This afternoon at Greensville County High School in Emporia, President Barack Obama renewed his push for his American Jobs Act before a vocal and supportive crowd.
"It doesn't seem like your voices are heard enough in Washington," he said. "They don't seem to be listening," he said, mocking Senate Republicans for scuttling the $447 billion measure last week by refusing to debate it.
The president began by alluding to Virginians who are struggling to make ends meet.
"Times are tough for a lot of Americans," he said.
"Here in Virginia there are a lot of folks who have spent months -- maybe some folks spent years -- looking for work," he said. "Others are doing their best to get by," avoiding trips to restaurants, postponing retirement, worrying about the fate of a family business.
Obama said it is going to take time to put America's fiscal house in order and restore an economy where "everybody is getting a fair shot and everybody is contributing their fair share."
"It's going to take time," he said. "But I'm here to tell you we are going to get it done."
He said his American Jobs Act includes the kind of proposals that can help boost the economy right now.
Obama charged that the Republican alternative to his jobs bill is to lower taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, gut environmental regulations, drill more, "let Wall Street do what they were doing before we got into this mess" and repeal health-care reform.
He noted that Greensville County has lost some teachers to budget cuts.
"All over the country, including here in Virginia, budget cuts are forcing schools to lay off teachers in disturbing numbers," the president said. "Here in Greensville County you've lost some teachers; you could lose more if we don't pass this jobs bill -- and that's not right," he said.
He told the audience at the high school that his plan would mean nearly 11,000 education jobs in Virginia.
"So I need all of you to tell the Senate 'Put those teachers back to work.' "
"I want desperately to work with the Republicans on ways to create jobs right now," the president said at one point. "I'm open to any serious idea that is presented to create jobs."
He noted that last week the Congress passed a trade deal with South Korea. The president said he wants to go beyond automobiles.
"I want them to buy some fine Virginia peanuts," he said. "I know they use peanuts over there, but I'll bet they're not as good as Virginia peanuts."
At the outset, the president noted that on the three-day tour of swing states his entourage had traveled through beautiful mountain roads in North Carolina, and stopped for barbecue and at a general store in North Carolina.
"Most importantly, the reason that we have been traveling on the road is because I wanted to hear from folks like you," he said.
"Some people asked me yesterday why I'm visiting some places in North Carolina and Virginia that are mostly Republican," he said. "And what I said was: 'I'm not the Democratic president; I'm not the Republican president; I'm the president.' "
"I'm everybody's president. I don't care if you're Republican or a Democrat. This is not the Republican Jobs Act. This is not called the Democratic Jobs Act. This is The American Jobs Act."
After leaving Bluestone High School at 3:47 p.m., the president’s motorcade had continued along state route 58, according to a report from Mark Binker of the Greensboro News & Record, who is traveling in the president's entourage.
At 4:16 p.m., the entourage passed Parkview High School, where students were lining the road. One group held an American Flag and a Virginia state flag, with the state flag held at an angle to salute the president. The football team also lined the road.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m. the entourage made an unannounced stop in Brodnax, where the president shook hands of people waiting by the road. His first stop was at Patricia’s Child Care Center, where he was greeted by workers and the owner, Patricia Feggins-Clary.
“Lord have mercy, you made my day,” Feggins-Clary said as she gave the president a hug.
The day care’s small students were waiting on two rows of very small chairs.
Feggins-Clary told the reporter that she had started the day-care center seven years ago.
“I did this from my retirement fund for the needy children, and we’re still standing after seven years,” she said.
One child started to cry when the president approached.
“Oh, what’s the matter sweetie,” said Obama, who then moved on to take a group picture.
Moving down the rope line, the president shook hands with other groups.
“He shook my hand, you seen that, right?” said Shabaka Crayton, 33, a supervisor at Home Depot said, after meeting the president. “Wow!” he exclaimed, laughing.
The president left Brodnax at 4:16 p.m. and the press ran back to their vans.
Less than a mile down the road, the vans passed a billboard that featured a large Confederate battle emblem, sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
On the way to Emporia, the entourage passed many groups of people standing by the side of the road, most waving or taking pictures of the motorcade.
