewed by John Roberts on CNN. Dermot Cole has the story.

We've covered McGinniss' idiocy here, here, here, and here. The real kicker is the press conference that Gov. Palin gave last week to discuss AGIA. Listen to it here.

I'm not going to rehash what we've already covered. Suffice to say -- she's right; he's wrong. Any questions? Follow the links.

UPDATE by VO: Jim Geraghty of National Review has an extensive article out today on McGinnis' hit piece. It's great.

UPDATE II by VO: One thing we should have mentioned - Dermot Cole at the News-Miner reveals that McGinniss has been lying about his interview and photo requests to the Governor. For instance, he's been saying that Palin would not cooperate with him unless she got a guarantee the piece would be favorable. Sharon Leighow, Mr. Bill's deputy, released the actual e-mails in question, and they reveal that Joe McGinniss is full of crap.

Joe McGinness, like HuffPo moron Geoffrey Dunn, is shopping a fictional book to attack Governor Palin. Can you say PDS? Texas4Palin has more on "planegate" here.