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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Obama brings pitch for his ideas to red-state Idaho

President Barack Obama arrives to speak at Boise State University, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, in Boise, Idaho, about the themes in his State of the Union address. (AP / Carolyn Kaster)
BOISE – In his first visit as president to Idaho, President Barack Obama told a cheering crowd at Boise State University Wednesday, “There’s not a liberal America or a conservative America, but a United States of America.” The president brought his State of the Union themes of tax changes designed to strengthen the middle class and close loopholes for corporations, making college more affordable, investing in infrastructure and calls for unity to one of the reddest states, where he received just 32.6 percent of the vote in 2012 to Republican Mitt Romney’s 65.5 percent. “I said that I’d take these ideas across the country. I wanted my first stop to be right here in Boise, Idaho,” Obama declared. He touted the tech innovation at BSU, where he toured an engineering lab before his 33-minute speech; and repeated his call from the night before to make community college free; that was greeted with thunderous applause and cheers. “We have risen from the recession better positioned and freer to write our own future than any other country on earth,” Obama said. “We’ve got to choose what future we want. Are we going to accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or can we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising income and opportunities to for everybody who’s willing to try hard?” Idaho is the 47th state that Obama has visited as president, and the visit comes two years into his second term. Commenting on Idaho as a red state – to an audience of 6,600 that included lots of BSU students – he said, “In a place like Idaho, the only blue turf is on your field.” He also employed another BSU football reference, talking about how he’s in the fourth quarter of his two terms as president. For a university that was the source of the most famous Statue of Liberty play of all time, in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, he said, “I don’t need to remind you that big things happen late in the fourth quarter.” Idaho GOP Rep. Raul Labrador, who was in Washington, D.C., issued a statement welcoming Obama to Idaho and adding, “After last night’s State of the Union, I think the president could benefit from listening to Idahoans.” Labrador said, “I hope the president absorbs some Idaho common sense.” Among those in the crowd were an array of top Idaho Democrats, including former Gov. Cecil Andrus and nearly all of Idaho’s Democratic state legislators. But there were some Republicans, too. “Isn’t this a grand occasion?” asked Rep. Linden Bateman, R-Idaho Falls, as he waited for the start of the speech. Asked why he wanted to attend, Bateman said, “I love my country. He’s the president of the United States. There’s 300 million people in this country, and only one president.” He added, “The last sitting president I saw was Harry Truman. I was 8 years old.” Bateman got to see Truman when he came through eastern Idaho on a whistle-stop tour and spoke from the back of a train. Rep. Mark Nye, D-Pocatello, said, “It’s wonderful for our state.” Before his talk, Obama met privately for 10 minutes with Naghmeh Abedini, whose husband, the Rev. Saeed Abedini, has been imprisoned in Iran for two years; she brought her two young children, and all three filed into the Caven-Williams Sports Complex shortly before Obama took the stage to watch the president speak. “It was just the kids and I and the president,” she said afterward. “His first words were that he is trying everything.” She told reporters, “He was holding my hand the whole time. I could see that he cared, in his eyes.” Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little greeted Obama at the airport and welcomed him to Idaho; Gov. Butch Otter was recovering from hip replacement surgery a day earlier. Little handed Obama a legislative resolution and a letter signed by legislative leaders from both parties calling for Abedini to be freed. The letter called on Obama to “continue to use all appropriate means necessary to halt the unjustified and cruel persecution of Pastor Abedini.” BSU President Bob Kustra said the university just got word about the impending presidential visit the previous Wednesday. “Our staff has been working non-stop since then,” he said. Free tickets were distributed Monday to students, faculty and the public for the speech; the public tickets were all gone within an hour. A young African-American woman who is a sophomore mechanical engineering major, Camille Eddy, was selected to introduce the president, and declared that she was “absolutely proud to be a Bronco.” Kustra said, “I can’t say enough about what this means to the university. … You couldn’t pay for this kind of publicity.” Obama left Boise late Wednesday afternoon for Lawrence, Kansas, where he’s scheduled to speak Thursday at Kansas State University.