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Obama on the road again promoting jobs bill
“Following on that, there is frustration now I believe with the efforts by some to roll back the protections the president fought so hard to put into place through the Wall Street reform act that was passed and signed into law.”
In the two key swing states, Obama will seek to reconfigure his 2008 coalition of young voters, educated middle-class voters and minorities for his bruising campaign to keep the White House for another four years.
Obama found support from those turning out to hear him.
“We’re still behind him. He’s doing all he can do. He just needs somebody out here to work with him,” said Margaret Swain, 51, an assistant at an elementary school.
But Swain, who was among a crowd gathered at the airport to hear Obama speak against a backdrop of autumn foliage in the Blue Ridge Mountains, acknowledged concerns over the economic hard times, and the need for jobs.
“We need more and more, something that pays decent wages to get people back to work, so they can spend the money to get the economy going back,” she told AFP.
Riding in a specially equipped armored bus, Obama will make stops at schools, training centers, and fire stations, aiming to drum up public support to get the measure, or portions of it, through Congress.
Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said the administration is hoping for the measure to pass “piece by piece,” and added: “There is no other plan out there that would have an immediate impact on jobs according to any independent economic forecaster.”
They hope to force Republicans into tough votes that will see the party’s lawmakers facing the prospect of voting against extending payroll taxes, tax hikes for the rich and money to help war veterans find work.
But Mitt Romney, one of the front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination, criticized the Obama effort as “The Magical Misery Tour” and said the trip is more about politics than economics.
“Under President Obama, North Carolina has shed more than 125,000 jobs and is suffering from double-digit unemployment,” the Romney campaign said in a statement.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
