“font-size: 10pt; font-family: MyriadPro-BoldCond, sans-serif;”>Jamestown, N.C. — “font-size: 10pt; font-family: Times-Roman, serif;”>President Barack Obama appealed a new Tuesday for Americans to put pressure on Republican members of Congress to support his jobs legislation, declaring that “we are in this together.”
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Jamestown,
N.C. — President
Barack Obama appealed a new Tuesday for Americans to put pressure
on Republican members of Congress to support his jobs legislation,
declaring that “we are in this together.”
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And Obama said he hit
the road to take his case directly to the people for a simple
reason: “I’m the president. “On
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the second-day of a
three-day tour to continue pushing his ideas for creating jobs,
Obama acknowledged he’s been asked why he is taking time to ride a
bus through small-town North Carolina, a traditionally Republican
state that he won in 2008 and hopes to win again.
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“I’m not the
Democratic president or the Republican president,” Obama said at a
community college in Jamestown, N.C. “… I don’t care if you’re a
Republican or a Democrat because we’re all Americans.”
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Although Republicans
blocked his $447 billion jobs plan in the Senate, Obama is
continuing an aggressive effort to rally public support for his
ideas and to portray Republicans as the ones standing in the way of
creating jobs at a time of high unemployment.
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“We don’t need a
Republican jobs act or a Democratic jobs act. We need a jobs act,”
the president said. “We need to put people back to work right now.”
He has said that lawmakers will break up the bill and vote on its
individual components.
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Obama said the ideas
in his jobs bill previously have been supported by lawmakers in
both parties. “What makes it different
this time other than that I proposed it,” he asked. Obama’s ride
for this trip through winding mountain roads isn’t his usual mode
of transportation, the modified aircraft known as Air Force
Once.
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Rather, it’s a sleek,
million dollar Secret Service-approved bus that’s giving the
president a chance to sit back, admire the colorful fall foliage
and bask in some small-town Southern hospitality.
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“Saw the mountains,
saw some lakes, saw all the wonderful people in this part of the
country,” Obama said Monday during a speech in rural Millers Creek.
“Even the folks who don’t vote for me are nice,” he
added.
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At the heart of
Obama’s three-day bus trip through North Carolina and Virginia is
the sales pitch for elements of the jobs bill. But the president is
also selling himself, an incumbent running for re-election, trying
to re-energize voters whose enthusiasm may have waned.
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That’s particularly
important in North Carolina, a state Obama wrested from Republicans
in 2008, but which could slip out of his grasp next November. To
try to recapture some of his electoral appeal, Obama turned to
campaign staples: barbecue, babies and barrels of candy.
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Obama spent more than
four hours Monday driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains, which
were bright with red and orange fall leaves. He stopped off in
Marion, population 8,075, for lunch at Countryside Barbeque. He
ordered at the counter— the barbecue platter and sweet tea — then
spent more than half an hour shaking hands and having his picture
taken with the lunchtime crowd.
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The tech-savvy
president even helped one woman figure out how to take a photo on
her smartphone.
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Obama had a close
encounter with one baby boy: “I think you got some biscuit on me,”
he said as he handed the child back to his mother.
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And he made personal
appeals for his economic policies, telling one table of local
businessmen about his call for $50 billion more in new
infrastructure spending. He said, “We’re going to have to do it
eventually, so why not do it now?”
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Obama’s unscheduled
stops aren’t wholly impromptu. White House staffers typically scope
out areas in advance and Secret Service officers arrive well ahead
of the president.
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But they’re about as
spontaneous as it gets for the president, and afford him the
freedom of personal, retail politics that’s often missing in the
highly scripted White House.
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Obama’s bus, as well
as the staff and press vans that followed behind, passed crowds of
people lined up on the sidewalks of small towns and residents
sitting on lawn chairs in their front yards.
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A group of
schoolchildren gathered outside their classrooms, waving small
American flags.
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A man pulled his car
over to the side of the road and saluted as the commander in chief
sped by.
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One woman held a sign
reading “We believe. We voted. Now What?” That message underscored
the challenge
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Obama faces as he
seeks to rally his supporters ahead of the 2012
election.
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Key to Obama’s 2008
success in North Carolina was his campaign’s ability to boost voter
turnout among young people.
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And there were plenty
of them in Boone, home to Appalachian State University, when Obama
stopped Monday at Mast General Store.
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The store was filled
with barrels of candy, which Obama started grabbing by the handful—
to help the White House prepare for Halloween, he said.
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“On Halloween, the
first lady doesn’t mind,” Obama said of his health-conscious wife.
Day two of Obama’s bus trip was ending in Hampton, Va., with hours
of drive time in between to give Obama plenty more chances for
unscheduled stops.
- Julie Pace, Associated Press