Blow by blow in NH with Obie <breaking wind>

[zeitgeist]

Seacoast paper's cub reporter post blow by blow Obie Wun visit log.  

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120625-NEWS-120629872

DURHAM — President Barack Obama is speaking today at Oyster River High School. Check this story for frequent updates.

2:47 p.m. - DURHAM — Obama says anyone who wants to give the failed policies of the Bush years should vote for Romney.

 
2:45 p.m. - DURHAM — Obama says GOP would pay for tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting spending on education, medical research and clean energy.

2:42 p.m. - DURHAM — Obama says Romney is "a pioneer in the business of outsourcing American jobs”

2:41 p.m. - DURHAM — Obama: "What's holding us back is a stalemate in Washington between two fundamentally different visions. This election is your chance to break the stalemate." Leads to chant of "Four More Years."

2:39 p.m. - DURHAM — Obama acknowledges that things still need to get better in America. "Of course we need to do better. The debate is not whether, it is how."

2:37 p.m. - DURHAM — "If you're willing to work hard you should be able to find a good job," Obama says.

2:36 p.m. - DURHAM — "I love you guys back," Obama says after woman in crowd yells "we love you."

2:33 p.m. - DURHAM — Crowd is going wild as President Obama enters the gymnasium.

2:29 p.m. - DURHAM — Scott Bates, former US Marine Corps sergeant and founder of a small web development company in Windham, is introducing Obama. Talking about health care costs for a small business owner.

2:27 p.m. - DURHAM — Crowd reacts with a chorus of boos when Shaheen says the nation could "keep giving tax breaks to the wealthiest." Instead, Obama would continue to level the playing field, she said.

2:25 p.m. - DURHAM — "This president has had the courage to attack tough issues again and again," Shaheen said, citing auto bailout, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and immigration reform.

2:21 p.m. - DURHAM — Shaheen gets loud cheers when she says "we need to make sure college is affordable" for everyone.

2:20 p.m. - DURHAM — Shaheen says Obama got to work right away, addressing the financial crisis and supporting small business tax cuts. "The recession hurt our small businesses real hard," she said.

2:18 p.m. - DURHAM — "There's still work to do but we are on the road back," Shaheen said.

2:16 p.m. - DURHAM — U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has taken the podium to welcome President Barack Obama to Durham. "I think we can make him an honorary Granite Stater," she said.

2:01 p.m. - DURHAM — Among the dozens of journalists here in Durham to cover President Barack Obama's appearance are four students with the Oyster River High School school newspaper.
The students are each taking on their own angle with the story for "Mouth of the River," the school paper. Adelia Couser, who is entering her senior year, said she is focusing on how Obama's visit is affecting the town and school.
The campaign stop stirred a controversy after the town requested the Obama campaign pay for the $20,000 cost for event security. The campaign declined, but the issue was solved when an anonymous Durham resident donated $20,000 to the town.
Couser said it was interesting to have a different perspective on the event. She and her peers were stationed in an enclosed media area with local and national television and print journalists.
"It's a new experience... It's weird to see the gym transformed like this," she said, adding "it's an honor" to have the president visit her high school.

1:59 p.m. - PEASE — Obama exited Air Force One, walked down stairs and spoke with U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Portsmouth Mayor Eric Spear. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen rode off with the President in the back of the Presidential Cadillac limo. They're on their way to Durham

1:50 p.m. - DURHAM — Former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter said President Barack Obama has plenty of successes to talk about.
"I want the president to talk about his great record and what he has accomplished over the past four years," she said.
Shea-Porter, of Rochester, is seeking re-election to Congress this year. She said that Obama's stimulus package did work and that she supports his health care reform law and other initiatives.
"This president did what he said he was going to do," she said.
Asked to describe the energy in the gymnasium at the high school she attended, Shea-Porter said, "It's a wonderful atmosphere."

1:43 p.m. - PEASE — Air Force One just landed.

1:42 p.m. - PEASE — A motorcade of SUVs and emergency vehicles has assembled on the pease runway in advance of the arrival of Air Force One.

1:40 p.m. - DURHAM — Tegan O'Neill, a University of New Hampshire student and Obama for America volunteer, has taken the podium at Oyster River High School.
She said she got involved with the Obama campaign four years ago, even though she couldn't vote or even drive. She had plans to attend college and believed Obama would help improve her situation, she said.
"I'm definitely better off today than I was four years ago," she said. "Thanks to this administration my being a woman is no longer considered a pre-existing condition."

