Headlines The WH Didn’t Want From Their Taxpayer-Funded Bus Tour

GOP
VERBATIM POST
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The White House surely must have not appreciated many of the headlines coming out from the President’s second taxpayer-funded campaign bus tour of the year. Whether it was reminding taxpayers he was campaigning on their dime, lawmakers from his own party avoiding him like the plague, or getting a fact check for his spin about his Stimulus 2.0 plan, the White House must be wondering if they got any political mileage at all.

LA Times: “Obama Ends Bus Tour With Pitch To Subdued Crowd”: “Closing out his bus tour on a low-key note, President Obama made a pitch for his jobs package at a firehouse, where a subdued crowd needed a bit of prompting to applaud his proposal to boost the economy.” (Peter Nicholas, “Obama Ends Bus Tour With Pitch To Subdued Crowd,” Los Angeles Times, 10/19/2011)

President Obama Gets Fact Checked For His Spin On The Job Creating Potential Of His Stimulus 2.0 Plan: “President Obama exaggerates when he claims “independent economists” say his jobs bill “would create nearly 2 million jobs.” The median estimate in a survey of 34 economists showed 288,000 jobs could be saved or created over two years under the president’s plan.” (Eugene Kiely and Robert Farley, “Obama’s Spin on Jobs Bill,” Factcheck.org, 10/20/2011)

CBS News Reminds Taxpayers They’re On The Hook For Obama’s Campaign Bus Tour: “If Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Herman Cain or any of the other presidential challengers were to embark on a three-day bus trip like the one now underway by President Obama, it would cost their campaigns tens of thousands of dollars. Perhaps more … But not the Obama campaign. The White House declared that Mr. Obama's three-day trip through North Carolina and Virginia are official events and not campaign appearances, even though the two states are known to be political objectives of his re-election bid.” (Mark Knoller, “Obama's bus tour costing taxpayers thousands,” CBS News, 10/18/2011))

Politico’s Glenn Thrush: “Obama Bus Not Magic In Virginia”: “President Barack Obama’s bus trip into the commonwealth on Tuesday drew hundreds of devoted followers — and cold shoulders from some high-profile Virginia Democrats … Obama isn’t the hot ticket he used to be — a fall 2008 end-of-campaign rally in northern Virginia drew more than 80,000 screaming admirers …” (Glenn Thrush, “Obama Bus Not Magic In Virginia,” Politico, 10/18/2011))

Time Magazine Highlights Obama’s Popularity Problem Among Voters Living Along The Bus Route: “The trip’s route has been telling. Repeating his victories in these pivotal Southern battlegrounds will be a challenge for Obama. Recent polls have shown his support sliding in Virginia, a state he won by a seven-point margin four years ago. The President’s popularity problem is particularly acute among the white, blue-collar workers who form of the backbone of rural communities in the Old Dominion and around the country.” (Alex Altman, “Where Obama’s Hurting: In Piedmont and the Polls,” Time Magazine, 10/19/2011)