He's Off: Obama Heading to Martha's Vineyard for 10 Day Family Vacation

TOBY MELVILLE/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Fresh off three days of barnstorming in the Midwest, President Obama will spend Thursday morning at the White House in two closed-door meetings, first with his senior economic advisors in the Oval Office then with his national security team in the Situation Room. And then it's off for some R&R. In the afternoon, Obama heads to the island oasis of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, where he’s expected to spend the next 10 days vacationing with his family.

The trip -- the Obamas’ third consecutive to the Vineyard -- comes in spite of some criticism from Republicans and members of his own party that he remain in Washington to focus on the economy.

"We've got to be doing every single thing we can, every minute of every day to help the American people,” Obama told a crowd Wednesday in Alpha, Illinois -- the last stop on his bus tour.

White House press secretary Jay Carney has said Obama will continue to work on the economy even while he is away.

"I don't think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the president would spend some time with his family,” Carney told reporters last week.

He added, "There's no such thing as a presidential vacation.  The presidency travels with you.  He will be in constant communication and get regular briefings from his national security team as well as his economic team.  And he will, of course, be fully capable if necessary of traveling back if that were required.  It's not very far."

Copyright 2011 aBC News Radio

Obama’s Warm Midwest Welcome Stands in Contrast to Road Ahead

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama spent the last three days traveling throughout the Midwest promoting his proposals to get the economy moving again and telling Americans that he shares their frustration with partisan gridlock in Washington.

Take a look at the numbers, however, and one could easily argue that Obama has been barking up the wrong tree.  The president’s three-state economic bus tour through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois brought him to small Democratic-leaning towns and to states where his approval rating is above the national average.

Add to that the fact that all three states he visited have unemployment rates well below the national 9.2 percent average, and what resulted were largely supportive crowds.

The political reality facing the president, however, is much bleaker.  On Wednesday, the president’s approval rating on the economy hit a new low of just 26 percent, according to Gallup, an 11-point drop since May.

The new figure highlights the long road ahead for the president to convince Americans that he can right the faltering economy following the contentious debt debate and the nation’s first ever credit downgrade.

Although the White House claimed the trip was purely official business, the president spent the last three days honing his campaign pitch, telling Americans, “We’ll get through this moment of challenge,” and, “What’s broken is our politics.”

Looking ahead to 2012, voters can expect the president to paint himself as the rational alternative to Republicans who put party ahead of country.

At every stop along the way, the president tried to “enlist” Americans to urge lawmakers to work together to take the necessary steps to grow the economy.

In the coming weeks, the president will put forth his own jobs plan, which will likely resemble the “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit through spending cuts and revenue increases that he pushed during last month’s debt debate.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Obama Campaign Email Blasts Economist, Liberal Blogs

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- A controversial email from an Obama campaign staffer in New Mexico to statewide supporters earlier this month highlights the ideological divide on the left over the debt ceiling deal, while raising the ire of the president's most liberal critics.

On Aug. 1, just hours after Congress approved the bipartisan deal, Obama for America New Mexico State Director Ray Sandoval sent out an email blast with an attached blog post that he said “does a great job of explaining the Debt Ceiling deal.”  

The article, penned by Spandan Chakrabarti of The People’s View, is largely an annotated summary of the legislative package, which he calls an “out and out win for the president,” including links to the White House website and explanations of the super committee process and the ensuing triggers, or automatic cuts, if it doesn’t reach a deal.

But it’s Chakrabarti’s words for some of the president’s Democratic critics that pack the real punch.  He calls Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman a “political rookie” and refers to other detractors of the compromise from the “Firebagger Lefty blogosphere” who he believes are all misguided in their assessment of the deal.

“The loudest screeching noise you hear coming from Krugman and the ideologue Left is, of course, Medicare.  Oh, no, the President is agreeing to a Medicare trigger!!!  Oh noes!!!  Everybody freak out right now!  But let’s look at the deal again, shall we,” he writes.   

