Obama hits the stimulus campaign trail
President returns to the road to redirect attention from his plan's details and focus on hard-hit Americans.
Reporting from Elkhart, Ind. — Returning to campaign form, President Obama today left behind the fractious debate in Washington over his stimulus package, flying to this struggling middle-American city to deliver a message that the economy may never fully recover if the plan isn't passed.
Obama also used the forum to take a veiled swipe at Republicans, suggesting the minority party is offering "the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place."
With Congress still negotiating details of the $800-billion-plus stimulus plan, Obama urged speedy completion of the bill. He got a largely enthusiastic reception from the 2,500 people in attendance, though there was an undercurrent of unease in the gymnasium bleachers.
As Obama walked on stage, a lone voice in the crowd implored the president to create new jobs. In the past year, unemployment in the city -- a center of RV manufacturing -- has jumped from 4.7% to more than 15%.
In his opening remarks, the president cautioned that "if we don't act immediately," unemployment across the country will rise, and "our nation will sink into a crisis that, at some point, we may be unable to reverse."
Obama's trip marked the start of a road show that continues Tuesday with a visit to Fort Myers in Florida -- another region hit with high unemployment and home mortgage foreclosures.
The president will get a bit of bipartisan validation when he arrives in Fort Myers: Gov. Charlie Crist, the state's highest-ranking Republican, has agreed to introduce Obama, the White House announced Monday.
Behind the presidential trips is a White House calculation that the messy argument over components of the stimulus plan has proved to be a diversion, according to a presidential aide. By leaving Washington and speaking to Americans enduring the brunt of the economic downturn, Obama hopes to redirect attention to the need for the stimulus in the first place, the aide said.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, en route to Indiana, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said: "This is not explaining to Indiana what's going on in Washington. This is taking Washington to show them what's going on in Indiana and all over the country -- and why people are hurting."
Some who came to the event said they were hopeful the stimulus would work, though they were skeptical of the size.
Cesar Pincheira, 73, a retired engineer from Elkhart, said the spending is "not 100% good, but it's better than doing nothing."
