Right before his primary loss to Hillary Clinton, this is how Barack Obama summed up Pennsylvania voters. "[T]hey get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Now he's decided to make Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley the very first stop in his "White House to Main Street" listening tour. He'll be here, in all his presidential splendor, on Friday. But guess what? He's coming smack dab in the middle of deer hunting season, when somewhere around 750,000 Pennsylvanians will be clinging to their guns, blasting away, shooting each other, dropping over with heart attacks and slapping deer carcasses on the roofs of their SUVs. If he really wants everyone's attention, he needs to get a nonresident doe license and look for a tree stand on the edge of some cornfield.Here's how the White House explains Obama's LV visit:
"In an effort to spend some time out of Washington and talk to Americans about what they are experiencing during this challenging economic recovery, the President will spend the day in cities and towns across the country regularly over the next several months. As part of his visit to the region, President Obama will deliver remarks to area students, educators, business owners, and members of the community at Lehigh Carbon Community College."
I doubt he'll see many of them thar' gun clingers. It also appears that he'll be doing lots of the talking. But how much will he be listening?
Air Force One will touch down at Allentown’s Lehigh Valley International Airport at 10:20 AM. Obama will deliver a speech (while he's listening) at Lehigh Carbon Community College (Berrier Hall Gymnasium, 4525 Education Park Dr, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania). It's scheduled to start at 11:50 AM. Unless he goes off to some hunting cabin or visits a Mennonite church, Obama will be back in the air at 4:05 PM, back to his world of elitists.
According to Scott Kraus at Pennsylvania Avenue, there's a good chance the Prez will see how the little people live with a pit stop at the Ham Fam. That would probably be right after he finishes his LCCC speech. Now that's a regular Pawlowski haunt, so Obama should get a chance to listen to a fellow Chicago politician-turned Allentown Mayor and minister talk about Jesus and then get stuck with the bill.
Praise the Lord!
While he's listening, Obama may also do a "walking tour" of several area businesses and schools. Since this is Allentown, that should be the briefest part of his listening tour. I just hope he stays away from city parks and those damn boy scouts. The Secret Service might have to wrestle a few SEIU goons to the ground.
Now this is an official, not a campaign, visit. But guess what? The Prez will still squeeze Bethlehem Mayor. Congressional candidate and former Hillary Clinton supporter John Callahan into his listening tour. Isn't that nice? Since Callahan has yet to say anything about anything, this should take all of ten seconds.
Maybe Callahan will finally tell Obama how he'd vote on health care. Maybe he'll even advise the Prez to raise taxes. After all, Callahan has voted for or endorsed tax increases seven times in seven years (2002, twice in 2004, twice in 2005, 2006, 2009). Maybe Callahan will tell the President how much he loves Obama's national energy tax proposal. After all, that will only cost middle class families $2,000 a year. That will only cost Pennsylvania, the third largest coal consumer and fourth largest coal producer in the nation, about 60,000 jobs. Maybe they can get new stimulus jobs, cleaning the cans in the casinos.
Whatever Callahan tells Obama, I'm sure it will be their little secret.
Whatever the White House calls it, this is no listening tour. Official visit or not, it's politics. Obama's daily approval ratings are tanking.
45 comments:
Aren't we the catty little bitch tonight. Meoooww!!!
You really have all the Shawn Millan talking points down cold. Are you hoping for another new computer?
Meeoowww
This is an O'Hare original. Glad you like it.
I find the whole notion of his listening tour insulting. This is a guy who already has all the answers, and sure isn't looking for anything from people who cling to guns and religion. if he were, he'd wait until deer season was over.
It's politics, baby. he wants to revive his sinking daily approval ratings and give callahan a shot in the arm. He'll probably pose with a few grade school kids. I just hope he isn't asked to read a story.
I think he picked deer hunting season on purpose. All the deer hunters will be out in the woods getting accidentally shot by each other. THe normal people (are there any in the Lehigh Valley?) will be left to listen....or, er....talk.
I find this visit ill-timed. I know that I am supposed to keep upbeat and have hope, but this is a slap in our collective faces.
I realize he is the president, but this is just like Notre Dame and the Nobel Peace Prize. He is rubbing our collective noses in it.
It is like he is not thinking or really doesn't care.
I am still trying to get over the Notre Dame botch up. Forgive me for passing judgment and pointing out facts but, Father Jenkins has a lot to atone for.
