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LAS VEGAS -- It may have been the small, echoing gym filled with 2,700 yelling people, but at today’s campaign event, President Barack Obama felt more “fired up, ready to go” than he’s seemed in a while.
Today’s focus, like the two events yesterday, was education. But the president allowed himself to get a bit more expressive when talking about the importance of teachers.
Isaac Brekken / AP
President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, in North Las Vegas, Nev.
And while the actual content of the last two days' education-driven speeches hasn’t been incredibly different, the president’s tone seemed affected by the raucous crowd responses, including a sustained “four more years” chant to overpower a heckler who ended up being ejected from the event by Secret Service.
And this crowd also ended up drowning the president himself out as he finished up his speech, almost yelling: “We've got more veterans we've got to help. We've got more doors of opportunity we've got to open up to every single American. That's why I'm asking for a second term."
The president has spoken about his fifth grade teacher in the past, but bringing her up today allowed him to also put a personal spin on painting presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney as extremist on the subject of education.
Speaking at campaign rally in Las Vegas, President Obama says Mitt Romney's spending cuts would cripple schools while his tax cuts shower more breaks on millionaires. Watch his entire speech.
“The right teacher can change a child's life forever. Look, I know this from personal experience. When I was in fifth grade, I had a teacher named Mabel Hefty. That was her name. And she was a great teacher," Obama started into the story. "I had just come back from living a few years overseas with my mom and wasn't sure how I'd fit in. And she noticed that, Ms. Hefty. And she took me under her wing, and she made me feel like I had something to say, and that I had some talent."
"Gov. Romney says we've got enough teachers, we don't need any more. You know, the way he talks about them, it seems as if he thinks these are a bunch of nameless government bureaucrats that we need to cut back on. Those are his words,” the president added.
The president's latest campaign jaunt took him to Ohio and Nevada -- two important swing states -- to press the case for education as many students get ready to head back to school. His campaign released complementary TV ads to additionally pummel Romney on education cuts.
"I've got a question for Governor Romney. How many teachers' jobs are worth another tax cut for millionaires and billionaires?" Obama said Wednesday, using more pointed language toward his Republican challenger. "How many kids in Head Start are worth a tax cut for somebody like me who doesn't need it?"
But according to NBC’s Garrett Haake, Romney was ready with an educational response during an event Wednesday in Iowa.
“If you want to invest in young people, let me tell you what you need to do, Mr. President," Romney said. "You need to make sure that our K-through-12 schools are getting better, all right, that's number one. Not just talk, but actually getting better."
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Fabulous speach!!! Go Obama!! Thanks for fighting for the middle class and women.
And Seniors, Minorities, Less Fortunate and the Environment.
HelloDock,
Yeah, that'll work for you, just like the Hope and Change did, the last four years. The only thing he's fighting for, is reelection.
Yes, because going to a prestigous private high school, ivy leage colleges, and becoming a community organizer really prepared him to understand the middle class.
dont forget his kids go to private schools, he wife buys designer, he flies private and goes everywhere in a limo, he flies in airforce 1 and his wife takes airforce 2 because she cant waita extra hour to go on vacation.
He stays in 5k a night plus hotel rooms, orders room service, invites all the middle class to pay the 40k a plate dinners, has assitants he sends out to buy his snacks and smokes. Wears a new tux, new mine you for every event he attends has a home in one of the most expensive areas in Chicago, vacations at Marthas and goes to the Hamptons. Yup that Obama really knows the middle class.
Romney does the same, except Romeny does it all with his own money not on your tax dollar.
He is a great Orator. No one will deny that. Unfortunately speeches don't create jobs.
While he was in Nevada what did he have to say about Nevada having the Highest Unemployment rate in the Country?
Perhaps he can explain why education is so important when half of all College Graduates can't even find employment and those that do are under paid or under employed?
Does it really make much sense to be worried about lighting the stove when you have nothing to cook?
He's been giving speeches for Four years now and look were we are at. Instead of electing a good Orator maybe America should try someone who actually knows how to do the job instead of talking about it.
The pope and the American Catholic clergy must cringe ever time Ryan calls himself a Catholic and then proceeds to so obviously lie.
