President's Dog, Bo, and Handler Flew Alone in a Separate Plane to Maine-Fiction!

President's Dog, Bo, and Handler Flew Alone in a Separate Plane to Maine-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor:
This is a forwarded email that says when President Obama flew to Maine with his family for their July 2010 vacation but there was not enough room on the plane for the family dog, Bo. It alleges that a separate plane had to be chartered for the First Pooch and his handler.

The Truth:
The President's dog, Bo, and his handler did travel to Maine on a second aircraft when the First Family travelled there in July 2010 for their Summer vacation, but Bo and handler were not alone. This eRumor surfaced a year later, in 2011, while the President and his family vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, 367 miles south of the airport where they landed a year earlier.

The Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton, Maine is a small airport and can not accommodate large aircraft such as the Boeing 747 that the President uses for Air Force One. For this reason two aircraft were needed for the entire entourage who accompanied the First Family.

Local reporters from the Morning Sentinel of Central Maine were on hand to cover the Obama's arrival at the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport but somehow not all the facts made it in it's first edition of the local paper. The original story reported that the first family arrived at the airport in a plane shortly after Bo and his handler were seen exiting another aircraft and left the impression that the dog and handler traveled alone on their own plane.

Some time after the story was released the newspaper added a clarification saying, "Today's story about the arrival of the Obama's said the Obama's dog and one aide arrived on a small jet before the First Family, but there were other occupants on the plane, including several other staffers. The presidential party took two small jets to the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton because the airport was too small to accommodate the president's usual jet."

Doug Powers wrote a commentary on that July 17, 2010 news story that appeared in the Morning Sentinel of Central Maine. It was then posted on the Michelle Malkin website but went viral on the World Wide Web a year later.

It appears Mr. Powers and Ms. Malkin posted the commentary prior to the Sentinel clarification, which resulted in the massive flood of emails on the Internet about the celebrity canine named Bo.

updated 09/11/11

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Can you believe this? He talks about saving money, evidently everyone but him.
Bo the portugese water dog, vacation's in Maine !

(I guess since they had to use the Gulfstream there just wasn't enough room for the dog and one other person, and they couldn't leave the dog behind)

Did you know that President Barack Hussein Obama flew Bo, their dog, in on a separate smaller jet to Maine for their vacation? I wonder if that sets well with all the unemployed, hurting, U S citizens who can't afford food, but pay for this. The above is true. I Googled "Bo the dog flying to Maine " and got 76,700 references verifying this. One of them follows:

Michelle Malkin: Just Plane Crazy: Obamas Dog Flies to Vacation on Separate Jet. Doug Powers: The Obamas arrived at their vacation spot in Maine, and the local paper, the Morning Sentinel, described the scene:

The president was the first to walk onto the tarmac, dressed casually in a pale blue Oxford shirt and khakis. A few minutes later, the
first lady, dressed in black caprice, a tank-top and sandals, walked onto the runway. Shortly afterward, Malia and Sasha joined their parents...

Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U S Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. and the presidents personal aide Reggie Love. The president, who said the rest of us are going to have to sacrifice to get out of these hard economic times, let his dog fly on his own plane? Not enough room on Air Force One (a Gulfstream on this trip) for a Portuguese water dog and Reggie Love?

Oh, by the way, Mr. Love, Bo's handler, is paid $102,000 a year to take care of him. What side of the ballot will you mark in November? This man is taking the nation for every cent he can and then some.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?