Politics

Iowa city councilman: Obama has fundraised over touring flood damage before

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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President Barack Obama ignored a request to tour flood damage in Sioux City, Iowa, last summer, City Councilman Keith Radig said in a radio appearance. Obama chose not to visit the area the Missouri River flooded last summer, Radig added, and is only going to speak at the city’s Morningside College at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday because he’s in desperate need of votes against Mitt Romney ahead of November’s election.

“You could kind of describe Obama as a fair weathered friend — he’s one that’s only there when he needs something from you,” Radig said. “But when we needed his leadership, he was nowhere to be found. In the Midwest we are hardworking and determined. We are tired of struggling due to the Obama policies.”

Radig added that when five congressmen wrote to Obama last summer asking him for help and to visit the damaged area, he declined, instead campaigning on other side of Iowa.

The charge that Obama views natural disasters victims and damage as nothing more than political props was compounded this past week when the president announced that he would tour Hurricane Isaac damage in Louisiana only after Romney did. Romney visited Louisiana on Friday to tour the Hurricane Isaac damage with Gov. Bobby Jindal.

It wasn’t until after Romney’s visit that Obama changed his schedule. Obama will be visiting Louisiana on Monday, and he canceled political rallies he had scheduled during that time in Ohio until Friday afternoon to go to Louisiana. “In light of the president’s travel to Louisiana to meet with local officials and view ongoing response and recovery efforts to Hurricane Isaac, President Obama will no longer travel to Cleveland, Ohio on Monday, September 3,” said a Friday afternoon White House statement.

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