Judgement Day should be VERY INTERESTING for ALL RIGHTIES.
So tell us Patti, what has he lied about.
If you're from Chicago, you should be an expert on lying.
Funny that Cardinal Dolan will be praying at the REPUBLICAN Convention
Dave, Google "ryan plan" for the shock of your life.
Ryan never worked a day in his life.
He was on Social Security Insurance (SSI) survivors benefits since the age of 11. SSI also helped pay for his college. Upon exiting college (paid for my SSI) he went straight into politics.
Ryan has been on the public teat since age 11 and is still on it.
He's a Republican roll model all right. True to the core.
It's funny that, PRESTO,all of a sudden, he is so impassioned about education, at this late date. He hasn't done a damn thing about it for almost four years.
What's he doing, giving out free number four pencils, to everyone that promises to vote for him? There has to be a giveaway, or people wouldn't attend.
Shh don't bring reason into this discussion.
You OBVIOUSLY live in A CAVE. Our President Kicked a$$ for Education.
How is that by baiting people into taking out more student loans to get an art history degree?
Obama took the 'middle man" out of the profit circle and directly gave it to Students seeking an Education.
whereR,
Response to your post, 50.2
I must, because I don't know what the he!! you're talking about.
Are you talking about the unskilled, unmotivated, whining teachers? The politically motivated/driven administrators that couldn't give a shi! about our children. Or are you talking about the resulting, dumbed up children that can't read, write or solve simple math problems.
You tell me what sends that tingle up your leg.
Oh Dave D you disappoint me. President Obama is and has been a champion of education, in particular public education, since he took office.
Are you the one who mentioned that his daughters go to private school? Can you imagine what a nightmare it would be for students and teachers and the public school as a whole with all the secret service hovering around? Not something I'm sure would be appreciated.
Vote Obama in November. Your future and the future of your daughters depend on it!
If Mr. Obama is "ready to go" I'm willing to do my part on election day. Heck, I'll even volunteer to deliver some Bekins boxes to the White House so this pathetic excuse for a leader can "pack his sh*t and git".
That must be the "BACKWOODS FOREST".
Rick,
There is a service now, that will ship his golf clubs.
DaveD> I'll make a note to inform Mr. Obama of that next time I see him. Does the shipping service have a container large enough for his ego too?
I am proud to say that I share the same feelings about the importance of teachers. It is not just a slogan. They are molding our future citizens and leaders. It should be one of the highest paying jobs in the world.
Instead, we pay CEOs that can't even do their own expense reports, or print out an Excel spreadsheet without calling for help.
With the way teachers are micro managed these days, the quality of our teachers is deterioriating every day. Those who enjoy helping and molding childrend don't want their days scripted and their evenings full of paperwork.
Starderup
Unfortunately we can't FIRE the BAD TEACHERS. All we can do is put them in "Rubber Rooms",like NYC, until they quit or retire. UNION RULES YA KNOW!
7 of the 10 richest members of congress are Democrats
B.S.
Actually he's correct.
http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/the-50-richest-members-of-congress-112th.html
We already spend MORE on education than EVERY country in the world except one, and yet we are so far down the list on REAL education that we don't even make the top ten anymore and in some cases the top TWENTY.
And Obama is out there saying we need even more UNION teachers to dumb down our kids? The standards of REAL education have been lowered and lowered and lowered and these kids are passed along with absolutely NO education except almost what they learn for THEMSELVES!
My oldest son is a math whiz and yet he was forced to to take a TWO year geometry course that was ONE year when I was in school. The reason? Why some children couldn't "keep up" so EVERYONE had to slow down.
And it was exactly the same for geometry. By the time he was a junior he was still in the TWO YEAR algebra course that was ONE YEAR when I went to school, and is required before he could take calculus and trigonometry, but also taking the calculus class because he passed the placement test.
He learned to read on his OWN because the "caring" teachers would not allow him to do anything in "advance" of other children. Everyone had to learn at the same "pace" so that no child would have to be "embarasssed" by the fact that they couldn't keep up. And then they were PASSED on anyway, even if they couldn't read.
But by God, they could get a condom from the school if they wanted one. Apparently that was the REALLY important part in their education because even PARENTS had no say so in it.
