I'm watching President Obama wrap up a town hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa. Thank you Iowa Public TV for airing it. Great speech, thoughtful questions and answers. Try to see it, if you can. I saw him in Iowa City a few weeks ago, after Health Care passed. That was a nice speech--fired up and ready to go--but this was better, one of the best I've seen him give, in a homey, fun, casual mode. He was clearly enjoying himself and so was his audience. It was as if he was having a conversation with everyone in the hall (the college gym, I assume). So at ease, so funny, mixing interesting anecdotes and observations with serious policy.
I'll get to the pie in a minute.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Obama visited Siemens Wind Turbine Blade manufacturing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa. Follow the link for the full remarks. Here's some of it:
I have just been on an incredibly impressive tour of this facility and saw how these giant blades are created. And they look even cooler up close -- unbelievably impressive technologies. And it was remarkable just to see how these things are made, but it’s even more remarkable when you consider that just a few short years ago, this facility was dark, it was quiet, nothing was going on. And today, it’s alive and humming with more than 600 employees, almost two-thirds of whom found themselves unemployed before they were here. (Applause.) This plant -- Robert was telling me, I may get my facts wrong here, but even two years ago you had only 200 employees. Now we've got 600 employees two years later. And this plant supports more than 350 other jobs throughout Lee County. (Applause.)
So you're manufacturing blades for some of the most advanced wind turbines in the world; each one as tall as Air Force One is long; each is capable of generating enough power for hundreds of homes, just by harnessing the wind. So what’s going on here, what each of the employees of Siemens are involved with, is helping stake America’s claim on a clean-energy future. And you’re staking Fort Madison’s claim on America’s future.
And that’s why I come to Iowa here today. Some of the -- one of the reporters said, "Why Iowa?" I said, well, I love Iowa, first of all. (Applause.) Wouldn’t have been President if it wasn’t for Iowa. (Applause.) It’s close to Illinois. (Laughter.) But also, I wanted to come here because to talk with folks like you about the economic hardship and the pain that this town has gone through and so many people are still feeling is important, but it’s also to talk about the economic potential.
He goes on to detail some of the ways that the U.S. let the world pass us in energy, education and the new economy, and then rolled into energy policy and investments resulting from the Recovery Act. Iowa is a good place to deliver this message. Governor Culver is expected to face a tough campaign for re-election this fall, and this is Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's part of the state.
And one study suggests that if we pursue our full potential for wind energy, and everything else goes right, wind could generate as much as 20 percent of America’s electricity 20 years from now. (Applause.) That's right, 20 percent. (Applause.) And Secretary Vilsack was telling me that Iowa is at the cutting edge. Iowa has already hit that mark, hasn’t it -- because of Governor Culver and his predecessor, Tom Vilsack, it may be a reality right here in Iowa. (Applause.) This state already generates a higher percentage of its electricity from wind than any other state. And that number is only growing. That number is only growing.
Iowa has, in general, been in better economic shape than many parts of the county, but our manufacturing sector has been in rough shape for years, and the southern part of the state has seen some of the highest unemployment in the state. Obama showed his ability to connect as he wrapped up the speech, directly addressing the workers in the plant and, by extension, The American Worker:
while it may not feel like it every day when you punch in, to all the folks who work here at Siemens, I want you to understand, you’re making it possible. You are blazing a trail. You're showing America our future. And some day, our children, and our children’s children, will look back at this factory, this moment, and they will be proud at a generation that chose, in a time of crisis, to place its bet on the future, and to reopen factories, and restart assembly lines, and retrain workers; a generation that chose once again to step forward and meet the challenges of our time.
That's what this represents. That's what you represent. And we could not be prouder.
Now for the pie
In his speech at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, the president mentioned that on the way he had stopped in Mt. Pleasant, Tom Vilsack's hometown, for a piece of pie at Jerry's. It was good pie, he said. And then he left us hanging. During the town hall portion, a 5th grader asked the question we all wanted to know: what kind of pie did he have? Rhubarb! Good pie, he said. Then he confessed that if we've heard that his cholesterol has gone up, it's because of Air Force One and the White House. They have good pie. The man likes his pie.