Mitt Romney’s Press Bus Is All-American — Which Is To Say, Kind Of Second-Rate

Reporters hunt for outlets on American-made bus.

Fighting for power on the Romney press bus.

Image by Zeke Miller

The 23 reporters following Mitt Romney is reduced to using three power strips taped to the sides of the bus for a long drive from Des Moines to western Iowa today (and then an even longer one back to the East of the state), because the charter bus isn’t designed with power outlets.

Making matters even worse, the bus driver, Rich (who said it was company policy not to give his last name), informed the press pack that we can only charge a handful of devices at a time, or risk blowing out the entire system. “We only have 440 watt inverters,” he said.

The bus driver explained that the Romney campaign could have chartered one that could have met reporters’ power needs, but said his company doesn’t have any that were made in the United States, prompting the Romney campaign to go with the jury-rigged system. It’s an indication of of the meticulous detail with which the Romney organization plans its operations — and of its unsurprising preference for total message discipline above all else.

“Pretty cool if you ask me,” Rich said approvingly.

Though it’s not doing anything for Romney’s call to “believe in America.”