And of course they had to go through "history" that taught our nation's history NOT from the founding of this nation, but from the Civil War, and had to hear what an evil nation we were because we had slavery (while omitting the fact that we are the ONLY nation in history to actually fight a war in which hundreds of thousands DIED ending it), and how we were evil because we dropped atom bombs (while omitting the fact that MILLIONS of lives, both American and Japanese, were saved because we didn't have to invade Japan).
This is the garbage that Obama and you libs actually SUPPORT! No wonder the rest of the world is passing us by.
Obama doesn't care about "education". He cares about getting more teachers hired so that he can get more money from the UNIONS. If he really CARED about education he'd be out there DEMANDING that our kids be educated instead of indoctrinated. But then again INDOCRINATION is way more important than EDUCATION to you all, isn't it?
oh so thats why rick Perry cut education in Texas????Unions??
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Take your lies somewhere else or continue to show your a$$. Your Choice.
ha we didn't have to invade japan and we didn't have to drop the bombs either. japan had already surrendered. the reason we dropped em was because they wouldn't surrender unconditionally and that was something our government couldn't abide by. man, education is REALLY screwed up in this country.
whereRthe jobsBoehner
still waiting for you back on page 2. why did you run away? Anyway Im off for some glass off surf but I will check back with you. Us retards that reside on the beach need to get some salt water in our viens before we decide to destroy the middle class, throw granny off a cliff, think of a racist comment or the other crazy loony things Libs sprew while standing in line for the goverment cheese.
Something that both Communism and Fascism have in common is that when they are establishing themselves they try and discredit intelectuals and make sure the population is as ignorant as possible. They are easier to control when they are ignorant. Peasants in the Middle Ages were easy to control because only nobles and clergy had educations and peasants didn't so were easier to control. Shades of this kind of attitude are in the Republican/Romney/Ryan budget against decent schools.
thats it the Texas way
so true. texas has gone to hell education wise.
yes indeed you should see how many teachers have quit in woodlands.TX..this is no lie..near Houston Tx
yeah woodlands is beautiful last i was there. shame whats going in that state but i can only blame the voters for voting for that clown of a governor.
What a stupid comment, our country knows better and our founding was based on individual freedoms which Obama has shown he wants to abolish. If you are the electorate, God help us but that's not what our country was based on. Obama wants "social justice" which you can find in Europe but not here. There is no such thing as "social justice" only a government who controls everything or a people who control everything. There is no "in between"..
thats it .passanger...luckewarm forgot he went to school??
Education!!!! We are spending more than double on Pell Grants under Obama but less than half of those "recipients" are actually graduating from college. Liberals throw money at a problem and turn around and say, problem solved, education will get better. See you later. It's obscene the amount of money Obama is throwing at welfare, education and immigration without any checks and balances, without any measurables.
How is that "Hope and Change" working out for all you Liberals? I can't believe some Liberal voters thought Obama was going to give them a free house. Just goes to show how smart the Liberal voter actually is.
actually, hon, you just showed your own level of intellect by actually believing the schmuck who told you obama would do that.
"Hope and Change" needs to be changed to "Mittens show us your returns".
the passenger,
He did, in fact, do just that, for a woman in Kokomo, Indiana.
He started getting letters in the White House, from people asking how to get theirs.
The jokes on you.......you helped pay for it.
Shouldn't "Americas Comeback Team" be changed to "Mittens show us your returns".
hey girl when we get to heaven we will get a free house>>>who told you a house is free??..did you sleep with someone?
There is no "Hope and Change", Obama used it as a way to get elected. Now that we've had a community organizer for 3 plus years, we see what liberal progressives have to offer. Nothing. They would rather destory our country, our Constitution and our way of life than admit their ideology is screwed up. Liberals cannot argue facts, they cannot give solutions and they cannot stand anyone who disagrees with them.. Just watch to know I am right.
lukewarm
so the answer is to let a corporate vulture with off shore accounts and a record of out sourcing jobs come in and steer this boat? seems like the red doesn't have much of an answer either. hell even republicans themselves barely like mittens and wonder boy.