Peace, ~~Alex
Bernie,
This is more about Arlen than it has to do with John. Sestak is gaining some ground and Arlen could use a good shot in the arm from the White House. The President will be back in October/November for John, unless his poll numbers are abysmal and than John will say thanks but no thanks, the same way Charlie said he was terribly busy on the last McCain visit to the Valley in 2008.
Not our presidents best moment last night. A continuation of the Bush Doctrine..for an explanation of same, see Sarah Palin..is not what I would pursue here. The fight is in Pakistan and that is where the real bad guys are hiding! The undeclared covert war is what matters most..not the democratization of heroin producers! We learned nothing from the Russians. Get out and find Bin Laden and kill him!
Oops..wrong story..got to drink more coffee before I type?
Indeed, what a rant by BO (the blogger, not the president). Poor Barack, once you've lost the liberal base, such as BO, you're toast!
You sure do know how to make up some shit...
How much of the bullshit that you stir up do you believe?
Bernie,
Have you never said something you later regretted? We have. Often.
Too often.
Don't you think this young President might have said the PA comment after a day of exhaustion?
Can't we give him a break about the comment?
Ratings tanking?
That's what I have been saying all along.
Only three more years to go!
People with the guns and religion aren't the ones who elected Obama in PA. You know, the election where the President won PA by over 10 percentage points? (Psst. He won Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina too.) I know you don't like to think while being insulted, but this Presidency is not only about you and the rest of the moderates who seem to have this notion that everything must be catered to them. The people that elected the President believe in him or at least aren't ready to pin Bush's failures on him after 11 months in office.
Why is this visit "ill-timed?" Because it is buck season? What a ridiculous assertion.
Bernie,
If you are going to continue to spout off anti callahan, pro Dent crap why don't you create another I love Charlie Dent blog and leave the crap off this blog. You do a good job otherwise so why stain it with this pro Dent anti Obama crap..
I don't think it is inappropriate to challenge the positions of a President who was elected on a promise of change. so far it has been the same old same old.
His race has nothing to do with it, how about we concentrate on looking only at the actions?
I still hold out hope he can turn it around, because I realize he is fighting against the grain.
If you get caught in a riptide, you have to swim with it to get out of it. Isn't that a good way to describe DC?
I would suggest some people making comments discuss the issues, and not attack the people making the arguments.
Bernie, I find parts of your post mean spirited, but I know where you stand, and I expect and respect that. Hell, I have done it.
We sign are names, that is more than I can say for some.
One more point: I will never vote for Arlen Specter. He went along with Alberto the AG in subverting the Constitution far too long. I also don't vote for someone that the President tells me to. I make up my own damn mind, thank you. President Obama is going to find that out the hard way in the Spring.
Really Bernie..A national energy tax proposal that will cost the middle class $2000 a year..Seriously if that were the least bit true, and not off the latest Glenn Beck talking points sheet, it would kill him politically..And despite everything else you might think about him he is rather astute politically. So stop the crap..
This trip is "ill-timed" because of all the work that still needs to be accomplished. The problems aren't going to fix itself. And especially, they are not going to get fixed by coming to middle America on a junket.
He needs to step it up, if he wants to follow through on campaign promises. Not going around and accepting pleasantries from the Mayors of the Lehigh Valley, Notre Dame, and the committee for The Nobel Peace Prize.
If he is trying to garner support for his upcoming projects, he needs to go back to the drawing board, and put together a better plan.
Not only is the trip "ill-timed" but it is "ill-named."
Peace, ~~Alex
Another ridiculous talking point. That the President of the United States should seal himself in a bunker and single-handedly solve the world's problems. He has policies, the policies are being carried out or in some cases obstructed. People who are so quick to call his policies a failure tells me what I need to know about that person.
"...tells me what I need to know about that person."
Yeah, intelligent.
Smart enough to recognize an overmatched, inexperienced Community Organizer when they see one!
Thank you, Pig Pen. It sounds better when you say it, the way you do.
Peace, ~~Alex
"Really Bernie..A national energy tax proposal that will cost the middle class $2000 a year. Seriously if that were the least bit true, and not off the latest Glenn Beck talking points sheet, it would kill him politically..And despite everything else you might think about him he is rather astute politically. So stop the crap."
That is the least bit true, is not a Glenn Beck talking point (check the lin), and will kill Obama politically when people start looking at his energy proposals that have already passed the House. It will end 60,000 Pa. jobs as utility bills skyrocket here at home. And with the rate cap coming off, those utlitiy bills will already be skyrocketing.
