Obama No Longer Votes Present, He Skips Town As Govt, Faces Shut Down

During the election of 2008, many pundits pointed to Obama's nasty habit of abstaining from key votes in the Illinois State Senate, sadly during much of his Presidency so far, he has tried to do the same thing, voting present instead of being the leader the country needs. Lately though, it seems as if Obama is changing his strategy, instead of voting present, he is simply skipping town.

Just a few weeks ago, he declared War  Kinetic Military Action on Libya and then went to South America. Today as the federal government is about to shut down declare a static bureaucratic operation, the President is going on a campaign jaunt. Curiously he is doing so despite the fact that he has been criticized for a lack of leadership in this ongoing budget battle.

Remember his impromptu words yesterday?

A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn’t reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.”

“I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added. “And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that. And I will have my entire team available to work through the details of getting a deal done.”

The president is scheduled to make two campaign speeches today, one on energy in the Philadelphia suburbs, and another tonight to a group of black political activists in New York.

Obama’s town hall on energy will be held at a wind turbine plant in the town of Fairless Hills in Bucks County, a well-known political bellwether in the Philadelphia area. While the city of Philadelphia overwhelmingly votes Democratic, its suburbs swing between the Democratic and Republican parties, making them crucial for Obama’s 2012 campaign.



On the bright side (for the President) Fairless Hills expected to have good golf weather most of the day:

In New York City, Obama will appear at the 20th anniversary of National Action Network, the group run by black activist and Obama backer and leader of two anti-Semitic Pogroms "Reverend"  Al Sharpton.

President Obama proves once again, when the going gets tough, the president goes out of town.