Upon reaching Emporia, the entourage got on I-95 for a short time and then got off the highway. Upon exiting the highway at 5:25 p.m., the vans passed a Virginia State Police Officer who had apparently had an accident on his motorcycle. He was lying on the ground being tended to by other security personnel.
(End of Update.)
President Barack Obama's visit to Greensville High School in Emporia has begun with the pledge of allegiance.
Earlier this afternoon, at Bluestone High School, in Skipwith, the president visited two workshops, according to reports filed by Mark Binker of the Greensboro News & Record and Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers, two reporters who are traveling on the bus tour.
In one workshop, the president saw students who help maintain the school's computers.
"So you keep everything up and running around here – that's outstanding," Obama said.
In a second work room, the president visited with kinds on the robotics team.
There he was introduced to Skrappy, a 5-foot-tall, trapezoidal robot. This was the eighth version of Skrappy.
Of Skrappy, the president said, "he's pretty good looking."
He donned a pair of safety glasses at the students' request, joking "He's not going to go rogue on us, is he?"
The students, using a laptop, directed Skrappy's arms up to demonstrate his reach.
Obama proclaimed it "outstanding."
Apparently, the parts are used over and again, creating new versions of Skrappy.
"He gets cannibalized a little bit," Obama says. The teacher suggests "reused" is a better word.
The president also met Justin Kirkland, a third-year teacher at the school who was on the school's first robotics team as a junior and returned to teach. The president said it was good to see he had come "full circle."
Outside, the president greeted other students from the school, stopping to chat along a rope line. He encouraged them to not only finish high school, but to go on for training after high school.
He told the students he'd been hearing "great things" about their school and wanted to visit. The president said he hoped they were "focused on doing everything you can to excel in school."
"I'm proud of you," he said.
When he asked if any of the students had questions, 14-year-old Kelsey Thornton, a ninth grader wearing a pink tie-died shirt, blurted out: "Do you know Justin Beiber?"
"I do," Obama proclaimed, calling the pop star a "very nice young man."
But, he added, "I think he's got a girlfriend."
The president posed for a group picture, asking the students, "Nobody made rabbit ears behind me, did they?"
Asked by a reporter how he was enjoying the trip, he said: "I'm having a great time."
At 3:47 pm, the motorcade departed from Bluestone High School en route to Emporia.
(End of Update)
At this hour the president's motorcade has entered Virginia and made a previously unannounced stop at Bluestone High School in Skipwith, south of Chase City.
The president's bus, dubbed "Ground Force One," crossed the North Carolina-Virginia border in brilliant sunshine, passing lots of curious onlookers, according to a report from Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers, who is traveling with the president's entourage.
After a long drive on a twisty backcountry road through farmland - grain silos, fields of hay bales, the entourage arrived at 3:13 p.m. for the president's first stop in Virginia, a classroom at Bluestone High School.
The White House said the president will participate in a tour of the school's computer lab and robotics workshop and view a demonstration of its robotics program. Obama will be led on the tour by robotics and computer repair teacher Tracy Ellis.
During the visit the president will continue to call on Congress to pass the American Jobs Act and provide funding to keep teachers in the classroom.
The White House said that under the American Jobs Act, Mecklenburg County Public Schools would receive an estimated $3.5 million for teacher jobs. Additionally, Mecklenburg County would get $1.3 million for K-12 modernization and be eligible to compete for a share of the additional $212 million Virginia would distribute based on need.
Bluestone High School provides students with an opportunity to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition as an extracurricular activity. For the past several years, teacher Tracy Ellis has mentored students at the school and led them through the process to build a robot and compete in the competition. This year, approximately 30 students and seven teachers will participate in the program.
The Bluestone Robotics team was founded in 2004 with 10 students and five sponsor/mentors. They built their first robot with the basic kit of parts and scraps scrounged from area businesses (hence the robot's name Skrappy). "
Clark, of McClatchy Newspapers, reported that crowds flocked to the side of the road in South Boston to watch the motorcade pass.
Three men stood in a truck bed holding signs that read "Job?" And "liar."
A woman held a sign saying "yes we can, 0bama 2012."
