(Image source: The New York Times)
BY: TRACY PFEIFFER
ANCHOR: CHRISTINA HARTMAN
President Barack Obama kicked off his three-day Midwestern tour Monday with a stop in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: “What’s been happening over the last six months -- and a little bit longer than that if we’re honest with ourselves -- is that we have a political culture that doesn’t seem willing to make the tough choices to move America forward. …The question is, can we break out of that pattern?” (CNN)
The administration says the economy-focused tour isn’t supposed to be about politics or campaigning -- but try telling that to just about everyone else.
The Republican National Committee released this video nicknaming it the “Debt-End Tour.”
“The road ahead darkens, and as he drives into the horizon, angry skies greet us. This man is Barack Obama. Welcome to his taxpayer-funded ‘Debt-End Tour.’”
And GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney coined his own phrase -- the “Magical Misery Tour.” ABC’s The Note quotes him as saying...
“He is more interested in campaigning in swing states than working to solve the economic crisis that is crushing the middle class.”
And a blogger for Yahoo! says -- if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck... does calling it a goose really make a difference?
“The president's five-stop tour will take him through Minnesota and Iowa—two likely swing states in 2012—as well as Illinois, which would normally be safe Obama territory but has been hit hard by economic woes. Indeed, Obama's jaunt to Iowa comes on the heels of this weekend's presidential straw poll and days of events there that have had his GOP rivals in the headlines.”
Adding to the chatter -- is Gallup’s latest approval numbers for the president.
“The Gallup daily tracking poll has found that his approval ratings have dumped down to 39 percent -- that’s who approve of him. 54 percent actually disapprove. He’s been hovering in the low forties, so this is a pretty substantial dip for him. He went up to 53 percent right after Osama bin Laden was caught.”
But picking Minnesota is no mistake by the President. Home of straw poll winner Michelle Bachmann, and home to a state which is fighting it’s own budget battles. It’s a microcosm of America. A DNC official tells CNN...
“It is telling that the Republican Party, which believes corporations are people, would attack the president for meeting with Americans in their communities. We've now seen all the GOP candidates swear allegiance to the Tea Party in a debate, seen two Tea Party favorites come out on top of the Iowa Straw Poll, and someone once considered among the leading candidates for the nomination drop out of the race because he was not extreme or vitriolic enough for the Tea Party which now owns and operates the GOP.”
So will the trip end up as a plus or minus for the president? Writers for the Los Angeles Times say -- it’s a tossup.
“The risk for the White House is that when many critics, including Democrats, are clamoring for Obama to do something big on the economy, a three-day jaunt down America's backroads could end up looking like just the opposite. He's also likely to hear complaints from local residents about his administration's economic and environmental policies, as well as the divisive healthcare overhaul.”
