Bll Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne. (State parks photo)
by Mark Silva
President Barack Obama, doing a fair amount of fundraising for his party and campaigning in critical races as Election Day 2009 nears, will head to Florida next week to raise money for the Democratic Party's Senate and congressional races.
South Florida is a bountfiul source of party money. The president will address a fundraiser in Miami and spend the night there Monday. On Tuesday, it's on to Norfolk, Va., the center of a sizeable African-American population in a state that will hold a hard-fought gubernatorial election on Nov. 3. The Democratic candidate is trailing the Republican in a state that Obama became the first Democrat to carry a presidential race since 1964.
Along the way, Obama will stop in a Republican-dominated region, speaking at Jacksonville Naval Air Station on Monday, the place where Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama's rival in the 2008 election, was stationed after returning from Vietnam and five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. Former President George W. Bush also used the nearby Mayport base to deliver one of his preparatory speeches for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The White House has cautioned about expecting anything about the administration's decisions on the strategy for the way forward in Afghanistan in Obama's address at Jacksonville Naval Air Station on Monday, however.
"He will make his decision on Afghanistan at the right time,'' spokesman Bill Burton said aboard Air Force One today, en route to an appearance at MIT and a fundraiser for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. "I wouldn't over-read anything into the remarks that he's delivering on Monday, other than he wants to thank the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces for the hard and courageous work that they do.''
Comments
Can't wait to hear the Wingnut teeth gnashing and crying over this...
If Obama was really using "Chicago Style Politics" on the Wingnut cretins - Boehner, McConnell, Druggy Rush and Glenn Beck would all be sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan wearing cement shoes right now.
Posted by: I wanna be a Republican idiot | October 23, 2009 4:52 PM
No time for Afghanistan, plenty of time for fundraising. You can be sure that if he isn't greeted properly on the military base, funds will dry up. Of course, leaving our people unsupported in Afghanistan while deploying them to remote areas is just their reward for flagging morale and pushy generals.
Posted by: Hans | October 23, 2009 5:00 PM
It's nice to have a President who doesn't just clear brush on his fake ranch for fully 1/3 of his entire time in office...
Posted by: former Republican | October 23, 2009 5:36 PM
"And, of course, the Republicans still can't believe that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the Democrats can't believe that Sarah Palin wrote a book. So, it's even."
--JAY LENO
"Did you see what happened to Rush Limbaugh? He wanted to buy the St. Louis Rams and they wouldn't let him. He said this was a dream he had, to some day own black people."
--BILL MAHER
"You know, it's probably best for Limbaugh because he would have been a minority owner. And once he became a minority, he would have to become a liberal and then he would have hated himself."
–JAY LENO
"Yesterday in Louisiana, a judge denied an interracial couple a marriage license because he felt, I quote, their children would later suffer in life from being interracial. Like when they become president or win the Masters or get an Oscar."
--JAY LENO
"A new survey found that the average man cries about six times a year. That number would be a lot lower if it weren’t for Glenn Beck."
--JIMMY FALLON
"A big blockbuster movie this weekend, 'Where the Wild Things Are' yeah. I think it's like a big Imax movie and it's supposed to be for kids. I don't know, by the end of the movie, all of the wild things have been hunted and shot by Sarah Palin."
--DAVID LETTERMAN
"President Obama went to New Orleans today to check up on the rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina. When President Bush heard about it, he said, 'There was a hurricane in New Orleans?'"
–JAY LENO
Posted by: Happy Friday, Broomers! | October 23, 2009 6:29 PM
If he really wants to honor them, why doesn't he skip a photo-shoot or two and do something presidential, like fight a war he once said was important.
http://thanksobama.whoisobama.org
Posted by: tom | October 23, 2009 7:16 PM
Obama continues to excel as the campaigner-in-chief while ignoring the jobless numbers, the mortgage foreclosures, and the Afghanistan situation. When will he stop voting "present" and begin to lead as president?