A bowling alley offered a sign that said: "Presidents bowl free."
Near Clarksville, in an area dotted with tobacco fields, a woman stood in a front yard holding a large Confederate flag.
The White House reported that during the president's previous stop, at Reid's House Restaurant in Reidsville, N.C., "the president ordered a cheesburger, fries and a sweet tea."
Crowds have begun to line the streets around the Greensville County High School in Emporia, waiting for a glimpse of the presiden's motorcade. People are waiting in a line around the school's gymnasium where the president's event will be held around 5 p.m.
Several Democratic legislators are in the audience, including Dels. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake and Roslyn R. Dance, D-Petersburg, Roslyn C. Tyler, D-Sussex, and state Sen. L. Louis Lucas, D-Portsmouth. Also in the audience is Brian Moran, chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia.
The school is tucked in a residential neighborhood, so people are lining the streets awaiting the motorcade. Along the route one group of people held a homemade banner supporting Obama. One woman stood in her front yard with a video camera.
Earlier this afternoon the president greeted the lunch crowd at Reid's House Restaurant in Reidsville, N.C., about a half an hour south of Danville, according to a report from Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers, who is traveling with the president's swing-state bus tour in North Carolina.
The president entered to loud applause at 12:52 p.m. and worked the booths, shaking hands with diners, telling one man: "Looks like the food must be pretty good."
He told a group of women clamoring for a picture, "I got to put my order in, then I'll take a picture."
One woman said to him, "I'm impressed," and he replied "God bless you."
The president shook hands with one couple, asking the man if he had eaten "all the vegetables" before he had dessert.
The president asked one diner what he did for a living and when the man said he was in the funeral business, Obama replied that it was "important work."
As he made his way to the counters and stools where more diners were waiting to shake hands, the president shook hands with an elderly couple who said they had been married for 59 years.
Obama said he and first lady Michelle Obama have been married 19 years now and have "44 to go to catch up with you."
White House spokesman Jay Carney, speaking with reporters on the press van in North Carolina, was asked about claims by top GOP officials in Virginia that President Barack Obama changed his Virginia itinerary because Democratic lawmakers are worried about upcoming legislative elections.
Carney said he was unaware that had happened. He added that the president's schedule is subject to change for "more prosaic reasons than that." according to a report from Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers, who is traveling with the president's swing-state bus tour in North Carolina.
Carney reiterated that the president has no plans at this point to tour the Virginia earthquake -damaged sites -- as Gov. Bob McDonnell had requested.
At 5 p.m. today President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Greensville County High School in Emporia, where he will tour a computer lab and observe a robotics demonstration.
The White House says Virginia is slated to receive more than $740 million of the $30 billion included in the American Jobs Act to prevent teacher layoffs, which would support 10,800 jobs across Virginia, according to a report from Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers, who is traveling with the president's swing-state bus tour in North Carolina.
Greensville County Public Schools would receive an estimated $1.6 million of this funding for teacher jobs, according to the White House. Greensville County High School has lost six teachers over the last three years due to budget cuts and is at risk of losing additional teachers next year.
In Emporia the president will deliver remarks to an audience of Greensville students, parents, faculty and invited guests. He will be introduced by biology teacher Jami Clements, who was named Greensville County Public Schools' teacher of the year in 2011. Clements is a 1994 graduate of Greensville County High School, according to Clark's report.
Last week Senate Republicans defeated the jobs act, but the president continues to push for it during his three-day swing-state bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia that began Monday.
This morning the president took part in a roundtable discussion with educators at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C.
"One of the concerns that I've had over the course of the last several months -- in fact, the last couple of years -- are the layoffs that we've seen in education and the cutbacks we've seen in education all across the country," the president said.
"States and local governments are under a big crunch. And at precisely the time when we need to be emphasizing education and putting our resources into education, we're seeing cutbacks all across the board. Teachers are losing their jobs. Schools are having to cut back on vital programs that are helping young people.
