Posted on 09/07/2009 10:52:36 AM PDT by mdittmar
"Thank you Cincinnati. Thank you, Ohio. Thank you labor," yelled President Barack Obama over the cheers of roughly 4,000 as he took the stage at the PNC Pavilion next to Coney Island moments ago.
This followed fiery speeches by labor organizers at today'a annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati. This is the first time a sitting president has addressed the annual picnic, the largest of its kind in the nation.
White House officials estimate roughly 10,000 tickets were distributed to the speech, which was moved to the pavilion from the park grounds because of rain.
"This is a unique moment in U.S. history, and we can make it labor's moment," said Richard Trumka, who will take over the AFL-CIO as president next week. He advocated health care reform and laws making it easier for unions to organize.
"If we educate and agitate, if we mobilize and organize, that's the kind of America that we're going to have," he said.
This followed remarks by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who referenced contentious outbursts by opponents of health care reform at lawmakers' town hall meetings in recent weeks. "They're not going to be successful in shutting down our effort to have healthcare (reform)," he said.
But the biggest applause came as a helicopter landed nearby that many believed carried the president.
Obama is expected to talk to a friendly audience ‹ tickets were distributed through local unions ‹ about the need for health care reform.
"Single people that are single parents have a hard time getting health insurance," said Cincinnati resident Linda Jackson, a single mother of one, while taking her seat.
Most people interviewed as they trickled into the auditorium said their primary concern was losing their job. Two General Electric Aviation employees are worried about losing a military contract; Hamilton County Job and Family Service employees say federal money is needed to bolster their budget to avoid layoffs.
Cincinnati resident Carlotta Figgins said she is hoping Obama will show them a brighter horizon. "I hope to hear him say we will recover from this recession," she said.
Obama will also talk about his appointment of Ron Bloom as senior counselor for manufacturing policy.
"I think he's the right person at this time to be talking about manufacturing and job development," said national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, about the labor-friendly Bloom.
The president's speech comes as federal lawmakers get ready to go back into session with health care reform at the top of their agenda, and as public support for reform has taken a hit in public opinion polls.
And Trumka has drawn a line in the sand that the union won't support any legislation that doesn't include a public option ‹ which Obama has not committed to.
"(Insurance companies) have a stranglehold on the American health care industry," Trumka said in an interview this morning, Sept. 7.
"And we have to break that stranglehold. The public option is a way of doing that."
"If you've got a better way to break that stranglehold, show it to us," he said.
He is still campaigning and blaming Bush! It’s as if he doesn’t know that he is President. Arrogant idiot!
So what... read this: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2333992/posts
He has been lying all through this speech and the union thugs cheer him when he does.
I wonder if he brought doughnuts?
I wonder who he paid to cheer for this speech?!
He looks like a weak candidate campaigning for city council.
God I hate this fricking bastard with a vengeance.
I had to turn it off. He said that everyone who raising questions about “throwing grandma under the bus and illegal aliens” is lying. LYING. The speech, while I was listening, made him sound like he is the President of All Labor Unions, instead of President of the United States and all of its citizens. Absolutely disgusting.
The unions, especially the UAW, own him and he knows it.
I’ve got the little punk on the FoxNews Channel.
Sound muted as I do everytime he’s on.
Gawd, I can’t stand the look of this punk,
it’s as if he knows how to pi$$ people off and likes it.
Quite the animated little POS
You aren’t the only one!
He has no clue he is p*ssing off more and more people with every word out of his mouth. He thinks he is funny!
I just heard the LIAR IN CHIEf yell out that the opponents of whatever it is he and Congress want to do on healthcare are telling lies about pulling the plug on grandma, etc, and they have nothing, nothing to offer as a solution (A Lie). He yelled it repeatedly to the union thugs. He looked smirky and mean. A slash and burn speech by one thug to the others.
I've been raising my voice to the better half during the speech about how ridiculous it is that he is STILL campaigning!
It's all he knows....
I listened to about 5 minutes of his psychobabble. One lie after another. The union morons were eating it up. I had to turn it off.
Obama: “Check your freezers when you get home....should be a little donation waiting there, from me to you”.
He has caused people to lose their jobs and he is making jokes! What a complete *ss!
Barry sounded like a Rev. Wright-like preacher.....stopped watching him spew his lying garbage after listening to about 3 minutes.
I have no doubt that I will switch the channel on his moronic arse come his Wednesday national televised speech before Congress. Bet.
NCI marathon on USA channel if anyone is interested.
Who in the MSM will be the first to be honest and call it A CAMPAIGN SPEECH?
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