Tuesday, August 17, 2010

President Obama Spends Weekend in Panama City, FL- Local Democrat Congressman Hardest hit

President Obama and the First Family spent part of this weekend down visiting some of the beaches along the Florida panhandle in an effort to encourage visitors to vacation along the Gulf Coast after the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama started their Panama City Beach vacation talking with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Panama City Mayor Scott Clemons, Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, hotel manager Lee Ann Leonard, charter boat Capt. Gary Jarvis and restaurant owner Carolyn Holman.

Obama said he would dedicate most of his time in the region to listening, and at the end of the roundtable discussion he said he had learned firsthand how the oil spill has damaged the Panhandle’s economy...[snip]

Obama said he and his family — his daughter Sasha and the family dog, Bo, were along for the trip; his other daughter, Malia, is at camp — are visiting in hopes of attracting public attention to all the region has to offer
Apparently absent from the list of people Obama met with was the current Democrat Congressman who's district includes Panama City. Representative Allen Boyd (FL-2) was nowhere to be seen- the Panama City News Herald makes no mention of Boyd being present for Obama's visit and neither Boyd's campaign website or his official House of Representatives homepage make any mention of the Commander in Chief's weekend stopover as of Tuesday night. [You'd think that would be pretty newsworthy, wouldn't you? -NANESB!]

This seems to be keeping with a theme of Democrats who want to get elected, re-elected or run for a different office not wanting to be seen in the same ZIP code as Obama lately.

Unfortunately for Boyd, avoiding Obama didn't really help his numbers at all. The non-partisan Cook Political Report updated the statuses of 10 different Congressional races today- all of them favoring the GOP to some extent. Among them- Boyd's district , which went from 'Leaning Democrat' to 'Toss Up'.

Obviously, I don't live in the district and Charlie Cook changing FL-2 to a 'tossup' so soon after Obama's Panama City visit could be a coincidence, but those seem less and less likely in an election year. Apparently dodging the President for one weekend isn't enough to make your constituents forget that you voted for Cap & Trade and 0bamacare.

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