• Obama to Texas students: 'We're poised for progress'

    By Jessica Taylor, NBC News

    Kicking off his latest jobs tour at a high school in Texas, President Barack Obama told students that making quality education affordable and accessible was a key ingredient to jump-starting the U.S. economy.

    Speaking at Manor New Technology High School in Austin to 400 students and teachers, Obama praised the school’s innovative education approaches, saying that both superior education and more policies to help the middle class were key to creating good jobs and attracting skilled workers.

    “Thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, we’ve cleared away the rubble of the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes,” said Obama, “We’re poised for progress.”

    Speaking at a high school in Austin, President Obama says, "our economy can't succeed unless our young people have the skills that they need to succeed and that's what's happening here."

    To “reignite the true engine of middle-class growth,” the president said, the country has to become a magnet for good jobs, help people develop the education and skills for the jobs, and ensure workers can “achieve a decent living.”

    With a veiled jab at inaction in Congress, Obama said where he could, he was “just going to go ahead and take actions on my own” and later today would be issuing executive orders “that I'm convinced will spur innovation and help businesses create more jobs.”

    Those two executive orders, first laid out in the president’s State of the Union address, will focus on strengthening manufacturing and ensuring government data is available in machine-readable formats.

    Obama praised Manor Tech for the way it is working to equip its students. The school, focused on preparing students for STEM careers in science and mathematics, selects students each year through a blind lottery, and has won plaudits for its academic success since its opening in 2007.

    The president pointed out how students had been putting their knowledge to work, pointing out projects he saw on his tour of the school, including building musical instruments from mathematics equations and the use of robots and other technology.

    Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

    President Barack Obama greets students after speaking on the economy and job creation after touring Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, May 9, 2013.

    And, according to the president, too much public speaking can never be a bad thing. “While most high school students in America give a handful of speeches by the time they graduate,” he noted, “a student at this school might give as many as 200.”

    Obama joked, “That’s a lot of speeches. I can relate.”

    But, the president pointed out, one reason the school has been a success is that it has been available to all students, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

     “The majority of students in Manor don’t come from wealth or privilege,” Obama said, noting the success the school had not only in keeping its students in school but helping them attend college.

    “Folks around here are doing something right,” Obama added, “and I think the rest of the country can learn from what you’re doing -- because I’ve always believed that the best ideas usually don't start in Washington, they trickle up to Washington.  So I’ve come to listen and learn and highlight some of the good work that's being done.”

    “There are too many kids in America who are not getting the same kinds of opportunity through no fault of their own,” said Obama. “We can do better than that. Every young person in America deserves a world class education. We’ve got an obligation to give it to them.”

    “We’re not just a collection of individuals, we’re one American family,” said the president. “If we follow Manor's example, if we give every child the chance to climb new ladders of opportunity, if we equip every American with the skills and education they need to succeed in the jobs of the future, if we make sure that hard work pays off and responsibility's rewarded, if we fight to keep America a place where you can make it if you try, then you're not just going to be the ones that prosper, we'll all prosper, and together we'll write the next chapter in America's great history.”

    This story was originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 5:37 PM EDT

  • Ann Romney to attend fundraiser at Bush home in Dallas

    By NBC's Garrett Haake

     

    NEW YORK – Ann Romney will attend a fundraising lunch to raise money for husband's presidential campaign at the home of former President George W. Bush next Tuesday, a Romney campaign spokesperson confirmed. Former First Lady Laura Bush will host the lunch, which is part of a Romney fundraising swing through the GOP donor-rich state of Texas, at the couple's home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas.

    Romney campaign aides said Thursday they were unsure whether former president Bush would appear at the lunchtime event at his home, or at a separate finance event with Romney later that evening at a Dallas hotel. A Bush spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on the former president's schedule, but one Texas Republican close to Bush said he will be in Dallas on Tuesday.

    In keeping with Romney campaign policy on finance events at private homes, the fundraising lunch at the Bush home will be closed to the press.