Listen, I voted for the guy, but now recognize that vote was wasted. His stim package has been a disaster, his cap-n-trade energy bill ruins any positive gain made by the stim. Hie health care reform has devolved into partisan rancor with no attemopt to arrive at bipartisan solutions. Now, he he is abusing the power of the presidency to shore up his own political ratings and help a pol too timid to tell us where he stands on anything, Chickendance Callahan.
"Can't we give him a break about the comment?"
Sure, Did he say he was wrong? I heard him offer all kinds of explanations about what he really meant, but I never heard him say he was wrong.
Why on earth woud he care what gun clingers thing? He's here for votes, that's all. I can't respect what he is doing. I find the whole notion of him slumming it up with the poor people, insulting.
"I know you don't like to think while being insulted, but this Presidency is not only about you and the rest of the moderates who seem to have this notion that everything must be catered to them. The people that elected the President believe in him or at least aren't ready to pin Bush's failures on him after 11 months in office."
Gee, I wouldn't want to do that. Barack Obama's partisanship, lack of tansparency, stim package and energy proposals are all Bush's fault? Who knew?
He is the presidential candidate who offered a different and refreshing way of looking at things. He said we need to listen to each other. Once elected, he stopped that and instead rammed partisan bills down Republicans' throats because he could.
Now, this "listening" tour is all just bullshit. It's just politics. If he were really interested in listening, he would not be giving a speech. He'd be listening.
Sppry, dude. He's lost me, at least for now. I regret having voted for him.
Anyone who did their homework BEFORE the election knew Obama would be a disaster.
Ha Ha Ha Ha
Go boycott an IronPigs game now, Losers.
If Obama was REALLY such as genius AS ADVERTISED...
you would think he would have been more than willing to splash his academic records all over the place so everyone could marvel at how smart he is!
:)
Obama was ALWAYS a fraud!
Go nationalize a bank or a car company or something, Obamabots.
IronPigPen, I am interested in hearing from EVERYONE, amd would appreciate it if you could refrain from getting personal and insulting people who support Obama. Your perpetual anti-Obama rants are tiresome and interfere with legitimate criticism.
"Another ridiculous talking point. That the President of the United States should seal himself in a bunker and single-handedly solve the world's problems."
Never said or implied that. He's not a god. I wouldn't expect him to be perfect. But he can't even seem to hit the grapefruit pitches. Yet there is still no progress.
Therefore, I am not happy at what he is offering. He needs to go back to the drawing board and make his "policies" better.
No one called him or his "policies" a failure. At least, not yet. And I don't think you are calling him anything, either. We don't even know your name. So it might be easy to talk in generalities. And that is all we seem to be getting from our Commander in Chief.
Peace, ~~Alex
"Feel-good Presidency Failed"
by Barrack Hussein Obama
a sequel to "The Audacity of Hope"
Obama foreign policy is not a failure?
I would say so - definitely!
Read what the Euros are thinking after just 11 months of this bonehead.
I wonder if Poland thinks Obama's foreign policy is a failure?
Bernie, don't regret that vote. I, in a way, regret not voting for him. Obama is the necessary evil, so that people will have to think and dig and understand who they are voting for. Too many put blind faith in the rhetoric of a man with no accomplishments and no real identity.
McCain offered nothing that would have this country in any better economic condition (we would probably be doing better on the warfront. So in the end, the messiah's election will be of benefit.
Obama was never qualified, and never interested in leading a country back to greatness. It was always only about him becoming president as a personal goal. Look at the text of his West Point speech. Even when he is prepared and reading from a teleprompter, "I's", "My's" "Me's" are everywhere.
The presidency is not about one man. But that is what Obama believes.
We will be better for the suffering. It will force the next president to actually stand for something greater than himself, and that will benefit us all.
One of the grat things about Lincoln, during his presidency, is that he was able to evolve. He could change opinions based on facts previously unavailable to him. I'd be delightd to sdee that evolution, that real change, in Obama. But I now think his campaign was just empty rhetoric and am a bit angry at myself for falling for it. Maybe he'll prove me wrong.
Allentown and Pennsylvania deserve every disaster this ass clown president continues to visit upon them. He's an elitist who's out of touch with regular people and wouldn't think of subjecting his precious darlings to any public school. He's a chain smoker and former(?) admitted coke snorter who wants to dictate others' health care. He's driven the unemployment rate to historically high levels and has never earned and honest (i.e. private) dollar in his life. And now he's going to tell us how to get jobs? Doing what? Filling body bags from the 18-month, timed Taliban turkey shoot he's just laid out for failure in Afghanistan? He's smart to visit Allentown where the majority party comfortably relies upon the most brain-damaged one-lever pulling sheep ever to defy Darwinian Theory.
