President Obama Launches Rural Midwest Bus Tour

President Barack Obama kicked off his “Rural Tour 2011” on Monday with town hall events in Cannon Falls, Minn., and Decorah, Iowa.
President Obama Launches Rural Midwest Bus Tour
WAITING FOR THE PRESIDENT: Madison Wood, 3, waits with others for the arrival of President Barack Obama at Lower Hannah's Bend Park on Aug. 15, in Cannon Falls, Minn. President Obama. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
8/15/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/obama121189663.jpg" alt="WAITING FOR THE PRESIDENT: Madison Wood, 3, waits with others for the arrival of President Barack Obama at Lower Hannah's Bend Park on Aug. 15, in Cannon Falls, Minn. President Obama. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)" title="WAITING FOR THE PRESIDENT: Madison Wood, 3, waits with others for the arrival of President Barack Obama at Lower Hannah's Bend Park on Aug. 15, in Cannon Falls, Minn. President Obama. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1799287"/></a>
WAITING FOR THE PRESIDENT: Madison Wood, 3, waits with others for the arrival of President Barack Obama at Lower Hannah's Bend Park on Aug. 15, in Cannon Falls, Minn. President Obama. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama kicked off his “Rural Tour 2011” on Monday with town hall events in Cannon Falls, Minn., and Decorah, Iowa.

The tour, which will focus on economic and development issues in a few of the Midwest’s rural regions, is organized by the White House Rural Council, an organization that was established earlier this year by President Obama through an executive order.

During the town hall event in Cannon Falls on Monday, the president reiterated his call for politicians to shift their focus to jobs and economic development, while condemning the partisan politics that had characterized the congressional battle over the debt ceiling.

“We can’t have patience with that kind of behavior anymore,” he said, referring to the political brinkmanship that paralyzed Congress during the debt debates. “I know you’re frustrated, and I’m frustrated, too. We’ve got to focus on growing this economy, putting people back to work, and making sure that the American dream is there not just for this generation but for the next generation.” Congress reached historically low approval ratings after the debt discussions.

Other economic policies on his agenda include patent reform, the development of clean energy, pushing through the three free-trade agreements currently on the table, putting Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans back to work, and the establishment of an infrastructure bank to help finance the overhaul of the nation’s aging infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Republicans responded with scathing attacks on President Obama and his economic record, while launching a media campaign against the president in the states where he will visit.

“We’re here to launch a campaign of our own called Obama’s Debt End Tour to remind the American people of this president’s failure to create jobs and of his failed policies that have only made things worse,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, calling Obama’s Midwestern swing a “fraud of a bus tour.”

“It was just a few days ago, you might recall, that he said that he was going to renew his focus on creating jobs. But of course, he can’t help himself because he is the campaigner-in-chief of course so he would rather be out campaigning than in Washington leading our country out of the ditch that he put us in. And, he’s out here—today he’s in Minnesota talking about jobs—but the only job that he’s talking about is trying to save his own.”

Obama will visit a total of five cities in three states in the Midwest over three days, and will hold four town hall meetings in addition to a rural economic forum that will feature local business owners and rural development leaders.

Other destinations for the bus tour include Peosta, Iowa, where an economic forum will be held on Tuesday; and the rural towns of Atkinson and Alpha in Obama’s residential state of Illinois on Wednesday.

Obama’s Midwestern rural bus tour comes on the heels of a week of significant developments within the GOP presidential nominee race. Last Thursday, Fox News moderated a debate between eight Republican candidates in Iowa which was mainly characterized by sharp attacks between the two Minnesotans, Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

On Saturday, Gov. Rick Perry—considered to be a strong candidate among the GOP field—officially joined the race, while Bachmann was announced as the winner of the Ames Straw Poll, which was taken by Iowa Republicans. Pawlenty, after finishing third in the poll, subsequently announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.