With his approval rating now at a historic low, Barack Obama hits the campaign trail in the midwest today with taxpayers footing the tab for this so-called economic tour. In what is sure to be a carefully orchestrated series of events in front of hand-picked adoring crowds, the failed president will surely rehash the same tired talking points bashing his predecessor.
It's all he knows. Laughably, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, claims Obama is thrilled to flee Washington after being "trapped" there all summer.
"There's not a plan for a major economic policy speech," said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer. After being "trapped" in Washington during lengthy negotiations over raising the nation's borrowing limit, Pfeiffer said, "the president is excited about the opportunity to get out of Washington."
Funny, but being "trapped" in Washington never stopped him from flying all over the place for parties and fundraisers, not to mention working golf into his exhausting schedule. And if Obama is excited about the opportunity to get out of DC, just imagine the thrill Americans will get when he permanently leaves in January 2013.
The White House weakly claims this isn't a campaign event.
White House officials have insisted the president's emphasis this trip is on the economy, not his Republican opponents. The bus trip is an official administration event and is not being run by Obama's campaign in Chicago.
Pfeiffer said the decision to go through Iowa had nothing to do with the Ames poll.
"We sort of have a rule, which is just because Republican candidates are campaigning in a certain state, that doesn’t prevent us from going there, because otherwise we would probably travel nowhere," Pfeiffer said Friday. "So there’s no magic to the fact that the straw poll is a few days before our visit."
Still, the trip gives Obama a high-profile opportunity to answer the criticism leveled against him by Perry, Bachmann and other GOP candidates for president.
But if this isn't a campaign tour and is allegedly to focus on the miserable economy, why the need to answer criticism from GOP candidates? Will his choreographed "townhall" events be absent of Obama campaign signs? How often will the crowds burst out into "spontaneous" Yes We Can chants?
It must be humbling for such an egomaniac to have to go out and pretend to enjoy mingling with the great unwashed, but at least later this week he'll get back to doing what he really enjoys: Taking another vacation.
For their part, the GOP will be countering this campaign tour.
"This latest White House PR stunt shows why elections matter, and why we must defeat Barack Obama in 2012 so that his Debt-End Bus-Tour presidency doesn’t steer the country further off course," Priebus said in a statement.
