GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — For President Barack Obama,
the bus is back.
That's the sleek, million-dollar, Secret
Service-approved bus that's been carrying Obama along North Carolina's winding
mountain roads, giving the president a chance to take in the fall foliage and
bask in some small-town Southern hospitality.
"Saw the mountains, saw some lakes, saw all
the wonderful people in this part of the country," Obama said Monday
during a speech in rural Millers Creek.
"Even the folks who don't vote for me are
nice," he added.
At the heart of Obama's three-day bus trip through
North Carolina and Virginia is a sales pitch for elements in the jobs bill he
wants Congress to pass.
But the president is also selling himself, an
incumbent candidate running for re-election, trying to re-energize voters whose
enthusiasm may have waned. That's particularly important in North Carolina, a
state Obama wrested from Republicans in 2008, but which could slip out of his
grasp next November.
To try to recapture some of his electoral appeal,
Obama turned to campaign staples: barbecue, babies and barrels of candy.
Obama spent more than four hours Monday driving
through the Blue Ridge Mountains, which were bright with red and orange fall
leaves. The president stopped off in Marion, population 8,075, for lunch at
Countryside Barbeque. The president ordered at the counter — he got the
barbecue platter and sweet tea — then spent more than half an hour shaking
hands and having his picture taken with the lunchtime crowd.
The tech-savvy president even helped one woman
figure out how to take a photo on her smartphone.
Obama had a close encounter with one baby boy:
"I think you got some biscuit on me," the president said as he handed
the child back to his mother.
And he made personal appeals for his economic
policies, telling one table of local businessmen about his call for $50 billion
more in new infrastructure spending. He said, "We're going to have to do
it eventually, so why not do it now?"
Obama's unscheduled stops aren't wholly impromptu.
White House staffers typically scope out areas in advance and Secret Service
officers arrive well ahead of the president.
But they're about as spontaneous as it gets for the
president, and afford him the freedom of personal, retail politics that's often
missing in the highly scripted White House.
Obama's bus, as well as the staff and press vans
that followed behind, passed crowds of people lined up on the sidewalks of small
towns and residents sitting on lawn chairs in their front yards. A group of
schoolchildren gathered outside their classrooms, waving small American flags.
A man pulled his car over to the side of the road and saluted as the
commander-in-chief sped by.
One woman held a sign reading "We believe. We
voted. Now What?" That message underscored the challenge Obama faces as he
seeks to rally his supporters ahead of next November's election.
Key to Obama's 2008 success in North Carolina was
his campaign's ability to boost voter turnout among young people. And there
were plenty of them in Boone, home to Appalachian State University, when Obama
stopped Monday for a shopping trip at Mast General Store.
The store was filled with barrels of candy, which
Obama started grabbing by the handful — to help the White House prepare for
Halloween, he said.
"On Halloween, the first lady doesn't
mind," Obama said of his health-conscious wife.
Day two of Obama's bus trip was to start at a
community college near Greensboro and end in Hampton, Va. Hours of drive time
was scheduled in between, giving Obama plenty more chances for unscheduled
stops.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Susan Walsh)
