Obama's Republican road show

by Mark Silva

Before President Barack Obama steps on to the Tonight Show stage with Jay Leno - and Garth Brooks - today, he will step on to a "Town Hall'' stage in Los Angeles with Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, the Republican who campaigned with "pump-you-up'' rallies for former President George W. Bush.

Obama has appeared on a Florida "Town Hall'' stage with Charlie Crist, the popular Republican governor of Florida who might like to run for Senate next year. And today, Schwarzenegger, self-styled "team player,'' is expected to join Obama in L.A.

The president "is playing a bit of divide and conquer this week,'' as the AP's Charles Babington puts it, "pitting his Republican critics in Washington against GOP governors and mayors eager for the federal money that his hard-fought stimulus plan will bring.''

They love that stimulus money in Florida and California - those Republican leaders do - even if they don't love that stimulus in Washington - those GOP chiefs.

Congress enacted Obama's $787-billion economic stimulus with but three Republican votes - all in the Senate.

And Republican governors have had various reactions to it: With Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina rejecting portions of the economic bounty.

Crist welcomed the money, and Schwarzenegger has said that, if other Republican governors don't want it, he'll be happy to take theirs.

As Obama started a two-day Southern California tour Wednesday in Costa Mesa, the White House was ballyhooing projects backed by the stimulus - among them, an eastbound lane for the Riverside Freeway in Orange County. His mention of that work drew cheers from a crowd of 1,300 at his Costa Mesa town hall.

Schwarzenegger is set to join Obama at his second town hall today in Los Angeles. And before Obama returns to Washington, he will tape The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Garth Brooks can draw a pretty good Republican crowd, too, and tonight, Obama will share in that show's estimated audience of five million.