Obama's Limo 'The Beast' Bottoms Out & Gets Stuck in Ireland

President Obama loves to use the analogy of how he and Democrats are digging the economic "car" out of the ditch. So I wonder if the Republicans will soon fire back with a bunch of jokes about Obama's limo "The Beast" bottoming out and getting stuck today while on a trip in Ireland.

The AFP reports the incident -- which was loud -- occurred while the Obamas were leaving the U.S. Embassy in Dublin:

The first cars in the presidential motorcade emerged up the ramp from the car park beneath the complex in Ballsbridge and passed through the gates without incident, but The Beast quickly ran into trouble and got beached.

"The Beast was coming along and suddenly there was a loud kind of bang, metal-on-metal, grinding, crunching noise and the car was stuck," an RTE reporter said.

The reporter said that as it drove out, the car appeared to have got its low underbelly caught on a piece of metal sticking up that a gate might lock into.

RTE said Obama and his wife Michelle stayed in the car while security officials and police officers went running over to the stranded vehicle.

After a while, the Obamas switched to another car to drive to the Marine Force One helicopter waiting to whisk them to the village of Moneygall, where one of Obama's great-great-great-grandfathers came from.

Update: Later reports indicated that Obama was not in the vehicle that bottomed out.  He was in the second car right behind.  The first "Beast" served as the back-up vehicle.

Here's the short version of the incident:

And here's the two-minute version:

And for those who can't get enough and want to see everything, this is a six-minute clip from over on the blog:

I guess Irish eyes weren't smiling on Obama's motorcade today.

Still, it's likely "The Beast" will roll away without much damage. As the Daily Mail shows in the graphic below, its name is appropriate considering its construction:

The Mail reports "The Beast" was flown overseas for Obama's European visit at the insistence of the Secret Service, which is cramping down on security even more in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death.