"Hope and Change" is working out pretty darned good in fact. We have 4 million new jobs, a new health care law (upheld by the Supreme Court, a conservative court). Obama got our troops out of Iraq, He got Osama on his order and didn't double the debt like Bush did.
It's working out very, very well indeed.
Here are three words to make you cry: Four More Years.
I find it both horrifying and, to some extent, demonic, that Obama and Biden are spending so much time electioneering in our high schools and colleges, where they can easily exploit young people's innocence, taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of both sides of the issues that doom their futures.
THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!
What is real child abuse is you with children.
I'm just wondering how much better our education system would be if we weren't paying to educate 1.7 Million illegal immigrant children?
How much better would public education be if every book, every handout, etc. was only In English? I'm pretty sure our children take English exams Not Spanish exams.Isn't our Language "English"?
If we paid to educate 1.7 Million illegal immigrants at $151,000.00 a piece that's a whopping $1.267E+011, or in non scientific notation $126,700,000,000.00 $126.7 billion dollars.
http://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/impact-federal-involvement-americas-classrooms
sorry but this country doesn't have a set language. at least not by law. we can speak whatever we want. so says the 1st amendment. english is the common language, not the official language.
Obama's favorable rating - 50.8% (Real clear politics)
Romney's favorable rating - 44% (Real clear politics)
Ryan's favorable rating 22% (CNN/ORC)
Fox News 49 - 40 Obama +9
Women vote, Obama leads 63%-32%. (Wall St. Journal/NBC)
Black vote, Obama leads 96%-0%. (Wall St. Journal/NBC)
Latino vote, Obama leads 63 to 28 percent.
White vote Romney leads 52 to 48 (65% of that are white males)
What's wrong white guys? Republicans forcing your daughters to
have a child by a black thug isn't enough stop your bigotry?
this is chicago thug talk. we are literally being overrun by gangs and mafia. leave our daughters out of this coward. you would bring perversion into the subject.
Libs in a tail spin of disillusion again.
I guess MSN and all other left wing news? agencies haven't heard about Carlyle Group!
This just out then! Obama and the white gouse hired Carlyle Group - A CARBON COPY - of Bain Capital to go in and save a piece of Sunoco, which was foundering!
I guess it's okay for the president of the democritic party to use the same type business as they brandish as evil since they have no bounds on being hypicritical!
Also, a bunch of blue states have already started legally demanding that health care workers under Obamash.. have to become unionized! Thus creating billions more for the fat cat union bosses while the health care costs go through the roof!
Guess bankrupting the country the rest of the way, nearly there already under Obama, is immaterial to the left wing! What a middle class, you've got to be kidding! There will be no businesses anymore so voila no middle class! The rich will already be living somewhere else!
As for polls, it is a proven fact that the pollsters ask at least 10 percent more democrites, then five more independents over republicans! So all polls are rigid to show that in hopes of rigging the election!
Where did you get that theory? Out of your -a s s-?
I hear that Obama is weary, and is finally going to get some R and R come November. Romney Ryan that is. Romney/Ryan 2012 P.S. Everyone is hung up on Romney's taxes but we are still waiting on Barry's College transcripts from Columbia. Heck, we are still waiting on someone to come forward that ever saw him there.
maybe, but he did release his tax returns. more than just the past 2 years too. going for a college transcript after the whole birth certificate thing just looks desperate. hiding your financial records because you know it will hurt your campaign is shady at best.
Jeremiah Wright didn't affect the election results. Neither did Bill Ayers, Obama's terrorist buddy. It's the economy stupid. It's over. Tax returns or no returns, the only return we'll see is Obama going back home. Up to now, I was pretty worry. But the University of Colorado, a liberal think center, picked Romney as the winner because of the sorry state of the economy.
road warrior
you know what that study didn't show you? the fact that it wont be any better under romney. in fact it'll probably get worse seeing as how he's all for cutting taxes for the rich and out sourcing jobs.
