[Photo by JEFF FUSCO]
INQUIRER: President Obama is heading to Philadelphia today for a four-hour visit that will overlap the evening rush hour. The president will be in town to appear at a function at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to support Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak’s campaign for the U.S Senate. Air Force One is slated to arrive at Philadelphia International Airport about 4 p.m. and depart at 8:15 p.m. Around those times, motorists should expect roadway closures for the presidential motorcade. MORE
WHITE HOUSE POOL REPORT: For the the first event, a general reception in a hall inside the Philadelphia Convention Center, went for $50 to $250. For the second, a dinner and reception, the price was $1000 and $2400. The two events were expected to raise at least $500,000, according to a Democratic source who spoke on condition of anonymity. The general reception took place in a large room that was about one-third full, several hundred people, many wearing blue Sestak campaign t-shirts with “The Admiral” on the front. They were boisterous, roaring at the President’s familiar car-in-the-ditch metaphor (Republicans standing above the hardworking Dems sipping Slurpees. This version added bugs and mud down in the ditch.) POTUS went through his standard stump speech, focusing on the need for “enthusiasm” to fight back the forces of reaction. Here are some bits (Please check WH transcripts) “The choice in this election could not be clearer and the stakes could not be higher,’’ Mr. Obama said. “Everybody’s been talking about insiders in Washington, well, Joe’s not one of the insiders whose been part of the problem. Instead he’s been solving problems in Washington. He didn’t go there with a liberal or a conservative agenda – he went to serve the people of Pennsylvania just like he’s served his country for the past three decades.’’ Of Republicans, he said, “The easiest thing to do is to not put forward any specifics and plans, but just try to ride that anger and fear all the way to the election , and that’s what’s happening right now.’’ And “A lot has changed since this last election but what hasn’t changed is the choice that we face in this country: It’s still fear vs hope, it’s still past v future, it’s still the choice between sliding backwards and moving forward. ’’At the dinner, attended by about 250 people, Obama repeated some of the same material, but added a wrinkle: he said he ran into a person who told him he had to come back to Philadelphia to fire people up. “Don’t wait for me to come back to Philadelphia, don’t wait for me to elect joe Sestak,” Obama said. “You go out there and elect Joe Sestak. Believe in yourselves.”