President Barack Obama’s visit to a
small eastern Kansas town to deliver a major speech on the economy
brought him into politically unfriendly territory where even some
audience members questioned whether he’s done enough to create new
jobs.
Obama received a rousing welcome Tuesday from hundreds of people
who crowded into the high school gymnasium in Osawatomie, about 50
miles south of Kansas City. But a Democrat hasn’t carried Kansas in
a presidential election since 1964.
The speech gave the Democratic president a chance to invoke a
speech former President Theodore Roosevelt gave in 1910 in
Osawatomie, promoting action by government for the disadvantaged.