Air Obama's not-so-friendly skies

In total, media outlets have paid $9.6 million to the Obama campaign to travel with it. They've spent less than half that amount — $4.4 million — to travel with the McCain campaign, though that difference stems in large part from different travel schedules, overhead costs and billing standards, as well as from the prolonged Democratic primary that dominated media attention for months after the Republican race ended. On Thursday, Sen Barack Obama's campaign decided to pull the seats for reporters from The Washington Times, New York Post and Dallas Morning News — all papers that endorsed John McCain. The "demand for seats on the plane during this final weekend has far exceeded supply, and because of logistical issues we made the decision not to add a second plane," the campaign said. Both the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune had staffers returning to the plane, meaning fewer seats were available. The New York Daily News, another paper that's been on the plane (and that has endorsed Obama), has a seat now but might lose it on Monday. Though dozens of other news organizations had put in requests, the campaign decided that there still wouldn't have been enough outlets to fill 150 seats on a second plane, and that costs would have been prohibitive if only part of a second plane had been filled.