Deep in the Heart of Texas: Obama Attacks Bush in Bush’s Home State, Dems Avoid POTUS, Gov. Perry Greets President with Letter on TX Border Security Problems (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 10, 2010
A portion of the letter Texas Gov. Rick Perry gave to Pres. Obama on what Texas needs in National Guard troops from the federal government to slow down illegal immigration and begin to secure the state's southern border
A busy day for POTUS in Texas yesterday.
Pres. Barack Obama landed in Texas yesterday for several Democrat party fundraising events — Democrat leaders, however, were nowhere in sight on the tarmac — but Republican Gov. Rick Perry was there to greet him. And to give the president a letter detailing what Texas needs for stemming the flow of illegal immigrants and crime into the state and imploring him to give Texas the help it needs.
Doubtful that Obama will find time to read the four-page letter… he’s got money-making parties to attend, after all. Priorities…
Later, at one of his Democrat fundraiser events, Obama continued his predictable stylus-stuck-in-the-record attacks on former Pres. George W. Bush. In his home state, no less.
Desperate times call for desperate dissing… but, bear in mind that NO top Democrat leaders, including Dem candidate Bill White, greeted POTUS at the airport in Texas. Ultimate diss from the president’s own party… buuuurn!
Here’s the “spin” from Democrat candidate Bill White, reported by The Star-Telegram, White won’t meet with Obama in Texas, but Perry will:
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White said he never considered changing his campaign schedule Monday to catch up with President Barack Obama, who is attending private fundraisers in Austin and Dallas.
Instead, White will start the day by talking to Texans in Midland and end it by participating in the Pioneers and Old Settlers Reunion parade in Alvarado.
“This has been scheduled quite a while,” White said Friday after talking to the Rotary Club of Fort Worth. “In general, we tend to make a schedule and keep a schedule. We have a pretty disciplined campaign. But there’s no disrespect intended toward the president.”
Republican Gov. Rick Perry, on the other hand, plans to greet Obama at Austin-Bergstrom Airport when the president arrives in Austin on Monday, Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Friday.
Perry had asked the White House for a meeting with the president to talk about what Perry calls Obama’s “grossly insufficient” allocation of National Guard troops for the Texas border, among other issues. Now Perry hopes to be able to tell Obama about some of the problems during the brief greeting Monday.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry, on the other hand, plans to greet Obama at Austin-Bergstrom Airport when the president arrives in Austin on Monday, Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Friday.
And there’s this from CBS News, Bill White Avoids Obama in Texas, Rick Perry Campaign Pounces:
President Obama travels to Texas today, but the state’s Democratic candidate for governor won’t be there to greet him.
While Mr. Obama delivers remarks on education and attends Democratic fundraisers in Austin and Dallas, Democratic candidate Bill White, the former mayor of Houston, will be at campaign events in other parts of the state.
White last week tried to downplay his decision to not appear with the president, the Dallas Morning News reports. When asked by reporters on Friday if he was worried about being too closely identified with Obama, White said, “I really don’t think about stuff like that. I don’t use national figures as surrogates for me. I tend to campaign for myself.”
About Obama’s Bush bashing…
From Reuters, Obama attacks Bush policies in Bush’s home state:
Texas (Reuters) – President Barack Obama attacked the economic policies of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in Bush’s home state on Monday as evidence of the way Republicans would operate if given power in November 2 U.S. congressional elections.
At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president’s “disastrous” policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits.
Obama defended his repeated references to Bush’s policies, saying they were necessary to remind Americans of the weak economy he inherited from Bush in January 2009.
“The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?” Obama said at another fund-raising event in Austin, referring to Bush’s eight years as president.
In reminding voters about the policies of the unpopular Bush, Obama is trying to protect his fellow Democrats’ majorities in Congress and limit anticipated Republican gains.
Unemployment numbers by the president… as a reminder to POTUS:
Unemployment rate average comparison, by president. Clinton, 5.21 percent; Bush, 5.27 percent; Obama, 9.41 percent
From Hot Air, Kudlow: Panic setting in at WH over economy:
The predicted Republican tsunami in the midterms has prompted some to wonder whether Barack Obama can do what Bill Clinton did after the 1994 Republican sweep — move back to the center for his own political survival. Larry Kudlow doesn’t sound optimistic, and instead sees the White House moving leftward in panic at the failing economy and falling polls.
