“I had this impulse to hug him, so I did. And I cried. I think I even got tears on the Vice President’s suit jacket! … I am hugging the man who will help me and help our President move forward.” — Kobe
Standing at the back of a packed high school gym as Vice President Biden finished speaking in Ft. Myers, Florida, on Saturday was 15-year-old Kobe Groce. He cradled a “Forward” sign, hoping to get the Vice President to sign it for his brother, Kaelin. After unsuccessfully trying to make it to the front of the event, a staff member asked if he could help. Kobe told his story, and the staffer left for a moment and came back, saying simply: “The Vice President would like to meet you.”
Freep.com: Long lines of people wait on the outdoor football field outside the Glick Fieldhouse on the campus of the University of Michigan hours before President Obama was to deliver his speech about education to over 3,000 people inside today
****
9:45 ET PBO delivers remarks at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
11:00: Departs Michigan en route to Joint Base Andrews
12:25: Arrives at Joint Base Andrews
12:30: Departs Joint Base Andrews en route to Cambridge, Md.
1:15 PBO address House Democrats at their annual retreat (Listed for live coverage by C-Span 2 and CNN streaming)
3:00: Arrives at the White House
3:30: PBO and VP Biden meet with Secretary of State Clinton
4:30: PBO delivers remarks at a campaign event
****
****
Jonathan Cohn (TNR): President Obama visits the Detroit area on Friday, and his timing couldn’t be better: Today’s Detroit Free Press brings more good news from the auto industry:
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all plan to add jobs in Michigan, which stands to benefit more than any other state. Nissan, BMW, Honda, Toyota, Kia and Mercedes-Benz also are hiring. Suppliers are looking to add engineers and technical people, but at a more gradual pace.
About 15,000 auto-related Michigan jobs could be created this year….
President Barack Obama greets people following his remarks at Buckley Air Force Base in Denver, Colo., Jan. 26, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
****
The Nation: It is hard to read Remedy and Reaction, Paul Starr’s remarkable chronicle of the hundred-year effort to legislate universal health insurance in the United States, without recalling Robert Gibbs’s tortured quip that Democrats who’ve denounced the Obama White House for having knuckled under to Republican principles or intimidation “ought to be drug-tested.” Nobody with a sense of history – that is, nobody who reads Starr’s book – could doubt how sensible and brave was the president’s effort to drive the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 through Congress. Nobody with a feel for the present moment should doubt how imminent is the threat to the act, how urgent it is for progressive Democrats to rally around Obama – and without all the condescending qualifications that “independents,” who flock away from allegedly weak or incompetent leaders, interpret as contempt.
Greg Sargent: …. At an event in Las Vegas (yesterday), Obama offered his most extensive rebuttal by far to the bogus GOP charge that the push for higher taxes on the wealthy is about “class warfare” and “envy”. The whole thing is worth a watch – the tone was not one of outrage, but one laced with a good deal of mockery and derision:
****
Washington Post: The Obama administration finalized a rule Thursday governing the management of 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, establishing a new blueprint to guide everything from logging to recreation and renewable energy development.
The guidelines – which will take effect in early March and apply to all 155 national forests, 20 grasslands and one prairie – represent the first meaningful overhaul of forest rules in 30 years….
Several environmentalists and scientists praised the guidelines … “The vision is laudable, and this is no small shift in how the national forests will be managed, from one of commodity extraction into a vision of protection, restoration and water preservation,” said Dominick DellaSala, president and chief scientist for the Oregon-based Geos Institute.
Here’s a world exclusive preview of what Mark Landler will (probably) write in the New York Times tomorrow:
“It was a demoralizing day for President Obama on his bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia, some of his lowest points, captured by our photographers, demonstrating just how much distance there now is between him and the people who once supported him.
From the moment he took to the stage in the morning to speak at the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, it was evident how jaded and down he is, no spring in his step, no sign of the energy that he once displayed at these events:
Grim-faced and unsmiling….
….. his speech was so uninspiring it even prompted one member of the audience to start reading the book he’d brought with him just in case he was bored:
After the speech, the President displayed yet more of his professorial aloofness, failing to connect with his audience or show any human warmth:
It got worse later in the day when the President visited Bluestone High School in Skipwith, a group of teenagers (Jon Huntsman supporters, according to Mark Halperin) giving him an angry and hostile reception when he arrived:
There was a particularly ugly exchange with a student in pink:
…. which resulted in Secret Service having to step in:
On to Reidsville, N.C. and Brodnax, Virginia, where the President was confronted by several enraged women, two of them actually attempting to strangle him:
Stunned, the President ran for shelter in a Reidsville restaurant, where he hoped to find a warm and fuzzy reception, but there was to be no respite from the hostility, two enraged seniors confronting him, rather venomously:
The President, by now a broken man, left for Emporia, Virginia, where he gave another speech to a half-empty hall of largely unenthusiastic one-time supporters at Greensville County High School:
Once again, he ignored the issue that is, clearly, the most important to Americans – unemployment:
…. which might have explained the ugly incident that completed his day, when a young black man – possibly a Tavis Smiley and Cornel West fan – attempted to assault him by hitting his hand really hard:
Frankly, it’s hard to know how the President can recover from such a demoralizing day (#VoteMitt).”
President Obama holds a baby as he arrives for lunch at the Old Market Deli in Cannon Falls, Minn., during a three-day bus tour in the Midwest, Aug. 15 (Pete Souza)
President Obama greets children from the Valleyland Kids summer program outside a school in Chatfield, Minn., Aug. 15. (Pete Souza)
President Obama greets people outside the Old Market Deli in Cannon Falls, Minn. Aug. 15 (Samantha Appleton)
President Obama waves to people along a road in Harmony, Minn., Aug. 15 (Pete Souza)
President Obama greets people at Nancy’s restaurant in Oak Bluffs, Mass., Aug. 21 (Pete Souza)
President Obama holds a sleeping baby boy as he visits Ross’ restaurant in Bettendorf, Iowa, June 28
►
Des Moines Register: ….. The president then made good on a 2008 campaign promise today, making a quick stop at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf. The diner is off Interstate-74 on the way to Alcoa, which is in nearby Riverdale.
Three years ago, Obama talked with an owner, Cynthia Freidhof, at a town hall meeting, in August, 2008, and pledged to come here.
The president greeted Cynthia with a hug, as she walked through the door. She later said she didn’t know he was coming to the restaurant until he arrived. She had stepped to the street to watch his motorcade pass and then was told he was inside.
“You are so awesome,” Cynthia told the president as they hugged.
….“I think he’s a man of his word, always, and he’s doing the very best job that he can and I just can’t believe he’s here, but it’s real,” Freidhof said….
****
President Obama tours Alcoa Davenport Works Factory prior to speaking on the economy in Bettendorf, Iowa
President Obama greets people across the street from Fred’s Pro Hardware store in Toledo, Ohio, June 3. (Pete Souza)
President Obama greets children at a day care facility adjacent to daughter Sasha’s school in Bethesda following her 4th grade closing ceremony, June 9 (Pete Souza)
President Obama bids farewell to Personal Secretary Katie Johnson on her last day at the White House, June 10 (Pete Souza)
President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden head toward the Oval Office Private Dining Room for lunch, June 8 (Pete Souza)
Restaurant staff react as President Obama stops for lunch at Rudy’s Hot Dog in Toledo, Ohio, June 3 (Pete Souza)
And Samantha Appleton:
First Lady Michelle Obama talks with children as they have lunch at CentroNía Childcare Center in Washington, D.C., June 8 (Samantha Appleton)
