Much has been written both locally and nationally–and rightly so–about President Obama’s decision to scrap his planned campaign stops jobs tour in districts with competitive House and Senate races, Virginia Democrats’ aversion to being photographed with the president and even the reluctance of Tim Kaine to be seen with the man he spent two years convincing Virginians to elect. (After all, such brazen acts of party disloyalty don’t happen often.) Yet, Sen. Bill Stanley, who is running in a district President Obama decided to avoid, has a unique perspective on President Obama’s visit that I haven’t heard anyone else make.
In an email to supporters, Sen. Stanley writes that by bypassing the Southside, the president missed a great opportunity to see firsthand the negative effects his economic policies are having on the lives of Americans:
Barrack Obama’s taxpayer-funded campaign bus tour came rolling through Southside today…literally. Instead of taking the time to meet some of the people who have been hurt by his policies, the president just drove on by. But as voters know, this isn’t the first time a Democrat has failed Southside.
“Senator Reynolds should have taken this opportunity to convince the president that his policies are doing grave damage to our regional economy,” said Brian O’Connor, Bill Stanley’s campaign manager. “Instead, Reynolds did what he has always done: stand idly by while the president once again thumbed his nose at our area, our people and our concerns. We need a leader who will stand up to Barrack Obama’s job-killing policies not someone who praises them and neglects our region.”
Granted, the Southside’s economy has been ailing for years, but during the Obama Administration, the unemployment rate in parts of the 20th Senate District has hit new, ominous heights. I doubt that an ideologue like President Obama would be convinced of the failure of his policies while speeding through the district on a bus that wasn’t even made in the United States and addressing adoring crowds of loyal supporters (or…not), but Sen. Stanley is right: getting outside of the White House bubble would be a step in the right direction.