Anon 4:04 - please, don't hold back!
Let's give the president a chance! He is a man of the people! People who never voted before his election and will likely not vote again until he is up for re-election. The Obama Nation of "yes we can", CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE zombies may rise from their normal state of apathy to resurrect their fraudulent idol.
The press coverage on Friday will be 24/7 as Obama touches down at LVIA, shuts down 22 with his convoy and shows up to a hand-picked audience of zombies at LCCC. Will he actually take questions from the adoring crowd at his "town hall"? One LCCC student interviewed on Channel 69wanted to ask Obama what his position was on medical marijuana! An important topic for the spoiled college brats that supported his presidency. Our brave men and women are in harm's way and these little snots are more concerned about when they can get an Rx to smoke pot.
The lackluster speech last night before a polite but noticeably unimpressed crowd of cadets at West Point demonstrated how quickly the wheels have fallen off Obama's wagon. For years he has shown no respect for our military, then has the nerve to use that venue as an obvious self-serving photo-op.
Pathetic!
So let me guess. Better to have President Bush or even better Palin.
Yeah, OK, I am ready for the usual line. "(...) can't be worse".
he's still far better than bush.
While he's much worse than Bush, We'd be better off with McCain.
How exactly is the stimulus bill a failure? And what "partisan" bills did Obama ram down the Repubs throats? Methinks someone has been hanging around too many right wing partisans!
He's an elitist who's out of touch with regular people
This would apply to just about every President back to Truman. Seriosuly, does anyone post with ANY context whatsoever anymore?
For years he has shown no respect for our military
Really? Example please.
Central,
The way you phrase your question belies your own partisanship, so I'm unsure any answer I give can satisfy you.
Despite promises of a new bipartisan approach, the Obama admin has been aas partisan as ever, and that has been demonstrated i just about every vote. The Stim bill (which I initially supported) isa prime example. I could understand the reason for rushing that. Then there was cap-and-trade. That bill was kept from Rs until the morning of the vote, giving them no time to even read it. Most recently, we have pelosicare. These were all rammed down Republican throats, with no attempt to arrive at bipartisan consensus and no attempt to provide transparency. There's another broken Obama promise.
This is what has happened. The promise of bipartisanship has vanished as has the claim of transparency.
The mistake I made was in believing Obama.
Mcain sounded like bussiness as usual.
I voted for O. because the one candidate that made sense about taxes, prohibition II, illegal immigrants, and involving our country in other countries affairs was shot down as a loon and wasn't put on the ballot.
I hope Ron Paul runs in 2012.
Because the Republicans have stood together against the President, it is the President's fault? You know full well that the Republicans have no desire whatsoever of helping Obama move his agenda along no matter what level of compromise. The "Pelosi Care" bill as you affectionately call it is hardly what liberals want and will do absolutely nothing to fix the problem. The escalation in Afghanistan is hardly what liberals want yet the administration is moving ahead. This illusion that Obama is some radical leftist is being perpetuated by those in the opposing party simply to undermine the Presidency. You saw exactly the same thing with the Democratic minority and President Bush. Bush was painted as a radical right winger hell bent on authoritarianism. You admit the stimulus was needed - it is nary a few who question it.
Central,
I agree that Bush was treated the same way or worse than Obama. I believe Rs rammed legislation down the throats of Democrats. Obama's promise was change. He specifically stated he would adopt a bipartisan approach. I have not seen it. I've seen business as usual. When Obama the president acts like Obama the candidate, I will support him.
Even when said bipartisanship goes beyond the level of compromise the President will accept? Bipartisanship to the Republicans means killing the healthcare bill completely, allowing the auto companies to fail, returning the stimulus funds to the highest earners, and canceling all international and national visits.
I think this President, like President Bush, is a victim of a vocal minority. What is troubling is that when in a national crisis, President Bush WAS supported by all people. President Obama's national crisis is not being met with the same patriotism and support that is needed.
Did anyone else see the giant billboard photo of Obama on Route 22 as he was landing? It was a giant headshot of him claspng his hands near his head as he gazes off into the atmosphere. The caption read: "He's listening, Lehigh Valley".
It was like something out of Orwell's 1984, a giant photo of Big Brother lovingly gazing down on his flock. It was creepy.
I hope it was paid for out of his campaign budget and not with my tax dollars.
This guy never stops campaigning, I hear he's doing a Christmas special with Oprah (no, I'm not making that up).
Not very presidential if you ask me. Neither were his television commercials for the George Lopez show.
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