Krugman has called the debt deal a “disaster” for Obama, Democrats and the U.S. economy.

Later, Chakrabarti, 28, says of the triggers, which include pain for both parties, “The more than half-a-trillion in defense and security spending cut ‘trigger’ for the Republicans will hardly earn a mention on the Firebagger Lefty blogosphere….”

The email was first obtained and reported on by the Huffington Post.

While an Obama campaign spokeswoman said “the views expressed in this email do not represent the views of the campaign,” the association of inflammatory language with the president’s re-election team has touched a nerve in some circles.

“What exactly does OFA [Obama for America] think they stand to gain by ridiculing Krugman as a ‘political rookie,’ a hysterical ‘fanatic’ and an ‘ideologue’?,” blasted Jane Hamsher, author of the popular liberal blog FireDogLake.  “Do they think they hold so much sway with liberals that they can discredit Krugman and thus neutralize his criticism?”

The episode likely compounds the belief expressed by some liberals that the White House has not been respectful of or responsive to their concerns.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

The Canadian Border? Perry Hits Obama on Immigration

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NASHUA, N.H.) -- Rick Perry got into an intense exchange Wednesday afternoon about his views on border security and illegal immigration with an invited member of the audience at a business roundtable in New Hampshire.

George Katis, the owner of Nashua Wallpaper, repeatedly pressed Perry on what he was going to do about those dual problems in what was otherwise a low-key conversation with local business people.

Perry, who was on his second trip to New Hampshire as a presidential candidate, criticized President Obama for his assertion during a speech in El Paso, Texas, in May that his administration had "strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible."

"Six weeks ago the president went to El Paso and said the border is safer than it's ever been," Perry said. "I have no idea, maybe he was talking about the Canadian border."

Perry noted that his state has asked the federal government for additional National Guard troops to assist with border security, but repeated his view that a border fence was not viable.

"You've got strategic fencing in some of the metropolitan areas -- that's very helpful -- but the idea that you're going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso is just -- it's ridiculous on its face," he said.

"The fact of the matter is that the 1,200-mile border is too much for even the state of Texas, as substantial as we are, to defend. That is a constitutional duty for the federal government to defend our borders."

Perry added, "I will assure you one thing, if I'm the president of the United States, the border will be secure."

Katis, the Nashua businessman, followed up, asking Perry yet again what exactly he would do about illegal immigrants.

"You're not going to ship 12 million people back to whatever country they come from. But you've got to come up with a way that clearly stays away from this issue of making individuals legal citizens of the United States if they haven't gone through the proper process. I think we can sit down and have a, you know, an adult, grown-up conversation with business men and women who understand the need to have available workforce but also this very important issue of the rule of law. We're a country of laws and you've got to live within these laws."

At the end of Perry's remarks Katis spoke directly to him.

"Governor," he said, "you came across very moderate," adding that was a different impression than some have of Perry -- that he is "to the right of Attila The Hun," Katis said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Obama Offers Insight into Jobs Plan

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(ATKINSON, Ill.) -- At a town hall in rural Illinois on Wednesday, President Obama offered some hints about what can be expected in the new jobs plan that he will announce next month.

"[The] bottom line is this," Obama said, "We'll have more spending cuts than we have revenue, but we're going to have to take a balanced approach, and everything's going to be on the table, including our long-term obligations," the president said in Atkinson, Ill., a town with a population of 1000.

Obama said that he’s going to present a plan that has more deficit reduction than the $1.5 trillion that the super-committee has been tasked with identifying, “because I don't think it's good enough for us to just do it part way.  If we're going to do it, let's go ahead and fix it," he said.

“You can't take things off the table," Obama stressed, noting that he is "concerned" that Speaker of the House John Boehner has assigned lawmakers to the super-committee that have signed a pledge vowing not to increase taxes.

