President Barack Obama heads to electoral battlegrounds to tout his jobs bill Tuesday, as his campaign officials argue voters are warming to the plan, despite its doubtful prospects in Congress. Obama will hold events in the key electoral state of Pennsylvania, a must-win for him in 2012, and in vital swing state Florida, as an amended version of his $447 billion package faces a symbolic Senate vote. The day will likely evolve into a new round of partisan posturing, as Republicans and Democrats, eyeing a date with voters next year, seek political advantage from a measure that has almost no chance of passing in full. A populist Obama has vowed to fight relentlessly for the plan, a mix of tax cuts and infrastructure spending, and plans to castigate Republicans for doing nothing to tackle the jobs crisis if it founders in a gridlocked Congress.
“The more people know about the American Jobs Act; the more they hear the President talking about it; the more they want Congress to pass the plan,” Obama’s political confidant David Axelrod said in new campaign memo. “The American people agree with economists across the political spectrum who are saying the (act) will immediately create jobs and put more money in the pockets of middle class Americans who are struggling to make ends meet. “Yet Republican leaders – from Congress to the presidential campaign trail – have been steadfast in their opposition without providing an alternative that would create jobs now.”
