COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama returned to New Hampshire for the first time in two years to deliver a speech promoting his American Jobs Act in the gymnasium of Manchester's Central High School. As a candidate in the Granite State's first-in-the nation Presidential primary back in 2008, then-Senator Obama's appearance at Central was cut short by an impending snow storm, but MacArthur-like, he had vowed to return. He made good on his promise.
Though heckled briefly at the beginning of his speech by Occupy Wall Street protestors, the President was enthusiastically embraced by the crowd of high school seniors sitting in the bleachers and by citizens standing on the gym floor, which was sheathed in plastic to protect the parquet surface.
Fired Up
It was a diverse and upbeat crowd who were greeted by the Central High band's playing of classic rock songs, including The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the closing medley from the Fab Four's Abbey Road album called "The End". Lest anyone think that this was a bit of sly editorial commentary by the students of Central, they showed their true colors by shouting down the OWS hecklers who interrupted the President by chanting "O-ba-ma!"
President Obama was in full campaign mode, showing the "Fired Up and Ready to Go!" form that had helped him place a close second to front-runner Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary. It seemed the President was reinvigorated by being on the hustings, though his trip to the Granite State was billed as official business to push for his jobs legislation and not as a political campaign stop.
The President squarely put the blame for the sluggish economy and lack of jobs on the Republicans in Congress, whom he chided for being obstructionists. He called on the Republicans to vote for the extension of his payroll tax cut to help stimulate the economy.
Two Senators & Two Candidates
Former Governor Jeanne Shaheen, the Democrat who is New Hampshire's senior senator, was in attendance at the event, though she did not speak. Senator Shaheen was signaled out by President Obama for praise for her support of his jobs plan and for voting for legislation that was part of his original jobs package that extends tax cuts to businesses that will put unemployed veterans back to work.
Two days ago, Republican Kelly Ayotte, the state's junior senator, gave her endorsement to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a rather subdued affair in front of Nashua's City Hall. The crowd at Manchester's Central High was far more diverse than the white, seemingly prosperous citizens drawn to the Republican event. Their embrace of Obama, whom the right-leaning New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper mockingly called a "Rock Star" in its coverage of his impending trip, was far more enthusiastic than the Republicans' greeting of Mitt Romney on Sunday.
The front-runner among Republican Presidential candidates in New Hampshire, Romney launched his first television and print ads specifically attacking President Obama today, to coincide with the President's arrival in New Hampshire. The gist of Romney's ads is that Obama is a failure as a president in that he has failed to turn the economy around and provide jobs.
Since the rise and eclipse of Rick Perry and Herman Cain as front-runners in the Republican field (and the recent rise to the top of the polls of the seriously flawed Newt Gingrich) have left many with the perception that Romney is the presumptive GOP nominee, I view the President's trip to New Hampshire as the opening salvo of the 2012 Presidential campaign that most likely will pit Obama against Romney. Having witnessed both campaign events, Romney and Ayotte's Nashua appearance and now this whistle-stop by President Obama, I can say that Romney and other Republicans should be cautious: Barack is back!
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