Posted by: judithod | October 23, 2009 7:46 PM
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No time for Afghanistan, plenty of time for fundraising. You can be sure that if he isn't greeted properly on the military base, funds will dry up. Of course, leaving our people unsupported in Afghanistan while deploying them to remote areas is just their reward for flagging morale and pushy generals.
Posted by: Hans | October 23, 2009 5:00 PM
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The Bush administration ignored the soldiers in Afghanistan for years and left a report for President Obama on their way out of Dodge. How nice.
And their report obviously wasn't very good. Gen McChrystal said as much when he asked for 40,000 more troops this past spring.
Gen McChrystal also said in his report that a thorough review needed to be done, something conveniently ignored by the "MORE TROOPS NOW!!!" Bush/Cheney/Republican warmonger crowd who are so quick to accuse President Obama of "dithering".
Did anyone on Faux News ever ask Bush & Cheney why they ignored Afghanistan? Nope.
And they wonder why intelligent people don't consider their sorry station real news? Sorry, but constantly running ads claiming you are "fair and balanced" doesn't make it so.
Try again, Leo/Juanito...
Posted by: Troll Buster | October 23, 2009 11:20 PM
He has not a clue!
The majority of Americans are concerned about joblessness, the debt, deficits and two wars going on, but the community-organizer-in-chief jets off to Fla. for some fundraisers while he should be at his desk problem solving.
The ditherer's line,"It's...Bush's fault" is wearing thin among Americans and it's showing in the polls.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | October 24, 2009 1:59 AM
Has OUR troops die Obama is going for the cash.
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | October 24, 2009 6:00 AM
He is doing good work for its party by doing such fundraising events.
Posted by: dvd | October 24, 2009 7:53 AM
Priorities
With his attendance at fundraisers for Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts (a pair of crooks, BTW) President Obama has now attended seven political fundraisers since Gen. Stanley McChrystal submitted his request for additional troops in Afghanistan--a request Obama hasn't yet decided on.
Boy, it's a shame Gen. McChrystal isn't an unpopular incumbent Democrat; if he were, Obama might be more eager to help him out.
Posted by: This message Not approved by the White House | October 24, 2009 8:34 AM
If only, those giants of American patriotism, Cheney&Bush, with their draft-dodging abilities, could have got a fraction of their duties right, concerning Afghanistan. President Obama wouldn't be forced into a hurried evaluation on the strategy needed, in combating the Taliban and al-Qiada, there. A request for more troops, sat on the desks of the Incompetent Duo, for more than 6 months, prior to President Obama's presidential victory. Now, all of a sudden, these same vociferous patriots demand our President make hurried decisions, concerning the lives of our men and women in uniform. What despicable bums, to demand a possible wrong decision, if to hurry, would cause such a wrong one. These aren't Americans making these demands, these are Republican-Libertarians who wish our President's failure, and by extension, death and injury to our citizens, in uniform, who must follow the orders of their Commander-In-Chiel, President Obama !! That once, proud Party, has become the haven for the anti-American, the poisioners of our political dialogue and general sowers of an evil patriotism, masquerading as the real deal !! It is no wonder our nation has turned her back on that herd of haters, that gang of goons, that gaggle of goofballs, hoping and praying for President Obama's failure !! Shame on all of you, supposed Americans !!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | October 24, 2009 8:36 AM
Most of the military don't want anything to do with Obama. How will they find enough soldiers to make it look like they support him?
Posted by: karen | October 24, 2009 4:20 PM
By making one stop at a Naval Air Station, Obama makes it possible for the taxpayers to pick up the nearly full cost of this primary fund-raising trip.
How's that "hope and change" working for you?
Posted by: Jamal | October 24, 2009 5:03 PM
Man, I Wanna ( and you are an idiot) you must be sitting on Mark's lap. Seems like you are first to post often here. Of course, you never have anything worth reading to say. Do you wear a sweater that says "Swamper" and have green pom poms?
Posted by: The Real Gary | October 26, 2009 3:57 AM