1:35 p.m. - DURHAM — A campaign staffer says Obama will talk today about the choice voters have between two visions on how to grow the economy — one that builds the economy from the middle class out, and one that builds from the top down.
Many speculated that Obama, in a speech delivered in a college town, would focus on student loan interest rates and the debt that graduates are burdened with upon leaving college. However, his message instead focus on a wider view of the nation's economy.
A statement from the campaign says that while Obama would end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's policies would offer additional incentives to outsource.
Most of those in attendance were not privy to the subject matter of Obama's speech but shared their thoughts about what they hoped he would discuss.
Rebecca Hudson of Springfield said her partner's father has Parkinson's and is cared for primarily by his 79-year-old wife. Elder care is just one of the issues she hopes the president will address, she said.
"I want to hear solutions. I don't want to hear a bunch of political talk," she said.
David Victory of Nashua said he has "no idea" what the president will say, but he hopes Obama addresses the issue of "obstructionism" in Congress. "They are not working with him," he said. "He has faced unprecedented opposition."

1:33 p.m. - PEASE — Spear said he's been working with three different handlers in preparation for his handshake with the president today. One at the White House, one. In Durham and one at Pease.

1:30 p.m. - DURHAM — The program has begun with the pledge of allegiance and singing of the national anthem.

1:26 p.m. - PEASE — Mayor spear said he plans to tell the president: welcome to Portsmouth. Said he's not sure how much time hell have to talk to him and will "play it loose."
It's very exciting, he said.
The Portsmouth mayor and Sen. Shaheen were briefed by white House staff and Spear was told his tan umbrella is not allowed. Black only umbrellas allowed.
Spear said he was notified that he would be greeting the president on Thursday night.

1:25 p.m. - DURHAM — Durham Assistant Fire Chief Jason Cleary says there are roughly 1,200 people in the auditorium and another 750 in an overflow room.

1:17 p.m. - DURHAM — Durham Assistant Fire Chief Cleary just provided guidance on how people should leave the gymnasium in case the fire alarm goes off. Some initially thought he was actually asking people to evacuate.

1:10 p.m. - DURHAM — A raucous chant of "Obama" is rattling the gymnasium as people in the stands stomp their feet and clap their hands.

1:07 p.m. - DURHAM — An hour before Obama's expected arrival, the crowd started up a brief chant of "Four More Years."

1:05 p.m. - PEASE — Mayor Eric Spear has arrived; is sequestered away from the media which is being held, under guard, in a Pease Fire Department cafeteria.

12:45 p.m. - DURHAM — With the crowd in the Oyster River High School gymnasium reaching into the thousands, campaign officials say they have organized an "overflow room" so others will be able to hear the president's remarks.
An official headcount has not yet been released. The fire marshal is on hand to ensure life safety codes are met.

12:44 p.m. - PEASE — Obama's estimated time of arrival at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease is now 1:35 p.m., a White House staffer said.

12:30 p.m. - DURHAM — Multiple political dignitaries from New Hampshire are here in Durham for Obama's campaign speech.
House Minority Leader Terie Norelli of Portsmouth, former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, state Sen. Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, and others have been spotted milling around the Oyster River High School gymnasium.
According to Holly Shulman of Obama for America N.H., U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., will give introductory remarks.

12:15 p.m. - DURHAM — Portsmouth Naval Shipyard employees John "JJ" Joyal and Paul O'Connor, in Durham for Obama's campaign stop, said the GOP has made a concerted effort to undermine unions and working men and women.
That is why, they said, they are supporting Obama's bid for re-election. "I'd do anything for the president. His work's not done yet," said Joyal, a Somersworth resident and training supervisor and the shipyard. "It took eight years (of George W. Bush) to put this train off the tracks and into the ditch."
Joyal said Obama deserves more time to move the country forward because Republicans in Congress have done everything they can to stop him from implementing his policies. He compared Obama to Gulliver from Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels," saying the GOP has "strapped (Obama) to the ground" while simultaneously "kicking" him with criticisms about ineffective leadership.
"Shame on them. Shame on the Republican party," he said.
When asked how he would respond to claims he supports Obama because of the Democratic party's tendency to back unions, O'Connor, the president of the shipyard's metal trades union, said, "It's all about voting record and policies."
O'Connor said it was deregulation and corruption on Wall Street, and not working men and women, who put the country in its current condition. "I didn't cause the financial crisis," he said.
Joyal said that "cheap labor conservatives" will never support pro-union policies, but working men and women are the backbone of the country.
"It's not the GOP's company," he said of the United States.


