"David Reinhart" wrote in message
...
| I've been using news.google.com to see what kind of reaction the CBS story
has
| been generating the in the press and the answer is pretty much: zero.
|
| I agree they're a bunch of jackasses and we should try and get them to
change
| their tune, but I'm not, at this point, all that concerned about the
damage
| they've done to GA. I've pummeled them with emails and I have draft
responses
| ready to go should anything show up in our local papers, etc., but so far
| nothing.
|

I suspect that these stories are a political trial balloon. They will be
followed up with polls asking if the public feels safe from small airplanes
and if they think the Bush administration should do more to ensure security
at small airports. If the polls show that the public is not particularly
concerned even after these broadcasts then we will never hear about them.

OTOH, if the polls show that the public is sensitive about this issue, watch
for more polls questioning the administration's competence on national
security. Democratic candidates will begin talking about how the Bush
administration is doing a poor job in securing small airports and that the
war in Iraq is draining money that should be used for security instead.

Expect minor candidates to bring up the issue first. If it affects the
polls, then major candidates will trot out sympathetic pilots who will
demand that the government do something to protect our airplanes and our
airports. It may never become a major campaign issue, but it might get brief
mention in advertisements critical of the Bush administration.

If the Democrats win, then they will fulfill their campaign promises by
providing some kind of aid for small airports, probably in the form of loans
to buy fencing, gates, prop locks and the like. Or perhaps the Republicans
will develop similar aid programs just to show that they are doing
something. IOW the pilots and airports will still have to pay for it, but
the politicians will take all the credit.

Expect insurance rates to go up at airfields that have less security, too.

So you see that it really does not matter much what the public believes.
Sooner or later a lot of time and effort will be spent on small airport
security and we will have to pay for it ourselves even as the government
says it is helping us.