The president said that Republicans in Congress should focus on putting "country first," not their loyalty to a pledge. "I take an oath," the president said. "I don't go around signing pledges, because I want to make sure that every single day, whatever it is that's going to be best for the American people."

"And that's how I think every representative in Congress should be thinking, not about some pledge that they signed for some special interest group or some lobbyist or some association somewhere. They should be waking up, thinking: What's best for the country?" Obama said.

The refusal to budge on taxes is a concern that the president extends to the Republican presidential candidates, who have all said they would not support a deficit reduction package that included a 10-to-1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases.

"That's just not common sense," Obama said. "I can't imagine that's how Atkinson runs its operations."

The president continued to reprimand lawmakers in Congress for failing to work together to grow the economy and reiterated that "the only thing holding us back is our politics."

Once again, Obama tried to "enlist" the crowd in the fight to end partisan gridlock in Washington. "I need you to send a message to folks in Washington: stop drawing lines in the sand, stop engaging in rhetoric instead of actually getting things done," he said.  

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Mitt Romney Slams Obama's Tour, Vacation, Debt Deal

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(CHICAGO) -- Just as President Obama’s three-day bus tour rolled into Illinois on Wednesday, GOP candidate Mitt Romney called into a Chicago radio station, slamming the president’s trip and expanding on his criticism of the debt deal.  

“We would not be seeing the president on a bus tour had his first 932 days in office been successful,” Romney told ABC News’ radio affiliate WLS 890 AM Chicago. “The fact is it’s been a pretty rocky road. He has not got the job done.”

“And he’s hoping that by three days on a bus, he can make up for hundreds of days of failure,” said Romney on the Don Wade & Roma show.

[CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO MITT ROMNEY'S INTERVIEW WITH WLS RADIO]

The Romney campaign has dubbed the president’s bus tour as the “Magical Misery Tour,” releasing two web videos in as many days that feature residents in the towns visited by Obama discussing their unhappiness with the administration.

Romney also criticized the president’s upcoming trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

“If I were president today, I wouldn’t be looking to go spend ten days on Martha’s Vineyard. Now, Martha’s Vineyard is in my home state of Massachusetts so I don’t want to say anything negative about people vacationing there. But if you’re the President of the United States, and the nation is in crisis, and we’re in a jobs crisis right now, then you shouldn’t be out vacationing,” said Romney.

The former Massachusetts governor will also visit Martha’s Vineyard later this month -- while the president is on the island -- but the campaign says it will be for a quick fundraising event and not for a vacation.

Asked about his thoughts on the so-called "super committee" created as a result of the debt deal, Romney acknowledged that there are “some procedural advantages” in that the report developed by the 12-member committee cannot be amended, only voted up or down.

Still, Romney reiterated that he did not support the deal.

“The idea that we’re either going to have to raise taxes or cut the military, is in my opinion, like saying ‘are you going to cut off your right arm or your left arm?’” said Romney.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Rick Perry Accuses White House of Lecturing Him

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(BEDFORD, N.H.) -- On his first stop as a presidential candidate in the state that holds the nation’s earliest presidential primary, Rick Perry responded to President Obama’s criticism of the Texas governor’s assertion that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s actions border on treason.

“The president said I needed to watch what I say,” Perry said. “I just want to respond back if I may. Mr. President, actions speak louder than words. My actions as governor are helping create jobs in this country. The president’s actions are killing jobs in this country. It’s time to get America working again.”

When a member of the audience asked Perry a question about the Federal Reserve, Perry began his answer by saying: “I got in trouble talking about the Federal Reserve yesterday. I got lectured about that yesterday.”

"When you're president or you're running for president you have to think about what you're saying because your words have greater impact,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said of Perry’s remark that if Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were to print more money between now and the election it would be “almost treasonous.”

Carney added, “President Obama and we take the independence of the Federal Reserve very seriously and certainly think threatening the Fed chairman is probably not a good idea."

Perry addressed the White House criticism Wednesday morning to an audience of New Hampshire’s political leaders.

