As per the Freeps, CNN apparently reported that Obama was planning to visit Irene-stricken areas in North Carolina, Virginia, and Vermont, but Senator Leahy’s office indicated than there were – as yet – no such plans for a Vermont visit.
For those who don’t get the math, it goes like this:
Virginia = Swing State
North Carolina = Lean R State
Vermont = Solid D State
In terms of Presidential photo opportunities, it goes:
Swing State > Solid D State
Lean R State > Solid D State
Solid D State < 0
Maybe we get the President to stop by and say a few words at the Burlington airport on his way somewhere else, if Senator Leahy calls in a favor. Alternatively, we could pull a Biden stop, or maybe another FLOTUS appearance. Don’t hold your breath for anything more Presidential.
(UPDATE: Had to make some changes up there, as I typed in the wrong math before. oops.)
Bush didn’t come either, presumably for the same reason Obama won’t, because he knew we were a hopeless bunch of liberals. Someone might be able to correct me, but I don’t believe any President has actually stepped on Vermont soil while President, since FDR. I think JFK stopped at the Burlington Airport on Election Night 1960.
Although it’s sheer madness to bet against Odum, I’m going to have to say he’s got it wrong this time . . . Obama will come here, briefly, tour damage. Why? Because there’s too steep a downside if he doesn’t . . . So expect a Free Press headline to that effect in couple of days. If not . . . then I owe Odum a bowl of good soup.
“”What are you going to do, evacuate the entire state of Vermont?” the governor asked.”
Sorry — should have spelled out what I meant. The downside doesn’t have to do with losing votes here; it has to do with being seen dissing the state so hard hit, the state that also happens to make great b-roll. So if Obama goes only where the votes are, it’s the media that will provide the downside. But again, more than willing to pay for soup if it turns out that my reasoning is poppycock . . .
there’s no way it is a Burlington airport quickstop. Might work for a fundraiser, but if he visits it will be Rochester or Brattleboro or somewhere with real serious long term messes. Randolph would qualify, but I know even with our many tragedies, we arent the worst off.
An airport quickstop would be worse than not visiting and I’m sure his people know that.
Personally, I don’t really care if NObama comes to Vermont, and the “will he/won’t he” guessing game is frankly wasted energy.
Rather, at a time like this, we might remember a previous presidential visit, in the aftermath of another disastrous flood: native son Calvin Coolidge’s tour of Vermont to inspect the recovery efforts from the 1927 flood. Stopping in Bennington, in the fall of 1928, Silent Cal was greeted by roughly 5,000 people surrounding his rail car. The book “The Troubled Roar of the Waters: Vermont in Flood and Recovery, 1927-1931” describes Pres. Coolidge’s immortal remarks to the Bennington crowd:
“Then, putting aside whatever notes he may have had, he began to speak from the heart, in words that, as Craig Burt of Stowe later put it, ‘every school child should be taught’:
“Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox, without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our eternal hills.
I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”
NObama may seek to emulate some of Coolidge’s policies, but whether he comes or not, he will never, ever match the eloquence of those words and the comforting effect they render even today … especially today.
If Obama does come to Vt, he’s sure to get heckled/questioned uncomfortably by his disappointed supporters.
Don’t think he wants that, unless he uses it to Sister Souljah us.
at least for now.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-…