Reporting from Washington — President Obama, allowing that he has run into a "buzz saw," today carried his pitch for economic revival, healthcare and an agenda now threatened by political upheaval to battleground Ohio.
"We've gotten pretty far down the road," an animated president said of his work in Washington, apparently stalled now after months of debate over healthcare legislation.
"But I've got to admit," Obama said. "We hit a little bit of a buzz saw along the way. . . . This is what happens in Congress. It's just an ugly process. . . . The longer it takes, the uglier it looks."
Pointing to the special Senate election in Massachusetts this week, which cost his party its filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, the president told an audience at a community college in Lorain County:
"I know folks in Washington are in a little bit of a frenzy this week, trying to figure out what the election in Massachusetts the other day means," he said. "This is what they do. . . .
"But this is not about me," Obama said in an open-collared, colloquial appeal. "This is about you. . . .
"I didn't take this up to boost my poll numbers. . . . You know the way to boost your poll numbers is not to do anything. . . . I didn't take this on to score political points. There are some people who think, 'If Obama loses, we all win.' But you know what? I think I win when you win."
Vowing to continue his fight for an overhaul of healthcare insurance, the president said: "I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard. . . . I had a whole bunch of political advisors telling me this may not be the smartest thing to do -- 'You've got a lot on your plate. . . . Don't do it.' "
But healthcare, the president said, "is part of the drag on our economy."
Ohio may have served as Obama's "Main Street" in this campaign-styled outing to tout his economic stimulus plans -- stopping for a hamburger lunch in a bar, meeting with workers in a factory and holding a town-hall-style session at the community college -- but these could be mean streets for his party in 2010.
In a bid to stoke the president's sagging job approval ratings, renew the White House's agenda for economic revival and energize his party, Obama traveled today to Ohio, a bellwether and a perennial battleground. Next week, he will target another key state, Florida.
In 2008, Obama only narrowly carried Ohio, which has voted for every winner of the White House since 1960. And now, Ohio has an open U.S. Senate seat -- with the announced retirement of Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich -- and a fight for the governor's mansion. A popular former Republican congressman, John Kasich, is lining up for a chance to challenge Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, trailing in polls.
Unemployment has climbed to 10.9% in Ohio, it was announced today.
The day after the president's nationally televised State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the president and Vice President Joe Biden plan to visit the Tampa area.
Obama also narrowly carried Florida in 2008. Democrats are attempting to take the Florida governor's office in November, with Republican Gov. Charlie Crist facing a fight within his own party for nomination for an open GOP-held Senate seat.
Unemployment has risen to 11.8% in Florida.
Offering an often-heard complaint about "the bubble" that is Washington, the president told his audience today, "Nothing beats a day where I can an escape -- I break out."
The president has been touting his economic stimulus act as a job-saving measure responsible for creating or saving 1.5 million jobs during a downturn that has shed many millions more.
"I know these have been difficult and unsettling times for people in Elyria, in Ohio and across our country," Obama told his audience at the community college. "I walked into office a year ago in the middle of a raging economic storm that was wreaking devastation on your town and in communities everywhere."
Defending his bailout of the auto industry and fight for tougher banking regulation and citing the effect of the economic recovery act that he signed one month into office, the president said, "Today, because we took those actions, the worst of this economic storm has passed." He also acknowledged, "But families like yours and communities like this one are still reeling from the devastation it left in its wake."
Donning protective eyeglasses, the president had taken a tour of EMC Precision Machining, treading past heavy industrial machinery and speaking with workers. The company, which maintains that business is on the rebound, has fewer employees today, 44, than it had a year ago, 77.
Obama also toured the Wind Turbine Manufacturing and Fab Lab facilities at the college -- emblematic of his pitch that federal investment in "green" energy production will provide an economic engine as well.
