Fox News is touting a report by the Associated Press that suggests the White House is playing favorites with the president's travel schedule. The AP notes that about three of every four trips by administration officials thus far have been to the 28 states that Barack Obama won in 2008.Fox takes the inference a little further, throwing in impressive-sounding totals of stimulus funds that went to the states in question. They also point out that many administration officials hail from blue states, so they are bound to travel more to those states.
Does Fox's inference hold water? Is the president, in effect, campaigning on the public dime?
In fairness to the president, both the AP and Fox failed to consider other reasons why he wouldn't travel as much to red states. These types of visits can be logistically elaborate, usually requiring running water and electricity. (We kid!)
But seriously, a quick comparison of the 2008 electoral map with a U.S. Population Density Map reveals that Fox's headline could easily have been "President Favors Travel to Where People Live."
As for the stimulus money, to paraphrase Verizon, there's a map for that. Lots of red states got lots of stimulus bucks.
Fox does make a decent point about the selection of Pittsburgh as the site for the G20. When Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced the summit at a briefing in May, there was an immediate chorus of laughter from the press corps, followed by a barrage of "Why Pittsburgh?" queries.
Still, this report reminds me of nothing so much as that old Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown tells Lucy, "Tell your statistics to shut up!"
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Sunday 18 October
By michael
Why would President Obama go to states who did support him as a candidate and have spewed hate and fear mongering at him since he won the election? Those unpatriotic bigots have not treated him with the respect the office deserves and have done nothing but show contempt and disrespect to him and his family since the election.
There were no hangman nooses at Bush events even after made it impossible to investigate the crooked dealings of Cheney, he lied to the American public, trashed the economy, provided extra billions in corporate welfare, alienated the nation in the world political arena and got the country into two wars just to name a few of his deeds.
There were no tea parties or bus tours spewing lies about Bush or commentators on the news channels misrepresenting his plans for the health industry and creating green industries to save the environment and create jobs. Bush had no plans for the country but win the election and put everything on cruise control.
I do not remember a time when any elected official was treated as poorly without having been convicted of a felony or a series of them. If I were the president I would withhold all federal aid to these states until they could prove one of their claims
in a court of law.
It's time for politicians to support their outrageous claims or shut up and provide local, national and international leadership. The hate mongering and fear mongering has not done its' job and it hopefully will backfire on them as it should. I hope the fires of hell burn brightly with the lying fake conservative republican scum for their unpatriotic low class behavior. Even eternal hell is too good for them.
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Monday 19 October
By Cornelius
"Why would President Obama go to states who did support him as a candidate and have spewed hate and fear mongering at him since he won the election?"
Because he's their president too. Whether their electoral votes went to him or not, they're his constituency and he should give equal consideration. If he simply chooses to ignore those who voted against him the first time and only deals with democrats, I doubt that would bode well for him next election cycle.
Btw, even if they're still a minority, most of those red states still have a lot of Obama supporters living there. He'd be unwise to alienate them too.
You'd make a terrible presidential advisor, unless you're secretly trying to hand back power to the GOP.
Tuesday 20 October
By Ryan
Every President gets this type of disrespect. Why is it any different for Obama to get the same. He may not deserve it which a lot of other presidents in the past didn't deserve, but your talking like he is a little kid who will go crying to his mommy. Barack can handle the smash talk from the republicans and remind you also from the democrats. Don't just think the republicans are the only ones upset about this. The democrats just have "more" respect because he is part of thier party. Don't think for one minute that every republican thought George Bush was a hero. There is a difference for voting for someone of the party you want and the person your voting for whether they are democrat or republican