Fans are fickle. If the coach doesn't win, they want someone else, anybody else. It never crosses their mind that the next coach may be worse than the current one. They are willing to take a chance because they are tired of losing. They know they can get the next coach fired if he doesn't win.
yeah ask the poor and the middle class how it went when reagan was coach.
passenger,
I lived the Carter years. Things got really good in 1983 for us students who couldn't find work for two years after voting for Carter. Yes, I was poor. Never had a car in college. Cleaned dormitory bathrooms. Graduated with zero dollars, bought a couple of reference books on the way to my first job with a credit card and became middle class. If things were so bad under Reagan as you suggest, the "middle class" would have never elected his VP HW Bush. Your worst nightmare is eight years of Romney followed by at least four years of Ryan. It can easily happen.
your right that is my nightmare. its a lot of peoples nightmare. and the middle class didn't vote for reagan. just like the middle class wont vote for mittens.
jason-755356,
I was there and so was Obama. So, there goes your entire house of cards.
Based on a moment of honesty in his book, Obama admitted he was not that serious about education. He said he didn't just do an occasional joint, but indulged in heavy drugs regularly. Students that I knew who lived a lifestyle of the future president generally flunk out. Maybe that's why Obama doesn't want his grades to be known. All the talk about him being the smartest president ever may actually be someone with worse grades than George Bush, the dumb one.
From the Mittwitt - "You need to make sure that our K through 12 schools are getting better, alright, that's number one. Not just talk, but actually getting better."
He means the same way 'No Child Left Behind" did? Teach the kids how to take the standardized tests, just teach them the answers? Works for those kids in some Ivy League Private Schools, and the 'Home Learning' pre-packaged do it yourself kits. Vouchers have spawned a boom in Christian Schools and Internet based pay as you learn schemes, now that is creating investment opportunities. When the little Trumpster graduates he can go to a for profit College to get an instant MBA and Rocket Science MS, if he can still get a Federal Student loan to cover it. The sales commissions on student loans is supposed to be pretty good if you can meet the quotas.
Brianb-999431 You do know that Reagan raised taxes 11 times right??
You want to see what Obama's second Hope and Change is like? The first one Sucked.
The Best Change would be to vote him and Biden out of office in 2012.
Romney might actually care about education, he said the GOP platform isn't his own and we all know how badly the GOP hates education.
I doubt he'll sign the Grover Norquist pledge to destroy education, we might be going too far backwards with Romney on education compared to other GOP candidates
Romney: "I'm not concerned about the very poor."
GOP tea-baggers, its almost time to go home.
Obama 2012!
yeah, let us ask for the unqualified opinion and theory of a man who never went to public schools. Mitt went
to the Ivy league prep schools, then to BYU and then to Harvard. where in hell did he get his information from? He did not suffer from what he calls our misguided schools for his education was replete with favoritism, nepotism and elegance.
i trust this man with nothing but money for that is all he knows and all he fears is losing it.
obama/biden 2012
Romney said he isn't concerned about the poor.......because the government has a safety net for them
Now isn't that a contradiction in GOP platform.....
Just like Rommey himself
You know there is some bad stuff in those tax returns, Romney probably runs poll estimates that indicated the distrust people have of him will translate to lost votes of X...and lost votes of being transparent result in lost votes of 10X.
No brainier not revealing who the real Romney is.
Obama is right. Nearly all the studies show that education makes a huge difference in a person's ability to find a good job. Take california. Sure it has the largest number and most hideous govt regulations. But when it comes to number of manufacturing jobs, it leads the country. And when it comes to the largest increases in manufacturing jobs, the state leads the country. And why. Because the jobs are high tech jobs. You need an education to have one of those jobs. Mr grover, the gop, the rushbo, & foxnews.com will tell you otherwise but the future of mfg in this country has to do with the latest in manufacturing technology.
But what can you say. You can tell mr grover, the gop, the rushbo, & foxnews.com are ideologues. They have difficulty with the facts and the truth. It's why they have problems with science - the branch of knowledge dealing with the body of facts and truths. They have a war on science, the truth, and the facts. So be careful of what they will tell you. They have a culture of lies.
But to tell you the truth, the wealthiest in the country do not care where the manufacturing gets done. Mostly the middle class and the poor care where the mfg jobs get done. It's because the company owners and ceo's will go to where mfg is most competitive performed. The middle class and poor actually need the mfg jobs. But i tell you, it's best for them to get an education. Obama believes that they should get an education. Mr grover, the gop, the rushbo, & foxnews.com will send the jobs to where the people can do the jobs.