President Barack Obama plans to stump for his American Jobs Act in New Hampshire, the state holding the first-in-the-nation presidential primary in less than two months. Despite the fact that Obama will be running virtually unopposed in the Democratic primary, the other Democrats on the ballot consisting of obscure fringe candidates, he will be in Granite State on Tuesday, November 22, 2012, promoting his jobs bill, which is stalled in Congress.
He will give what is billed as “Remarks by President Obama on the American Jobs Act” in the gymnasium of Manchester’s Central High School at 12:15 p.m. With an influx of immigrants from Bosnia and the Sudan as well as migrants from other states seeking employment in New Hampshire (which has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country), Central High is an ideal locale for Obama as it is the school with the most diverse student population in the state.
The plaza at Central High boasts an impressive statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln by New Hampshire native Daniel Chester French. French is most famous for another sculpture of the seated 16th president at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Despite being from different political parties, President Obama – who has tried to promote bipartisanship – keeps a bust of Lincoln in the Oval Office.
Though New Hampshire has only four votes out of 538 in the Electoral College, those votes can be critical. Former Vice President Al Gore lost the Granite State by a little over 7,000 ballots cast by New Hampshirites in the 2000 Presidential election, and wound up losing in the Electoral College by four votes. New Hampshire would have made the difference.
Once reliably Republican, New Hampshire now is considered a swing state, having gone for the Democrat four times in the last five Presidential elections. Though it is “small” in terms of its Electoral College clout except in extraordinary circumstances like the 2000 election, the Granite State looms large on the national scene due to its first-in-the-nation primary.
Bill Clinton, who came in second in the 1992 primary but won the state twice, was so fond of New Hampshire he made frequent trips to the Granite State even after he left the Oval Office.
Obama came in a strong second to Hillary Clinton during the 2008 New Hampshire primary, which helped position him for his eventual victory over the former First Lady. He beat eventual Republican nominee John McCain by nearly 10 percent in the Presidential election, but his approval numbers have since slumped.
According to the Purple Poll, a survey of key swing states, Obama is gaining traction against Mitt Romney, the putative Republican front-runner. If Romney wins the Republican primary in New Hampshire, as he is expected to do, a strong turnout for Obama by Democratic voters will signal nationally that the President remains the man to beat in 2012.