"And the American Jobs Act, the bill that I put before Congress, would help to curb some of those trends. What we do is to provide $30 billion to make sure that we've got teachers back in the classrooms, to make sure that we're not seeing additional teacher layoffs; that wonderful programs such as the ones that are taking place here are properly and adequately funded; and to make sure that, at the same time, we're also rebuilding some of the schools around the country that are in a bad state of repair and where young people aren't getting the kind of support that they need in order to achieve.
"So I'm going to spend a little time having a conversation here with the teachers and soon-to-be teachers. They're going to talk about their experiences, what's working, what they're excited about, but also the concerns that they've seen in terms of cutbacks in education.
"And I hope that members of Congress are going to be doing a little bit of listening to teachers and educators."
Gov. Bob McDonnell, who was "extremely disappointed" that President Barack Obama would not visit earthquake-damaged Louisa County, will join the president Wednesday in Hampton to support an issue on which they agree — jobs for veterans.
The event including first lady Michelle Obama will take place at Joint Base Langley-Eustis on the second day of Obama's bus trip through this key swing state.
The tour starts this evening with an appearance at Greensville County High School in Emporia, where he's expected to continue a push for his American Jobs Act, including a piece that would provide funding for teachers, policemen and firefighters. The president is scheduled to cap his trip Wednesday afternoon with a stop at a fire station in Chesterfield County.
McDonnell accepted an invitation to attend the Hampton event, which the White House said will focus on "the importance of hiring American veterans." Michelle Obama is also expected to announce a private-sector commitment to hire veterans and military spouses.
"The governor welcomes the president to Virginia; the commonwealth is always honored to host the commander-in-chief," spokesman Tucker Martin said in an email. "As a veteran, and as the son and father of veterans, he is always interested in new ideas about how to get more of our veterans back to work in this tough economy."
Virginia's first lady, Maureen McDonnell, who has made supporting military families part of her platform, also will attend.
McDonnell had asked Obama to tour Louisa, which was recently denied federal disaster assistance. The governor has said he will appeal the decision.
Obama will roll into Virginia from North Carolina, another key 2012 battleground state, where on Monday he pressed lawmakers back in Washington to start taking up pieces of his rejected jobs bill. He also mocked the Republicans who had shot it down in its entirety.
Back at the Capitol, Senate Democrats announced that they would act first on a single part of Obama's plan, a long-shot bid to help states hire teachers and police. A Senate vote could come as soon as the end of the week.
In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on his full $447 billion proposal combining tax cuts and new spending.
"Essentially they said no to you," Obama told a supportive crowd outside Asheville. "Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces."
While McDonnell was added to the Virginia events schedule, some area residents questioned being excluded. All three scheduled Virginia events, in Emporia, Hampton and Chesterfield, are closed to the public.
"How can a county resident be denied access to a public facility, which they help pay for, where a public figure is speaking?" Chesterfield resident R. Dwight Payne asked in an email to the county attorney.
Obama's Chesterfield visit will plant him in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's district for the third time in 13 months. Obama visited the University of Richmond on Sept. 9 to promote his jobs plan and in September 2010 he spoke at the Southampton Recreation Association in Richmond.
The president has called out Cantor, R-7th, for his opposition to taking up the entire American Jobs Act and choosing instead to act on pieces accepted by both sides of the political aisle.
Cantor will be in the district on Thursday — the day after the president leaves — for a previously scheduled roundtable discussion with representatives of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park to discuss ways to create jobs and spur economic growth through innovation and entrepreneurship, according to Cantor spokeswoman Megan Whittemore.
Sens. Mark R. Warner and Jim Webb, both Democrats, are not expected to attend the president's Virginia events as the Senate is in session. While former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine attended Obama's event here last month, he "won't be able to join the president on this visit as he has a full schedule of events in Northern Virginia, including events for legislative candidates who are up for election in a couple of weeks, which could not be rescheduled," according to Kaine spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine. Kaine, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate to succeed Webb.
Republicans painted Obama's trip as a campaign-style tour through key swing states.
"We're delighted he's coming to campaign for his fellow Democrats here in Virginia," Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins said Monday.
A Quinnipiac University poll taken Oct. 3-9 shows Obama with a 52 percent job disapproval rating in Virginia and 45 percent approval.
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