Obama Stumps for Stimulus in a City Hit Hard by Downturn

ELKHART, Ind. — President Obama took his case for an $800 billion economic recovery package to one of the most distressed places in America on Monday as he opened a series of campaign-style events intended to press Congress to approve the plan by week’s end.
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Wrapping himself in the mandate of his election last November, Mr. Obama sounded like a candidate all over again, scolding greedy Wall Street bankers and pointedly rejecting Republican critics for sticking with what he called a failed philosophy. At one point, he spoke about people with as many as five homes, which sounded like a reference to his opponent last fall, Senator John McCain.
“We can’t wait and see and hope for the best,” Mr. Obama told a packed high school gymnasium that sounded like an election rally. “We can’t posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place. That was what this election was all about. The American people rejected those ideas because they hadn’t worked. You didn’t send us to Washington because you were hoping for more of the same. You sent us there to change things.”
Mr. Obama used the event to hammer home what he called the benefits of his program of spending and tax breaks, promising that it would create or save nearly 80,000 jobs in Indiana, give 2.5 million state residents a $500 tax credit and provide health care, unemployment benefits and job training for tens of thousands more. Bringing it down to the most local level, he suggested his plan would help rebuild U.S. Highway 31 and build an overpass in Elkhart.
But with the Senate about to adopt its own version of the economic plan and then begin negotiating with the House, Mr. Obama acknowledged some doubt about whether the mix of initiatives includes only those that will actually do some good.
“I can’t tell you with a hundred percent certainty that every single item in this plan will work exactly as we hoped,” he said. “But what I can tell you is — I can say with complete confidence that endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will only bring deepening disaster. I can tell you that doing nothing is not an option.”
In his first comments on the Senate version of the bill, crafted by Democratic senators along with three moderate Republicans, he complained that it cut too much from his plans to rebuild schools to retrofit them for a high-technology era. “I would like to see some of it restored,” Mr. Obama said.
The visit to Elkhart, where unemployment has tripled in the last year to 15 percent, was Mr. Obama’s first real trip back on the road since taking office three weeks ago and kicked off a week on the stump to build momentum behind his plan. He heads Tuesday to Fort Myers, Fla., where he will be joined by the Republican governor, Charlie Crist, a strong McCain supporter. On Thursday, the president will travel to Springfield and Peoria, Ill.
Aides denied that they felt any concern that more Americans were growing skeptical of Mr. Obama’s approach in the face of strong Republican criticism that he is relying too much on spending and not enough on tax cuts.
“One thing that we learned over two years,” said David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser, “is that there’s a whole different conversation in Washington than there is out here. If I had listened to the conversation in Washington during the campaign for president, I would have jumped off a building about a year and a half ago.”
In addition, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, criticized what he called the “myopic viewpoint in Washington” regarding the economy compared with what people in Elkhart think. “It’s illuminating because it may not necessarily be where cable television is on all of this,” he said. “But, you know, we’re sort of used to that. We lost on cable television virtually every day last year. So, you know, there’s a conventional wisdom to what’s going on in America via Washington, and there’s the reality of what’s happening in America.”
But House Republicans said they were not the obstructionists because Congress is controlled by Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, and Senator Harry M. Reid, the majority leader.
“House Republicans understand the urgency of the situation and continue to promote an economic recovery bill that will create and protect jobs for struggling American families,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the House Republican whip’s office. “The Democrats’ spending bill can pass and be signed into law by the president. When, if and how that occurs is completely in the hands of Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid.”
The “town hall” program at Concord High School here had a familiar feel to many Obama aides nostalgic for the simpler days of the campaign trail, although there were fewer placards and buttons and the music had changed from Stevie Wonder to “Hail to the Chief.”
Still, the audience chanted “Obama, Obama” when the president entered and some shouted, “We love you.” When he opened it to questions from the floor, some sounded almost worshipful, with one declaring that he was “very thrilled to be in the presence of you.” The only person who got up and asked a question that challenged Mr. Obama’s actions was booed. Mr. Obama quieted the crowd and said her question was legitimate.
The woman asked how Americans could trust him if “those you have appointed to your cabinet are not trustworthy,” referring to his nomination of several officials who did not pay all of their taxes until the prospect of working in his administration. She also suggested that he sit down for a beer with Sean Hannity, the conservative Fox News Channel host.
“I think these were honest mistakes,” Mr. Obama responded. “If you’re not going to appoint anybody who’s not made a mistake in their life, then you’re not going to have anybody take a job.” But he agreed that he erred by not seeing that it would look like a double standard. “I made a mistake because I don’t want to send the signal that there are two sets of rules,” he said.
As for Mr. Hannity, the president said: “I didn’t know he invited me for a beer. But I will take that under advisement. Generally his opinion of me does not seem to be very high. But I’m always good for a beer.”