Eli Stokols
Political Reporter
6:24 a.m. MDT, September 27, 2011
DENVER -- More than three years after that historic night at what was then Invesco Field, when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president, an embattled President Obama returns here Tuesday for what is, in essence, the first Colorado visit of his 2012 campaign.
The iconic 'Hope' posters are gone; and the candidate who then embodied change is now confronting a changed political landscape, with the country still mired in a prolonged economic downturn and, increasingly, blaming his administration for it.
"Whoever is sitting in the White House after some period of time owns it," said political analyst Eric Sondermann. "Barack Obama has been in the White House for the better part of three years and it is his economy; there's no way he can avoid it."
When he speaks Tuesday afternoon at Abraham Lincoln High School, Obama will continue to campaign -- at least, ostensibly -- for the "American Jobs Act", a $447 billion package of tax relief and infrastructure spending aimed at putting Americans back to work.
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Enter to win a family getaway to Aulani, Disney's new resort in Hawaii
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Watch live streaming coverage of the speech at 2:15 p.m. on KDVR.com.
One Coloradan who could benefit from such a plan is Ron Herrera, an unemployed trucker and warehouse worker who spent Monday afternoon outside Lincoln High picking up trash.
Herrera, who came to get a ticket to the event only to be turned away because he arrived to late, simply decided on his own to ask for a trash bag so that the president is impressed with his hometown.
But, despite being out of work for the last four years, he believes Obama deserves four more years in the White House. :shock:
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"I think Obama, he's a good president. He's doing all he can," Herrera said. "I don't care what anybody says about him, I believe in him."
On the other side of town,
three more believers spent Tuesday morning at a table outside the JeffCo Action Center, which serves as a food bank, job center and free health clinic for Lakewood and the surrounding suburbs.
One of them was Estelle Carson, who's already working hard to register voters -- and, then, to convince them to believe in Obama -- with more than 13 months remaining until next November's election.
"I want him to be reelected.
We have a black man in the White House and I want him back," said Carson, who is African-American. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
While Obama's historic election in 2008 is still a point of pride for her, Carson continues to believe in his abilities and agenda, even as many others have lost the faith.
"Yes, some people are disappointed, I get that [when I knock on doors]," she said. "But he's not God; he doesn't walk on water. He's one man with a lot of people working against him.
"He has done as much as one man can do in Washington."
But Carson understands that many of her neighbors don't share that view; and
she's found that many Coloradans who donated to Obama's 2008 campaign aren't ready to do so again.
And on Tuesday morning before quitting for lunch, the last person she helped register to vote chose to do so as a Republican. :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
"Our job here is to get the word out," Carson said. "And we will. These two feet are going to be walking, and I'm going to be talking and making sure I do my part to get him reelected."
http://www.kdvr.com/news/politics/kdvr-obama-returns-to-a-different-colorado-20110926,0,1797046.story
