By John Schroyer, The Gazette –
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—It was so hot and so crowded that several people fainted Thursday afternoon on the quad of Colorado College. But that didn’t deter the estimated 4,200 people — mostly Democrats — who stubbornly remained packed together to hear President Barack Obama speak for nearly an hour about why he’s the better man for the job.
The standard re-election chant of “Four more years!” permeated the afternoon, and the rally was peppered with shouts such as “We’re fired up!” It was elevated by the announcement that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who introduced Obama, is an alumni of CC.
Obama, who took the stage at CC a little after 2 p.m., played up to the noisy sun-drenched quad with attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress. The biggest difference, he said throughout, is financial.
The country, he said, needs to restructure its tax system to help the middle class more than the upper class, which he said would then create a domino effect to drive the entire country higher and higher.
“They tried to sell us this trickle-down tax cut fairy dust before. And guess what? It didn’t work,” Obama said.
Amid his stump speech that was mostly about the economy and taxes, he scored points on the U.S. Olympic Training Center and veterans’ issues. He began his speech by saying he was “so proud” of the Olympic athletes who had trained in Colorado Springs.
Economic issues tie directly into veterans’ support, Obama claimed. He praised troops for protecting the country by serving in places such as Afghanistan, but said they need backup for when they return home.
“We’ve got to make sure that the country they come back to is going on all cylinders,” Obama said. “So what I said is let’s set up a Veterans Jobs Corps that helps returning veterans get jobs as firefighters and police officers in communities that need them.”
Obama said that if conservatives weren’t bent on killing every Democratic proposal, the country would be able to solve more of its problems, and perhaps his Job Corps is something that could work.
“What’s standing in our way is the politics in Washington,” Obama said. “It’s a bunch of people who think ‘compromise’ is a dirty word.”
Upon leaving the rally, Obama went straight to the U.S. Olympic Training Center to pat a few dozen athletes on the back. The president met the country’s Paralympics swimming team captain, Michael Prout, who ushered the president into two of OTC gyms, where Obama shook hands with and congratulated several athletes-in-training.
Obama shared a laugh with one young woman when he told her, “That’s crazy,” after she said she’s training for four different sports. And he took off his shoes to walk across a room covered with a wrestling mat to greet a young team practicing.
The young athletes weren’t the only ones smiling after talking with the president.
Before and after Obama’s speech, many at the CC rally said there was simply no choice between him and Romney.
Dr. Chuks Nweke took the day off work to hear the president speak.
“Just to hear him in person, it’s so thrilling,” Nweke said. “I hope he continues on the positive attitude of how we can move forward as a nation.”
Susan Dilloway said it was exciting to have a Democratic president speaking in usually conservative Colorado Springs.
“It would be nice if Democrats could make a big move here in Colorado Springs,” she said, “because we’re the big obstacle for him (Obama) winning Colorado.”
El Paso County has slightly more than 87,000 registered Democrats, but the president told the crowd that “Colorado is going to be close. So I’ve got to make sure your friends are registered. I’ve got to make sure you’re registered.”
As Obama spoke, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal rallied cheers from a couple hundred staunch Republicans — declaring Obama to be the “most liberal” and the “most incompetent” president since Jimmy Carter.
Jindal’s speech, one of four appearances he made Thursday in Colorado Springs and Fountain to counter Obama’s visit, assailed the president for the health care law and a host of promises that Jindal deemed broken — including the effectiveness of his stimulus plan.
“Clearly his policies have failed,” Jindal said. “Yet all he knows to do is to borrow more money from the Chinese, raise more taxes, spend more money.”
Curt Neeley, who described himself as a life-long Republican, said there’s “an undercurrent of quiet anger” on the part of conservatives.
He smirked when considering whether Jindal’s event served as an effective-counter punch to Obama’s visit.
“The vote count will tell the difference,” Neeley said.
