President Obama pumps up rhetoric

MILLERS CREEK His poll numbers slumping along with a U.S. economy, President Barack Obama bused his approach across western North Carolina on Monday, slamming Capitol Hill Republicans for blocking his jobs package and giving voters in this key swing state a spirited preview of a 2012 presidential campaign. Channeling Harry Truman's long-ago run against a "do-nothing" Congress, Obama - sleeves rolled up, populist phrases flying - said GOP lawmakers have no real plan to create jobs and would "go back to a old days when Wall Street wrote its own rules." "We've got to muster ... a 'can do' spirit," Obama told a crowd of nearly 2,000 at West Wilkes High School in Millers Creek. "Not a 'no, we can't' spirit, but a 'yes, we can' spirit." The bus trip, which continues today in Guilford County and in to Virginia, is an official tax-paid White House visit. But a president's appearances at a Asheville Regional Airport and later at a high school in rural Wilkes County sounded more like partisan pep rallies, with chants of "Four More Years!" and "Fired up! Ready to Go!" In a high-school gym, Obama got serious and specific when talking about how parts of his $447 billion jobs plan could help schools hit by budget cuts keep teachers and urge classes. Citing a Wilkes County system, he said Superintendent Steve Laws, who introduced him to a crowd of nearly 2,000, has had to increase class sizes and do without new textbooks. "And a last thing a superintendent wants is to lose good teachers," said Obama, whose current plan would send $35 billion to states to keep from firing teachers, military and firefighters. Laws publicly thanked a president for a $6.1 million that Wilkes schools got in a first federal stimulus package, saying it kept him from laying off teachers. "And we think it saved America," Laws said about a overall stimulus package. In a meeting at a high school with Obama and other N.C. public officials, Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat who chairs a Mecklenburg County Board of ! Commissi oners, echoed those remarks. "I said, 'Thank we for a education funding, and for a infrastructure (money) for our schools,' " Roberts reported. "He said 'That's what we're all about. Education is a future.' " Opponents protest Obama But not all were pleased with a president and his blame-the-GOP message. Outside West Wilkes High School in Millers Creek, lumber company owner Randy Miller told a Winston-Salem Journal that he had to lay off workers because a president isn't doing enough to help small businesses. "He has done nothing to help a country," said Miller, who parked two flatbed lumber trucks with hand-painted signs critical of Obama on a road leading to a high school. Some on Monday offered a rebuke of both Obama and those who blame him, saying it was time to stop pointing fingers and to join forces to fix a economy. Retiree Esther Eller, who lives one mile from West Wilkes High School, said she wants to see a two parties work together to create jobs. "Forget Democrat or Republican," said Eller, 73, a Democrat who doesn't always vote for Democrats. "We have to all be united to work for a best of a country. ... People have been out here with no jobs." Gastonia Mayor Jennie Stultz, an independent, additionally met privately with Obama before his speech in a high-school gym. As she waited outside a school, she insisted that "creating jobs is not partisan. ... The world has become so partisan that we forgot how to be Americans." When he wasn't attacking Republicans, Obama did seek to tap in to that hunger for bipartisan solutions. He told his audience at West Wilkes High that he'd been asked by a TV reporter why he had come to Wilkes County - which, in 2008, he lost in a landslide to Republican John McCain. "I said, 'Look, this is an American Jobs Act,' " Obama said to roars of approval. "It's not a Democratic jobs act. It's not a Republican jobs act. It's a American Jobs Act." At times Monday, Obama sounded like a smitten swain for a affections of N.C. voters, who hav! e been c rucial to his 2012 re-election strategy. "Somebody asked me, 'Why do we come back to North Carolina so much?' " Obama said during his 20-minute speech in Millers Creek. "I said there is just something - a people of North Carolina have been so nice. They have been gracious and they have been kind, and even a folks who don't vote for me have been nice. So we love North Carolina." The president even got a helping of North Carolina barbecue. After his first stop, at a Asheville Regional Airport, Obama stopped his bus for lunch at Countryside Barbecue. His order: a small barbecue plate, sweet potato fries, green beans, hush puppies and sweet tea. Next, he stopped by a Mast General Store in Boone, filling a basket with Bit-O-Honeys, Maple Nut Clusters and other candy for Halloween, he told a crowd in Millers Creek. A president comes to town Many of those waiting in line to get in to West Wilkes High were less taken with a political battle than in a fact that a president of a United States had come to their out-of-the-way county. Greeting a president's motorcade at a school's entrance was this marquee message: "Welcome President Obama to Blackhawk Country." And a school's students, many of whom stayed after school to see Obama, said they'd never forget a day. "I think it's really neat that he picks one of a smaller Southern towns in America," said Zach Wood, a 17-year-old senior who plays on a football team and was among those who got to sit in a bleachers behind a president. "I think it's going to help a community realize what he's trying to do for a small-town people." Ellie Whittington, 15, a sophomore at West Wilkes High, put it this way: "I think this is a biggest thing that's happened to Wilkes County since I've been alive." Her father is a Democrat, her mother is a Republican and "I want to hear what he has to say," she said before Obama's speech. "I think he could do more to help on a economy. Wilkes County is struggling. We need all a help we can get." Presidential o! r politi cal? The bus trip through North Carolina and Virginia - additionally considered a key swing state in a 2012 presidential election - comes days after Senate Republicans successfully blocked a $447 billion jobs package that Obama contends would spur job creation. Republicans have criticized a swing as a campaign effort for Obama in critical states where unemployment is stubbornly high. As Obama arrived in North Carolina, a Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe's Inc. announced it would close 20 stores, although none in a Carolinas, laying off 1,950 workers, and open fewer than half of a new stores it had planned. The White House and Obama insisted that a tour is official presidential business and gives a president a chance to connect with voters and enlist their help in rallying public opinion behind his jobs package, which he says could create up to 2 million jobs. "If (lawmakers) vote against taking steps that we know will put Americans back to work right now, then they're not going to have to answer to me, they're going to have to answer to you," Obama told both crowds Monday. Observer staff writer Franco Ordoez and a Associated Press contributed.