12:00 p.m. - PEASE — A number of Portsmouth police detectives are on scene in plain clothes.

11:58 a.m. - DURHAM — A line of thousands of people stretched all around the Oyster River High School campus this morning hours ahead of President Barack Obama's planned campaign stop at 2 p.m.
Dozens of protesters also lined the sidewalk, chanting anti-Obama messages and announcing their disapproval with the current administration's handling of everything from the economy to social issues.
Durham resident Daniele Minost, 69, a French woman who immigrated to the United States at the age of 20, was among the protesters. "I can't stand Obama" or his staff, she said. "What has he done for change?"
Minost, who, like other protesters, charged that Obama is leading the country down a path to socialism, said the thunderstorm could not keep her from sharing her message.
"I am so passionate I'm willing to be struck by lightning," she said.
Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people attending today's event are Obama supporters. Windham resident Jesse Steele said he was "all fired up" while waiting in line under an umbrella.
"I love the president," he said.
If conservatives intend to label Obama a socialist, Steele said, he would respond by calling them "fascists."
"I remember what it was like in 2008 when (former President George W.) Bush was running the country," he said, citing multiple wars, the trillions spent to fight them and conditions that led to the ailing economy that Obama inherited when he took office. "In the last three years we've come a long way," he said.

11:40 a.m. - PEASE — In a building inside the Pease Air Force base, Secret Service agents are standing near a group of sport utility vehicles readied to escort the president to Durham. Portsmouth Police Chief Lou Ferland said Friday that the motorcade vehicles began arriving by plane late last week.
A rain-soaked media corps, including Seacoast Media Group staff, has been directed to a building on the edge of the Pease Airport runway to await the arrival of Air Force One.

11:08 a.m. - DURHAM — Heavy rain, thunder and lightning have not deterred hundreds of Obama supporters and protesters from turning out at Oyster River High School today. An hour before doors open for Obama's campaign stop, a line of people is snaking around the school on Coe Drive. People are huddled under umbrellas and wearing ponchos, but all are soaked to the bone while awaiting the president's arrival. Protesters are holding signs with messages like "Obama isn't working." Their posters are smearing in the downpour, but they are ensuring their message is clear by leading anti-Obama chants as cars continue to pass by.

[ADsOutburst]

Credulous young people always have been one of their best weapons.

[NHSparky]

You mean gullible ones, don't you?

I still find it hilarious that one of the most liberal towns in NH (save possibly Keene) actually had the unmitigated gall to ask that Obama's campaign pay instead of the town bowing, scraping, and genuflecting for the privilege of hosting Teleprompter Jebus.

[txradioguy]

Seacoast paper's cub reporter post blow by blow Obie Wun visit log.  

I miss skewering Libs on the SCC forum.

[txradioguy]

You mean gullible ones, don't you?

I still find it hilarious that one of the most liberal towns in NH (save possibly Keene) actually had the unmitigated gall to ask that Obama's campaign pay instead of the town bowing, scraping, and genuflecting for the privilege of hosting Teleprompter Jebus.

Who was the idiot that came forward and agreed to pay for the visit out of his own pocket?

[NHSparky]

Who was the idiot that came forward and agreed to pay for the visit out of his own pocket?

So far, nobody knows because he only OFFERED to pay it.  Now given NH disclosure and "right-to-know" laws, if/when they do pony up the cash they'll be made known.

[JohnnyReb]

So far, nobody knows because he only OFFERED to pay it.  Now given NH disclosure and "right-to-know" laws, if/when they do pony up the cash they'll be made known.

I wouldn't be to sure about that.

It'll probably be a group calling itself something like, "The NH Society for the Magic Carpet Rides of the Great ObamaWon."

[NHSparky]

I wouldn't be to sure about that.

It'll probably be a group calling itself something like, "The NH Society for the Magic Carpet Rides of the Great ObamaWon."

Well, Durham would be the perfect place for them....that or P-town North, as zeit says.

[zeitgeist]

So far, nobody knows because he only OFFERED to pay it.  Now given NH disclosure and "right-to-know" laws, if/when they do pony up the cash they'll be made known.

Yep offered is the operative word.  SHOW ME THE MONEY!!   Loons (a version of  DUmmies) have made these kind of promises before only to turn up destitute.  Since the offer was only verbal there is no need to disclose the person's name.  That will change if money changes hands from what I am hearing.