Monday, February 9, 2009

Mr. Obama in Elkhart, IN - that's where I live..

The President was about 4 miles away from my home today! He was in Elkhart, Indiana talking about his economic stimulus bill. The reason he was here again (he was here several times in our area and elsewhere in the state during his campaign) is because my county literally has the highest unemployment figure in the entire country - 15.3%!! Holy cow Batman.

70% of all Recreational Vehicles are made in a 5 county area around us and we have been hit very hard with companies going out of business and massive layoffs. The whole RV business, both motorized and towables is off between 75 - 80%. Yes, they are only running production at levels that are 20-25% of last year. There are so many people that have been unemployed (for months now) that they cannot even process the clai
ms from over 3 months ago. The Indiana govenor has promised (as yet unfulfilled) to send hundreds of gov types from elsewhere in the state to assist with processing of these claims.

So - okay, I didn't vote for the man - I'm not happy with most of his strategies and so on; but he is the President and I was pleased to see the first trip he's made since his inaguration was to the hardest hit area of the country for economic downturn! He is a great speaker and did speak the truth to the folks here today. He still emphasized the need for personal responsibility and helping ourselves with positive education and preparedness. I just spoke with a couple who are good friends - the wife is an educator in a public high school and she was agast to hear most of her African-American students express outrage against the Presi
dent saying he was, "NOT black enough!" She further observed that most of the ethnic minority students literally felt that they had been lied to - as they truely expected more immediate CASH in hand from the government after this recent election. That is a sad commentary!

God Bless America and yes, God Bless the President. Oh, and just to have a little fun, here are favorite pix of him (ha, ha, ha!):

4 comments:

Audra said...

Love the pics.

I think it is interesting that you are turning around about Obama. I seem to remember another Democrat that you liked. Hmm.

I hope this one can keep his pants ups. Long live the President! I love listening to him speak, I just wish he didn't want to throw money at the problems. That's all.

Audra said...

I love the pics. I mean they really make me laugh.

Greybear said...

Thanks for the comments. I only voted for Clinton once. I owed him, since he was then Governor of Arkansas and helped me reopen that one factory we had closed - it helped my company and helped us reemploy 385 people. Politics is what it is. There is no lilly white - there is loads of compromise - anyone who thinks differently is naive or a liar. I still don't like the socialistic "throw money at it" reaction. It would be far better to cut taxes AND spending. We don't need our government to become the ruler of private industry. It's bad enough to have them basically running ALL the major banks in America today. What I am impressed with is the more conservative (which he truly isn't - but it's still nice to hear him hold to some of the truth) patterns of speech that he is taking. By that I mean that most of Black America (sorry - but I think this is the core truth that all of us who don't live in Happy Valley, no offense intended) still feels like they have it made now that an African-American is Prez. Now we are not racists, and we all know that hard working people of all races can make a success of it here in America. But most Blacks here in the Mid-west have been very out spoken about their view that there will be / should be an even better gravy train for them with Obama as Prez. Every American should read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. It was never more relevant than now. Sorry to ramble. I won't and am not sacrificing principle - you never abandon your core beliefs - I am just glad to hear some rhetoric that smacks of self-reliance than that of a minority revival tent meeting.

OH yeah - the pix were fun!

Audra said...

That is the Dad I know and love.