On the Road Again

With a cloud of dust and a hearty hi-Beltway commentariat-yo mama, President Barack Obama took to the road again this week, starting in rural Minnesota and Iowa, and ending up today (Wednesday) in Illinois.

First of all, it is Escape from Debt Crisis Prison.  As E.J. Dionne correctly surmised, "Having done so, the White House now sounds liberated. Even a government shutdown would be a day in springtime compared with the economic Armageddon that default might have let loose. Obama has a margin for maneuver and action he didn’t have before."

Lest we forget, candidate Obama always said he was leading a movement.  At the crucial moment of the debt ceiling crisis, President Obama called for American voters to let Washington know they wanted a solution, and millions did.  This week he went back out there to ask them in person to help him gets a jobs agenda through Congress in September.

 Despite the grumbling from leftie pundits who work themselves into a lather by talking only to each other, he saw the opening: with members of Congress out of Washington, there was nobody else on the media stage.  Even if the commentariat is so much more interested in talking than listening, at least some of what he was saying might get through to audiences beyond the ones right in front of him.  (Although CNN had their faces analyzing what the President was saying while he was still saying it--after all, it is so much more important to promote your own personalities than to let the country see and hear their President.)

So I report to you from watching the C-Span videos of both recorded appearances on Monday, and his closing remarks at the Rural Economic Forum on Tuesday.  Some of the themes and languages had been tested in recent contexts that weren't even this well covered.  But others were fresh, and together these themes seemed remarkably polished and powerful.  America isn't broken, he said.  Government isn't broken.  Our politics are broken.  What we need now is for members of Congress particularly to put "country ahead of party."

Some of his more memorable lines were probably prepared, as when he took on the description of his healthcare package as Obamacare.  "I have no problem with folks saying 'Obama cares'," he told the crowd. "I do care."  Others were spontaneous, as when he declared, "  I make no apologies for being reasonable."

Progressives who could sit still and listen may have heard a lot they were clamoring to hear. In response to questions, he made a spirited defense of unions, and took on GOPers directly on the issue.  He declared "we're going to be monitoring voting rights all over the country while I'm President."  He defended government at every stop.  He had to start with noting that the debate too often was between those railing that government is bad and those insisting everything the government is doing is good.  "It's not either/or."  He defended education in very strong terms.

But most of all he talked about jobs.  He hammered away at his proposals already before Congress, including the infrastructure bank to get construction workers on the job to rebuild America's aging and failing infrastructure.  He promised to present a bigger agenda of economic incentives to Congress when it returns in September.  And nervous progressive take note--he also promised: "I will take my case to the American people that this is the vision to move America forward."

While pundits knowingly note that President Obama is riding his bus through states he needs to win in 2012, they've failed to note that there really arent' that many votes in the places he's going.  If this was purely political, he'd be in big cities.  But this is a deliberately rural tour, not just for the pretty pictures it produces, but because his administration has consistently bet on the role of rural America in the future.

At every stop, and particularly at the Rural Economic Forum on Tuesday, President Obama talked about the convergence of small business/rural America/the Internet/ clean energy.  The Internet provides small businesses with global reach, and so a bunch of stim money went to support bringing broadband and wireless technology to rural areas, where commercial outfits don't see the profit in doing it.  Rural areas, with lower costs, are prime for small businesses.  The wide open spaces are also perfect for large scale clean energy technologies, such as windpower farms and larger solar.  It's where the "bio" for biofuels is grown, and increasingly where it is turned into fuel--not just from corn either.  Small business with agricultural components are perfect for family farms, as is sustainable and organic agriculture that can be sold via the Internet.

(And speaking of biofuels, President Obama mentioned the U.S. military initiatives I mentioned in this recent post, that were either started or supported by his administration.  It's been getting noticed elsewhere as well.)

President Obama's roadtrip comes when last week's poll numbers look grim.  But watching him out there, I wouldn't bet against him.  There are other numbers much more significantly in his favor--like his 70% support for reelection among Democrats, about 15 points higher than Bill Clinton's towards the end of his first term.  The poll numbers for GOPers are much worse, and the TPers are fading fast.  He's sounding themes that resonate.  He talks about an America that is "big and bold and generous."

It is that America that he sees here, and on Tuesday he said why: Not only do I continue to have absolute confidence in you, but you’re what gives me strength. As I was driving down those little towns in my big bus -- (laughter) -- we slowed down, and I’m standing in the front and I’m waving, I’m seeing little kids with American flags, and grandparents in their lawn chairs, and folks outside a machine shop, and passing churches and cemeteries and corner stores and farms -- I’m reminded about why I wanted to get into public service in the first place.

Sometimes there are days in Washington that will drive you crazy. But getting out of Washington and meeting all of you, and seeing how hard you’re working, how creative you are, how resourceful you are, how determined you are, that just makes me that much more determined to serve you as best I can as President of the United States."