HonestChieffan
08-14-2011, 02:11 PM
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Obama heads to heartland to talk jobs
By: Brian Hughes
The dust will have barely settled after a weeklong Republican spectacle in Iowa when President Obama comes riding into the Hawkeye State on Monday to kick off a campaign-style tour of Midwestern states and to tout his plans to fix the economy.
Obama will spend three days hosting town hall meetings in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to counter the steady stream of criticism he has faced because of an unpopular debt deal, stubbornly high unemployment and an unprecedented downgrade of the nation's credit rating.
The president will arrive in Iowa, a state he carried in 2008, just after the Republican presidential contenders wrap up a debate and straw poll that each of them used to heap scorn on the president and his policies, particularly his inability to turn around a sagging economy.
Though home-state Illinois is firmly in Obama's camp, the event will serve as notice to voters in battlegrounds Iowa and Minnesota, as well as neighboring Wisconsin, of the president's message on job creation. The president vowed to release specific proposals to create new jobs in coming days.
Some political observers say the timing of the trip is fitting for the president, considering the recent pummeling he took from GOP presidential contenders and the importance of demonstrating his economic acumen.
"It's smart just to make sure that people don't think you're missing in action," said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Des Moines. "Right now, everybody's attention, regardless of their party affiliation, is on the Republican side."
On Monday, Obama will answer questions from the public in Cannon Falls, Minn., and in Decorah, Iowa. He will spend the next two days hosting a rural economic forum in Peosta, Iowa, and two town halls in Illinois.
Republicans dismissed the bus tour as another example of Obama behaving like a "campaigner in chief," though administration officials say he is merely connecting with voters on an issue of critical importance.
"The president views it as one of the chief responsibilities in office to spend some time outside Washington, talking to people all across the country about the economy and about how they're impacted by the policy decisions that he's making here in Washington," said deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest. "That isn't just an appropriate thing for a president to do, it's something that a president should do."
The White House, not Obama's re-election team, is coordinating the trip.
With so much economic uneasiness, however, Obama might not receive the same type of reception he did as a candidate crisscrossing the Midwest in 2008 when voters were receptive to his message of hope and change.
Though Obama is unlikely to criticize any GOP rivals by name, the White House has offered a preview as to how he will characterize the Republican Party in general.
Much as he did in a recent speech at a Michigan battery factory, Obama will assail Republicans for moving further out of the mainstream and as unwilling to compromise if it conflicts with their political agenda.
After the bus tour ends, Obama will travel with his family to Martha's Vineyard on Thursday for a 10-day vacation.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/08/obama-heads-heartland-talk-jobs?utm_source=feedburnerdcexaminer%2FPolitics&utm_medium=feedExaminerPolitics&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dcexaminer%2FPolitics+%28ExaminerPolitics%29feed&utm_content=feed&utm_term=feed#ixzz1V2HilDEk
http://weaselzippers.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Obama-phone-facepalm.jpg
Obama heads to heartland to talk jobs
By: Brian Hughes
The dust will have barely settled after a weeklong Republican spectacle in Iowa when President Obama comes riding into the Hawkeye State on Monday to kick off a campaign-style tour of Midwestern states and to tout his plans to fix the economy.
Obama will spend three days hosting town hall meetings in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to counter the steady stream of criticism he has faced because of an unpopular debt deal, stubbornly high unemployment and an unprecedented downgrade of the nation's credit rating.
The president will arrive in Iowa, a state he carried in 2008, just after the Republican presidential contenders wrap up a debate and straw poll that each of them used to heap scorn on the president and his policies, particularly his inability to turn around a sagging economy.
Though home-state Illinois is firmly in Obama's camp, the event will serve as notice to voters in battlegrounds Iowa and Minnesota, as well as neighboring Wisconsin, of the president's message on job creation. The president vowed to release specific proposals to create new jobs in coming days.
Some political observers say the timing of the trip is fitting for the president, considering the recent pummeling he took from GOP presidential contenders and the importance of demonstrating his economic acumen.
"It's smart just to make sure that people don't think you're missing in action," said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Des Moines. "Right now, everybody's attention, regardless of their party affiliation, is on the Republican side."
On Monday, Obama will answer questions from the public in Cannon Falls, Minn., and in Decorah, Iowa. He will spend the next two days hosting a rural economic forum in Peosta, Iowa, and two town halls in Illinois.
Republicans dismissed the bus tour as another example of Obama behaving like a "campaigner in chief," though administration officials say he is merely connecting with voters on an issue of critical importance.
"The president views it as one of the chief responsibilities in office to spend some time outside Washington, talking to people all across the country about the economy and about how they're impacted by the policy decisions that he's making here in Washington," said deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest. "That isn't just an appropriate thing for a president to do, it's something that a president should do."
The White House, not Obama's re-election team, is coordinating the trip.
With so much economic uneasiness, however, Obama might not receive the same type of reception he did as a candidate crisscrossing the Midwest in 2008 when voters were receptive to his message of hope and change.
Though Obama is unlikely to criticize any GOP rivals by name, the White House has offered a preview as to how he will characterize the Republican Party in general.
Much as he did in a recent speech at a Michigan battery factory, Obama will assail Republicans for moving further out of the mainstream and as unwilling to compromise if it conflicts with their political agenda.
After the bus tour ends, Obama will travel with his family to Martha's Vineyard on Thursday for a 10-day vacation.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/08/obama-heads-heartland-talk-jobs?utm_source=feedburnerdcexaminer%2FPolitics&utm_medium=feedExaminerPolitics&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dcexaminer%2FPolitics+%28ExaminerPolitics%29feed&utm_content=feed&utm_term=feed#ixzz1V2HilDEk