    On Monday, September 10th, Ann Romney and Laura Bush held a similar joint event together at a private home in Oklahoma City. Ticket prices ranged from $1,000 for general admission to $25,000 for a VIP reception, according to an invitation to the event posted online by the Sunlight Foundation, non-partisan group which advocates for government transparency.

    Since leaving office with historically low approval ratings in 2009, the younger Bush has stayed largely out of the public spotlight. Other than telling a reporter in May that he was supporting Romney, he has not been a vocal presence in the 2012 campaign. Likewise, Romney rarely invokes the name of the most recent Republican president on the campaign trail.

    Bush's father, former president George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara have been much more outspoken Romney supporters, first backing Romney last December then formalizing their support in March with a camera-friendly sit down chat at the elder Bush's Houston office. Barbara Bush even recorded robocalls on Romney's behalf during the critical primary contest in Ohio.

  • Romney taps the fundraising well in Texas oil country

    By NBC's Garrett Haake

     

     

    ODESSA, TX – Mitt Romney returned to Texas oil country Tuesday to fuel his campaign coffers with nearly $7 million raised in just one day, largely with money from top energy industry executives.

    So far this presidential campaign, Romney has extracted $13.9 million dollars in contributions from Texas, making it the second best fundraising state for the GOP nominee after cash-cow California. New York, with its massive financial sector, comes in a close third.

    Unlike previous fundraising swings through the nation's largest oil-producing state, which have netted millions for Romney's campaign and the GOP Victory fund, Romney's two-step through Houston and Midland this time is geared at the oil and gas industry, and comes as the candidate is preparing to further outline his energy policy at a campaign event in New Mexico later this week.

    Romney started his day with a luncheon at the Houstonian Hotel that was hosted by energy industry titans including Rex Tillerson, CEO of oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil, and L.E. Simmons, a fellow member of the LDS church and Romney's Texas finance chairman, who made his millions investing in the booming energy sector here. 

    Harold Hamm, a billionaire pioneer in modern drilling techniques who spearheaded oil and gas development in North Dakota, now America's second largest oil producing state, was also in attendance at the $50,000 per person event, where Romney relayed his story as an example of bold economic risk taking.

    Romney told this audience he planned to roll out more detail on his energy policy but said he would offer them a first look behind closed doors. 

    "I know that we have members of the media here right now, so I'm not going to go through that in great detail so I can save a bit of that until a little later in the week. But your input is something I wanted to retain before we actually cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s on those policies," Romney said, telling some 125 top donors that his energy plan, centered on fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal would do a better job taking advantage of America's natural resources than that of President Barack Obama, echoing a common stump speech theme.

    The presumptive GOP nominee has long focused on developing America's natural resources, particularly oil, gas, and coal as a key to unlocking the stagnant economy. He lists it first on his five-point plan to restore the economy at nearly every campaign event, and just last week accused Obama of waging a "war on coal," which he claims stifles job creation, particularly in coal-rich (and electoral-vote-rich) Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

    Romney has come out against extending tax breaks for wind energy development, joking that you can't put a windmill on your car, and arguing for the economic necessity of expanding fossil fuel development in the near term.

    Democrats have subsequently accused Romney of being in the pocket of oil companies, and of ignoring alternative energy, questioning how his energy plan, which thus far lacks specifics beyond a pledge to reach North American energy independence by 2021, is any different from the much-derided "Drill baby, drill" mantra of Republican candidates in 2008.

    The final stop on Romney's energy pilgrimage comes Tuesday night at the Petroleum Club of Midland, where an invitation obtained by NBC News listed exploration and drilling company Concho Resources executives Timothy Leach and Jack Harper as event hosts, alongside Statewide Minerals owner Miles Boldrick, whose company website claims over 25,000 oil and gas wells nationwide.

    For Romney, while the details of his energy policy remain to be seen, the cash well still runs deep.