While Democrats were AWOL when Obama landed in Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry was on hand to greet POTUS. And to ask him about the inadequate number of National Guard troops that will be deployed to Texas to aid in battling illegal alien entry into the state. Gov. Perry calls the puny efforts — only 286 National Guard allotted — on the part of the president to protect the Texas border a “fraud.” He is asking for no less than 1,000 troops to protect the porous border.
KXAN Austin News: Texas Gov. Perry seeks border security promise from Obama
From The Texas Tribune, Perry Calls Troops to Border a “Fraud” After Visit With Obama:
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday called the recent deployment of 286 National Guard troops to Texas a “fraud” and said Texans should look to history to fully appreciate the extent of the danger lurking south of the border.
“Do we think about looking back to the 1930s in Europe, the South Pacific in late 1941 or even the United States in early September of 2001? There were early warning signs in all of those time frames that were ignored. Too many lives were needlessly lost,” he said in a speech he delivered as part of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Lone Star Issues series. “We ignore the current warning signs along our international border at our own peril.”
After likening Mexican cartels and gangs to official enemies of the United States, Perry highlighted recent violence in the border states of Tamaulipas and Chihuahua and said that “symptoms of that violence are beginning to creep into Texas,” citing the case of two Laredo teenagers who committed murder at the behest of the Los Zetas drug gang in 2006.
The governor, however, was more reserved in his criticism of Obama than he has been in the past, noting just hours after briefly meeting with him at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport that he greeted and applauded the president upon his arrival because it was the appropriate thing to do.
“I applauded every time a president has rolled in. It’s the gracious thing to do. He’s the president of the United States. This is Texas,” he said, joking about the questions he would have been asked had he not applauded. He said Obama was “pleasant,” though added he was surprised there wasn’t enough time to sit down and speak at length.
But his ongoing criticism of what he insists is federal inaction didn’t wane in a brief gathering with reporters afterward, where he divulged his hope that Obama would read a letter Perry handed an Obama aide during their brief visit at the airport. In it, Perry reiterated his standing request that at least 1,000 National Guard troops be sent to Texas.
“You’ve got to have the presence of law enforcement on the border. When you got a 1,200 mile border, and the idea that 286 National Guard troops is somehow or another going to stem the flow of illegal drugs and illegal activity along the border on its face is a bit of a fraud,” he said, adding that all other conversations about immigration reform are a moot point until the border is secure.
“You’ve got a revolving door at the border,” he said. “Putting rules into place mean nothing.”
From Miami Herald, Texas Gov. Perry asks Obama for more troops, drones along border:
Gov. Rick Perry, one of the president’s biggest critics in the Lone Star State, met Obama on his arrival at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and presented the president with a four-page letter calling for tougher federal enforcement along the state’s violence-ridden border with Mexico.
“Clearly, I would have preferred a more in-depth exchange of ideas, but at least I know that this latest letter actually made it to him, and didn’t get stuck in those slow-moving gears of government,” Perry later said. “I sincerely hope he will take the time to read it, because the growing crisis along our southern border cannot be overlooked any longer.”
Obama’s visit to the state capital was the first stop in a daylong, two-city journey that ended in Dallas for a second fundraiser. Republicans gathered on the south steps of the Capitol in a late-afternoon “Hands Off Texas” rally to denounce the president’s policies, but Obama was out of town by then.
Obama’s central goal at the Austin stops — a Democratic fundraiser at the Four Seasons hotel and a speech at the University of Texas at Austin — may have been designed to counter repeated attacks from Republicans who control state government. Obama lost the state to Republican John McCain in his 2008 presidential race and fares poorly in Texas opinion polls.
