by Mark Silva
The economy may be soft, but tickets for President Barack Obama's economic stimulus road tour are hot.
So many people showed up to get tickets for Obama's visit to Elkhart, Ind., on Monday that tickets were gone within an hour. Terry Lee, who found Concord High School locked -- and all the tickets gone -- by the time he reached a door at the school's gymnasium, said: "We were going to make it a field trip day on Monday. Now I guess we won't.''
President Bush caught a lot of flak for staging appearances where the Republican Party controlled the tickets. Obama has thrown his first events on the road open to all comers, and the tickets have flown out the door.
People started lining up outside the high school as early as midnight in hopes of getting a ticket to the president's visit to the school.. By the time doors opened near noon, a line snaked around a parking lot to the high school's football stadium. But the supply of tickets was gone by 12:15 p.m. -- between 1,000 and 1,300 tickets had been given away.
Obama will travel to Elkhart - which has suffered the biggest gain in unemployment of any metropolitan area, up 10.6 points last year to 15.3 percent unemployment in December - on the day of his first prime-time news conference in Washington. He will take his case for an economic stimulus to the public at the 8 pm EST news conference.
The next day, Obama plans another public pitch for his program: Holding a town hall-styled meeting in Fort Myers, Fla. - at where else, the town hall -- where the economy has taken a toll on the housing market. This one's open to anyone who picks up a ticket for the event at the Fort Myers Town Hall Harborside Event Center ahead of time as well.
The Associated Press contributed.
Comments
Are you kidding the "grassroots" people were first in line. They got a heads up notification.
Posted by: Saul | February 8, 2009 6:48 PM
Saul, of course you're correct. We all know that Swamp writers cover things up to aid their hero?
After all, when the Swamp writers say "President Bush caught a lot of flak for ...", what they really mean is "Us Democrats in the media attacked him for..."
Posted by: Bruce | February 8, 2009 8:43 PM
One good thing Clinton did was to hold televised "seminars" during the transition in 1992 where he would discuss policy with experts.
That might be one of the few things about Clinton that Obama could use.
To sell "the plan".
And make it look less like a continuous campaign for '12.
Posted by: ornery | February 8, 2009 9:46 PM
No Bruce,
I think Mr. Silva is referring to the fact that W only went to tightly controlled audiences, where the applause would feed his delusions. Places like military bases and your computer.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport ☯ | February 8, 2009 9:58 PM
what they really mean is "Us Democrats in the media attacked him for..."
Posted by: Bruce | February 8, 2009 8:43 PM
You want to go RNC Brucie? I'll get you two tickets and you can bring that Repub economic expert, Joe the Plumber, with you.
Posted by: Hulk Smash! | February 8, 2009 10:48 PM
Stimulus is Harvard/Yale speak for BRIBE. We have to give the pigs more money or they'll kill more vulnerable Americans.
How unpaqtriotic of them. But we gotta do it.
We wouldn't need to do this if we weren't in a war for oil.
From this weekn's The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/editors?rel=hp_picks
"President Barack Obama has wisely ordered an internal review of the administration's options in Afghanistan before proceeding with the current plan to send 30,000 more troops, which would nearly double the 32,000 fighting there. For the sake of the country, his presidency and the peace and stability of South Asia, Obama should take US-led military escalation off the table. Instead he should focus on devising a regional strategy to stabilize Afghanistan and strengthen Pakistan. Escalating the occupation of Afghanistan would bleed us of the resources we need for economic recovery, further destabilize Pakistan, open a rift with our European allies and negate the positive effects of withdrawing from Iraq on our image in the Muslim world. Escalation would have all these negative consequences without securing a better future for the Afghan people or increasing US security. ..."
Posted by: ESCALATING INTO AFGNSTN WAS A DIRTY OIL TRACK | February 8, 2009 11:26 PM
Isn't it sad the President is campaigning? Maybe he should try listening instead of talking however talking is THE ONLY ASSET he has.. and he has his sheep he will play to.. maybe they will be honest and tell him the truth but I doubt it. It's far surpassed being an issue of party but has become an issue of right and wrong.. all the people I know who voted for him are fed up already with his bill he's trying to force us to accept just like Bush did.. Well so much for change
Posted by: Independent Voter Joliet | February 9, 2009 12:30 AM
Enjoy the last tour of Obamania... it's about to hit a wall.
This bill is a major lemon, and now Barack owns it... it'll be the political death of him, unless international affairs, disaster relief failures, terrorist attacks, or more ethics implosions do him in first.
We'll be lucky if he doesn't let Putin trick him out of Alaska or something... which Obama would probably be glad to do so he wouldn't have to face Palin in 2012.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
Posted by: Reaganite Republican | February 9, 2009 7:37 AM
Tickets were gone within 20 minutes this morning in Fort Myers. There's no way they distributed 1500 of them, as very few people came out with tickets. Several hundred were turned away. There's a story here; someone needs to get to the bottom of it. Obviously, most of the '1500 tickets' were preassigned. Lots of angry people here in Fort Myers who lined up since yesterday and for hours this morning.
Posted by: Kathy Riordan | February 9, 2009 10:57 AM
The economy seems to get worse every day, but that makes it all the more important to see that the stimulus is properly done -- if it needs to be done at all.
Is Obama making a mistake by not make a bigger effort to see that the stimulus bill is a bipartisan effort?
During the election Obama promised change, specifically change in the way the political system works.
Wouldn't a big part of this change be to try to get Republicans and Democrats to work together on a stimulus bill at this critical time in our nations history?
Stumping along the lines of what Obama has been recently saying amounts little more than I won the election so I have a mandate from the people so we are going to do what I want to do.
How does that help encourage the Republicans to want to work with Obama?
All of the elected officials -- Democrats, Republicans, and Independents -- have the mandate of the people that elected them otherwise they would not be holding office.
Obama's line of reasoning that he has a mandate also forgets that he represents all the people that did NOT vote for him.
Although they might not have voted for him he still has a responsibility to them as well to not squander their tax dollars and to not ignore the law makers that they have duly elected.
http://www.weeklypoint.com/2009/02/09/obama-pushes-for-stimulus/
Posted by: Dan D. | February 9, 2009 1:36 PM
It surprises me he didnt sell tickets and donate the money to the ailing banks.
http://www.tickets--tickets.com/Eventm.html
Posted by: Mike | February 10, 2009 10:09 PM