Obama Took His Perpetual Campaign to Ohio Friday

Your tax dollars paid for the trip!

Obama may have won the 2008 presidential election by big margins in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. In the past few months, elections in those states have seen dramatic swings to GOP candidates. The latest, a 31 point swing from Obama's 26 point victory in Massachusetts in 2008 to a Scott Brown senate win by 5 points.

Friday, Obama took his permanent campaign to Ohio which he won only by 4 points in 2008 and one in which GOP candidates for Governor, House and Senate in 2010 are scoring big in the most recent opinion polls.

Considering how Obama's intervention in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts corresponded with big wins for Republicans, no doubt the Ohio GOP was very glad to see Obama. Especially when you recall that Obama's last visit to Lorain County was during the presidential campaign in 2008. Then, he visited a drywall plant in an event where he promised that if elected he follow a "job-creation agenda." Since his visit that plant has closed and unemployement for the area went from 6.9% under President Bush to around 10% under Obama.

Obama: It IS All About Him!

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall style gathering at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio January 22, 2010.

Jobs were again on Obama's mind again in Ohio. But from the speech he gave prior to taking questions from the Town Hall audience it seems there was only one job on his mind: his! Throughout the speech he constantly refered to himself, even in the third person. Laughingly, he added "this isn't about me. It's about you."

Obama used the word "fight" 15 times in his speech suggesting that he's going to work even harder to force his radical agenda down the throats of the American people. Clearly he hasn't learned the lesson of the election of Scott Brown. Instead of fighting, Obama needs to do more listening.

Here's a slice from the President's speech which shows, he just doesn't get it:

Now, we've gotten pretty far down the road, but I have to admit, we've run into a bit of a buzz saw along the way. The long process of getting things done runs headlong into the special interests, their armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done. And the longer it's taken, the uglier the process has looked.

I know folks in Washington are in a little bit of a frenzy this week, trying to figure out what the election in Massachusetts the other day means for health insurance reform, for Republicans and Democrats, and for me. This is what they love to do.

But this isn't about me. It's about you. I didn't take up this issue to boost my poll numbers or score political points - believe me, if I were, I would have picked something a lot easier than this. No, I'm trying to solve the problems that folks here in Elyria and across this country face every day. And I am not going to walk away just because it's hard. We're going to keep on working to get this done with Democrats, Republicans - anyone who is willing to step up. Because I am not going to watch more people get crushed by costs, or denied the care they need by insurance company bureaucrats, or partisan politics, or special interest power in Washington.

Let me tell you - so long as I have the privilege of serving as your President, I'll never stop fighting for you. I'll take my lumps, too. I'll never stop fighting to bring jobs back to Elyria. I'll never stop fighting for an economy where hard work is rewarded, where responsibility is honored, where accountability is upheld, where we're creating the jobs of tomorrow.

It's shocking to see the President deliver what is essentially a partisan political address paid for entirely with taxpayer dollars. The old rules that Republican Administrations scrupulously followed (monitored by teams of lawyers) to avoid using such language outside of political campaigns where the speech was paid for by the party or candidate seem to have been tossed aside.

But does Obama really think the voters of Ohio, or the nation, will be so easily fooled by his rhetoric? This "buzz saw" wasn't an army of lobbyists but an army of citizens who refused to swallow the snake oil Obama was selling. This "ugly process" was the result of Democrats trying to force this thing through with secret backroom deals. And Obama has the nerve to talk about upholding accountability?

Some pundits suggest that this speech was a trial balloon for Obama's State of the Union address to be delivered next Wednesday, the 27th. I cannot imagine any President, even Obama, would dare to stand up before Congress and deliver anything close to these remarks. If Obama continues along these lines, the Massachusetts miracle which saw Independent voters, in even larger numbers than New Jersey and Virginia, desert the Democrat Party.

Obviously, Obama's failure to accept any responsiblity for what went wrong in health care isn't selling:

I can't wait for November!