Additional related reading:
The Anchoress: Obama Refuses Perry’s Letter
Radio Vice Online: Obama rejects border security letter from Gov. Perry, accepts book from Chavez
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Palin Lands It: “Jan Brewer Has the Cajones the President Doesn’t Have to Secure Our Borders,” Plus Contradictions in Judge Bolton’s SB 1070 Ruling (video) and AZ SB1070 Update: Most Illegal Alien Protesters Yesterday Were Out-of-State Union Members, 68% of Americans Want Mexico Border Fence (video) and As Promised, Illegal Aliens & Supporters Storm Downtown Phoenix Jail, Dozens Arrested — Illegal Alien Protests Across Country and Rancher Krentz’ Widow Speaks Out on Her Husband’s Murder & Illegal Immigration… Left-wing Media Bias Against Arizona, 10-to-1 Slant Pro-Illegal Aliens (video) and In AZ, Sheriff Arpaio Raids Phoenix Cleaning Company, Busts Illegal Aliens for Identity Theft, Fake IDs, Fraud and Obama’s Blind Eye: Hezbollah Terrorist Group Poses Major Threat at Unsecured US-Mexican Border and More Bleak “Hopenchange”… Record-Breaking: More Than 780,000 Families in Illinois Receiving Food Stamps and Obama & Reid, Two of a Kind: Responsible for Nevada’s Broken, Decimated Economy, Highest Rate of Home Foreclosures in Nation, Angle Slams Reid (video) and Bad News: Police Layoffs of Up to 30 Percent for East St. Louis… Blame It on Obama’s Terrible Economy and More Bad News for Dems: 75% of Americans Say Free Market Principles Better Than Government Manipulation & Interference… Obama’s Approval Index Drops to -19 and Rasmussen’s Prez Approval Index for Obama… Déjà Vu at Dismal Minus 17, Unemployment Improves Only Because Americans Have Lost Hope, Stopped Looking for Work
Gateway Pundit: Arizona Sheriff: Border Patrol Abandoning Border Because It’s Too Dangerous (Video) and Despite Media Assistance… Obama Approval Number Slips to New Low and Obama Travels to Texas for Fundraisers… Democrats Flee and Border Crime Is Down? Don’t You Believe It! and No Help In Sight: Texas Ranchers Forced To Hire “Gate Keepers” and Awful. Obama Attacks Americans – Says Those Who Support AZ Law Are “Anti-Immigrant” (Video) and IT’S OFFICIAL: Barack Obama Is Worst Jobs President Since Great Depression and After US Economy Loses Another 125,000 Jobs Obama Says: “We’re Heading in the Right Direction” (Video) and Custard Store Owner: Biden Went Off On Me, I Was Shocked and Biden Admits Obama Administration Won’t Be Able to Create Lost Jobs and Private Sector Lost Nearly 10 Million Jobs in Last 3 Years – Public Sector Gained 720,000 and Republican Sandoval Leads Rory What’s-His-Name By 18% In Nevada Governor’s Race and Rep Paul Ryan: By Every Objective Measure The Stimulus Has Failed (Video) and Radical Far Left Dem Jan Schakowsky Says Public Option Will Reduce Deficit and DISASTER CONTINUES: Obama Administration Will Break Their Record 2009 Budget Deficit and Unreal. Obama Touts “Enormous Progress” Urges Reporters to Focus on Broken Economy and Glenn Beck Discusses Blatant Dishonesty at Far Left Website Think Progress and Obama Continues to Lie About Jobs; Says “I Expect to Be Held Accountable” (Video) and Thanks Barack. US Economy May Not Recover For 5 or 6 Years
Diary of a Mad Conservative: Border Sheriff’s website – they need our support and USA against the State of Arizona: some things to think about
Mcnorman’s Weblog: Looks Like Sheriff Joe Is Bad For Business
Nice Deb: Obama Justice Dept. Files Another Lawsuit Against Arizona Authorities and AZ Sheriff: “Our own government has become our enemy”
Michelle Malkin: Another deadly catch-and-release nightmare and Who’s the immigration demagogue, President Obama?
Goodtimepolitics: North Carolina June 2010 Unemployment Numbers Not Good
Radio Vice Online: Even the Constitution Can’t Stop the Democrats – UPDATE: SOS weighs in on 13th amendment
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: CBS Reports Obama’s Unemployment Benefits Flip-Flop
About the author
Is it just me or are the fundraising activities of this administration dwarfing every other activity (with the exception of presidential family vacations) he’s expected to perform as the President of the US? Did W spend this much time out looking for donors to the Republican coffers? Did Clinton?
If so, I don’t recall hearing about it.
And why isn’t Texas doing more to backup Arizona’s governor and Arizona’s effort to close our borders to illegal overrun? It certainly sounds like they’re having the same problems.