At the outset of a two-day campaign swing, the Texas governor also challenged those (he referred to “some people on the left”) who seek to “dismiss” his record of job creation in Texas -- and slammed President Obama's recent claim he turned the economy around but "a run of bad luck" derailed the recovery.

“Just luck?” Perry asked. “Well, Mr. President, America’ crisis is not bad luck, it’s bad policies from Washington, D.C.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Obama to Give Major Speech on Economy Next Month

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama will deliver a major speech on the economy shortly after Labor Day, a White House official tells ABC News.

The president will propose a package to help boost the economy and to reduce the deficit, the official said.

Ideas that the president will present include a payroll tax cut, an infrastructure bank, patent reform, the passage of three important trade deals, and tax credits to encourage the hiring of veterans, among others -- all bullet points he's mentioned before.

The speech will also include ways to reduce the deficit and to pay for the new programs to stimulate job growth.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

While in Iowa, Obama Makes Surprise Stops in Small Towns

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(PEOSTA, Iowa) -- While the White House continues to assert that President Obama’s bus tour is purely official business, Obama spent Tuesday afternoon making surprise stops in small towns across Iowa, in what looked a lot like campaigning.

After wrapping up the Rural Economic Forum in Peosta, Iowa, Obama headed to Maquoketa to visit the local high school.  The president spent time with the volleyball team, who were practicing ahead of the start of school next week, taking photos with the girls and making small talk about their summers.  He also spoke with the school superintendent.

For his next stop, Obama grabbed some ice cream at the DeWitt Dairy Treats, where he greeted patrons and took photos with the staff.

The president stepped up to the window and ordered a big cone of soft serve alongside Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.  Obama, who took orders for his team, also asked the press if they wanted anything.

“You sure?  This is the last time I’m gonna buy you anything,” Obama said when members of the media declined.

Finally, the president stopped in LeClaire, Iowa, along the Mississippi River, where he perused the wares at Grasshoppers craft store and spoke with the store’s owner.

The president joked that the owner’s dog looked a bit like Bo.

“He's kind of like Bo because he just stood there and wouldn't sit," the president said.

Obama then greeted the crowd of locals gathered across the street at the So Loco Fresh restaurant and signed some autographs.

The president will next head to Illinois on Wednesday, where he'll wrap up his three-day bus tour holding two town halls in Atkinson and Alpha.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Obama Enlists Iowans in Fight to End Partisan Gridlock

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(PEOSTA, Iowa) -- At the White House Rural Economic Forum in Iowa on Tuesday, President Obama made his case to “enlist” Iowans in the fight to end partisan gridlock in Washington, which he said is to blame for the lack of economic growth.

“The only thing that is holding us back is our politics… The refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party. And that has to stop. Our economy cannot afford it,” Obama said at the Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa.

The president is spending the second day of his three-state Midwest bus tour focusing on the rural economy, urging Iowans to send a message to Congress to “put politics aside and get something done.”

“There's nothing wrong with this country.  We'll get through this moment of challenge. The only question is if, as a nation, we're going to do what it takes to grow this economy and put people back to work right now. Can we get our politics to match up with the decency of our people,” Obama said.

The president announced several new initiatives aimed at boosting the rural economy and creating jobs, including doubling the amount of investment capitol funneled to rural small businesses and recruiting more doctors for rural hospitals.

“We want to leave no stone unturned when it comes to strengthening this economy,” Obama said. “All the proposals we're making today didn't require new laws.  It just means that we're doing things smarter, we're eliminating duplication; we're allocating resources to places that we know are really making a difference.”

However, the president, who participated in two “breakout sessions” on the rural economy at Tuesday’s forum, seemed more intent on soliciting ideas from the community for how to “jumpstart” the economy.

“I'm also convinced that [a] comeback isn't going to be driven by Washington.  It is going to be driven by folks here in Iowa,” he said. “It's time Washington acted as responsibly as you do every single day.  It's past time.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio