President Obama will be traveling today from San Francisco, California to Reno, Nevada to “take part in an official event where he will deliver remarks at the 113th National Convention of the VFW,” according to the White House.
But last year, in 2011, when President Obama and Vice President Biden were not running for reelection, the Obama administration sent only the deputy secretary for veteran affairs to speak with the veterans group. Neither Obama nor Biden attended the annual meeting.
But Obama and Biden were busy. Instead of attending VFW last year, they were vacationing and fundraising.
Last year, the VFW conference was August 26-September 1 in San Antonio, Texas. That time, at least between August 22-August 28, President Obama was taking time off on Martha’s Vineyard. As for Biden, he was fundraising.
On August 30 of last year, Biden attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Tulsa—a short hour-long flight from the site of the VFW convention. Incidentally, at that fundraiser, Biden praised Obama for personally killing Osama bin Laden. “At a Fundraising Reception in Tulsa on Tuesday, Vice President Biden was introduced to a small room of Tulsa donors and Party officials,” according to the Tulsa Democratic party. “Biden spoke at length of his pride in the President’s leadership citing specific examples. ‘He decided to risk not only the lives of our special forces but risk his very presidency on getting Osama Bin Laden. He was prepared to follow him to the gates of hell.’ He then went on to say ‘what it said to the American people was this guy not only is all the things they thought, but has a back bone like a ram-rod.’”
To double down on his support for veterans this election year, President Obama today released this video, to coincide with his day at the VFW:
(It’s worth noting that President Obama hasn’t always been open to holding parades for returning troops…)
After the president’s remarks to the VFW, he’ll be returning to California for campaign events.
Over the weekend, MSNBC host Chris Hayes told his viewers that he's "uncomfortable" with calling "war dead and the fallen ... 'heroes.'" Now, the Veterans of Foreign Wars group have responded by saying that Hayes's comments "are reprehensible and disgusting" and are asking for the MSNBC host to apologize.
MItt Romney took a thinly veiled jab at his opponent Rick Perry at a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) annual national convention in San Antonio today. "I am a conservative businessman," Romney said. "I have spent most of my life outside of politics, dealing with real problems in the real economy. Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don't know how to get us out."
Romney himself served four years as governor of Massachusetts, his only political office, though he did run unsuccessfully both for the Senate in 1994 and for president in 2008.
Facebook
Twitter
