In Iowa, A Skeptical Audience Greets Obama

New York Times ^ | Sept. 29, 2010 | SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

[Second Amendment First]

President Obama returned Wednesday to the state that put him on the presidential map, this time fighting to keep his Democratic Party in power and confronting skeptics who challenged him on his policies ranging from tax cuts to health care and the war in Iraq.

Continuing his tour of American backyards, Mr. Obama visited the upper middle class neighborhood of Beaverdale, where he took questions from about 70 local residents in the grassy backyard behind a red brick home that belongs to Sandy Clubb, the athletic director at Drake University, and her husband Jeff, who teaches social studies at a Catholic middle school here.

With a poll in the local newspaper showing more than half of likely Iowa voters are dissatisfied with his performance as president, Mr. Obama received a reception that was polite and friendly – but also pointed.

One woman told him her 24-year-old son had “campaigned furiously for you and was very inspired by your message of hope,’’ but is now 18 months out of college, unemployed, and struggling. Another, whose mother is in a nursing home, told him, “I have great concerns about your health care bill.’’

A pastor asked what his economic plan would do for an unemployed parishioner who has spent more than a year ‘’trying to secure a job and have that American dream which has now been lost.’’

A small business owner spoke at length, expressing irritation with his plan to raise taxes for people earning more than $250,000 – to which Mr. Obama replied that he had “signed eight small business tax cuts’’ since coming into office.

The questions were so downbeat that, at the end of the hour-long session, Mr. Obama tried to pick up the mood.

[jersey117]

Guess his Bill Cosby routine doesn’t play well in Iowa.

[DarthVader]

The king has no clothes!

[jtal]

Guess his Bill Cosby routine doesn’t play well in Iowa.

It played pretty dang well just a few years back. All them folks in Iowa launched his campaign into orbit.

Thanks a lot, Iowans.

[musicman]

"The questions were so downbeat that, at the end of the hour-long session, Mr. Obama tried to pick up the mood."

[Pollster1]

The media are trying to tell an evolving story about Obama and his regime: “see we were skeptical too, for a while, but Obama’s brilliant rhetoric and irrefutable logic finally convinced us, just before the elections, that the most brilliant man in history was right all along.” They want to meet the American people where we are and then lead us by the nose back into the fold.

[Mr. K]

Was it a hand-picked crowd?

Anyone ask him if the ‘fundamental change’ he wants is to socialism (like every single person he has associated with his whole life)

[submarinerswife]

LOL

Really I did LOL Your statement has truth to it, that’s fer sure

[ilovesarah2012]

Obama = American dream lost.

[musicman]

"All them folks in Iowa launched his campaign into orbit."

[a fool in paradise]

Were these skeptics there?

[workerbee]

As the wealthiest country on earth, he said, “We still have huge advantages and billions of people around the world would still love the chance to be here, and so I don’t want everybody to forget that we’ve been through tougher times before and we’re going to get through these tough times.’’

Everytime this poser uses "we", I want to slap him. "He" is not "we." "He" is something "other" than American, and his background speaks to all things anti-American. His otherness oozes out of every pore. Standing in a backyard in Iowa trying to rally people by remembering what "our grandparents" went through -- as if he has the least bit of connection to such things -- simply sounds contrived, condescending, and phoney. Which is all he is.

[Question Liberal Authority]

All them folks in Iowa launched his campaign into orbit.

Obama got 38% of pledged delegates, Edwards got 30% and Clinton got 29%.

If they had a secret ballot, or if the Edwards scandal had been known at the time, it would have been a different race.

Personally, I think the GOP should do away with the Iowa / New Hampshire thing. They should have 10 weeks where 5 states each choose delegates. The 5 states that voted the highest percent Republican in the previous election should go first, followed by the next 5 states, and so forth.

[Frantzie]

“One woman told him her 24-year-old son had “campaigned furiously for you and was very inspired by your message of hope,’’ but is now 18 months out of college, unemployed, and struggling. Another, whose mother is in a nursing home, told him, “I have great concerns about your health care bill.’’

“A pastor asked what his economic plan would do for an unemployed parishioner who has spent more than a year ‘’trying to secure a job and have that American dream which has now been lost.’’

Useful idiots in the heartland who backed the muslim.

[ontap]

These are his voters people and they don’t sound so enthralled with the prince at this time. The bloom is off the rose and the thorns are painful...he and the dims have a real problem!!!

[forgotten man]

“All them folks in Iowa launched his campaign into orbit.”

I heard that there are a lot of college students from nearby Illinois going to school in Iowa, and 0bama used them to pack the caucuses. Chicago politics invaded Iowa.

[No_More_Harkin]

“Thanks a lot, Iowans. “
Yeah, because it was all us Iowans whom elected him. I thought it was liberal/progressives that painted everyone with a broad brush.
Iowans are some of the smartest, hard-working and best educated people in these United States.
Save your sarcasm for people who deserve it.

[MrB]

if the ‘fundamental change’ he wants is to socialism

---

And every single leftist democRat screams out “we’re not SOCIALISTS, we just want wealth redistribution and income equality!”

No, I don’t get it either.

[counterpunch]

He should have been greeted by an angry mob.

[MrB]

I also heard that 0bama’s people locked out the Clinton people from the Iowa caucus.