Obama gets asked the tough questions and has NO ANSWERS other than the same old worn out propaganda that isn't true, hasn't worked and certainly doesn't satisfy! Keep talking Barack...you will talk yourself out of office....the name of the game Barack is results and you have NONE!
Obama Aims to Reconnect With 'Town Hall' Meetings
Text By JONATHAN WEISMAN
DES MOINES, Iowa—President Barack Obama, meeting swing-state voters in a leafy backyard, struggled again Wednesday to answer the concerns of supporters once buoyed by the excitement of the presidential campaign, but now demoralized by economic struggle.
Mary Stier—attending the president's second of three small "town hall" meetings on a four-state swing this week—told the president of her 24-year-old son, who "campaigned fiercely" for Mr. Obama in 2008, graduated from Simpson College a year and a half ago and still is "struggling to find a job."
"They are losing their hope," she said in the backyard of Jeff Clubb, a social studies and religion teacher at a Des Moines Catholic school, and Sandy Clubb, the athletic director of Drake University.
The question, and the president's long answer about the depths of the Great Recession, mirrored the exchange Mr. Obama had last week with Velma Hart, a supporter who told him she was "exhausted" from defending him. Coming the morning after an ebullient political rally in Madison, Wis., it underscored the difficulty Democrats are having mobilizing the voters that propelled them to victory in 2008.
In the Wednesday session, a small businessman pressed the president to extend tax cuts for households and small businesses that earn more than $250,000.
"As the government gets more and more involved in business and more involved in taxes to pay for an awful lot of programs...you're sort of strangling the engine that does create the jobs," he said.
One woman questioned whether the Obama health-care plan would send the U.S. health-care system into a British-style system of rationing and delays. A man asked when the president would end costly wars abroad. Criticized over illegal immigrants getting health care, the president said, "It is very important that we have compassion as part of our national character."
The president was pushed on the defensive, and said, Americans don't want tax increases totaling $700 billion but also complain that the country's budget deficit is too high.
Voters "say, 'cut government spending,' " Mr. Obama responded.
"Well most spending is for veterans, for education, for defense. Foreign aid is 1% of our budget. They say, 'Why don't you eliminate earmarks, all those pork projects that Congress wants to spend.' Even if I could end all those earmarks, that's 1% of budget. Finding $700 billion is not easy."
The final question was from a priest asking on behalf of an unemployed parishioner what the president's policies would do for him in the coming months. Mr. Obama said clean-energy initiatives hold some promise. "Some of the manufacturing jobs that have been lost just won't come back," Mr. Obama said.
The atmosphere of the event was all the more notable after a high-decibel political rally in Madison, Wis., Tuesday night that captured headlines and some of the excitement of the 2008 presidential campaign. Democrats have been urging Mr. Obama to try to excite the Democratic base, which they fear will stay home Nov. 2. That could lead to a rout that could cost Democrats control of at least one house of Congress.
Mr. Obama has three other major rallies planned, in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Ohio. But White House officials say the backyard events are helping him reconnect with voters at a more intimate level. He held one in Albuquerque Tuesday and has another Wednesday afternoon in Richmond, Va.
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