Obama Enters 2016 Debate With Visit to Iowa

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

21 September 15

here are plenty of high schools throughout the country that President Obama could have gone to if he really didn’t want to weigh in on the 2016 election. But he came to Des Moines, Iowa, and tap danced around who he supported on the Democratic side, while taking a couple of pot shots at the Republicans. He also indirectly defended Senator Bernie Sanders’ plan for free college tuition at public universities.

The event was at North High School, a racially diverse high school in one of the poorer communities of the capital of Iowa. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who also spoke at the event and took questions, praised the school for “turning things around.” Duncan said they chose the school because it was once an underperforming school and is now a model of success.

After some brief remarks from Secretary Duncan, Russhaun Johnson, the newly elected student body president, introduced Obama. Johnson spoke about how education has turned his life around, about his mother, who was in prison, and about how his teachers saw potential in him and did not give up on him even though the odds were against him.

Obama then told the hundreds of students, parents, and teachers about some new initiatives to make it easier to choose a college. However, you had the feeling that since we were in Iowa, the elephant in the room was the 2016 election to replace Obama as president. After speaking for 30 minutes, the president opened the floor to questions.

The first question came from a student who asked Obama and his education secretary what they thought the role of a teacher should be. That was an easy one, but then came the first election question. The father of a North High School student asked which candidate for president had the best education plan. Obama turned and chuckled, and many in the crowd laughed, knowing that he had been put on the spot. The president did a very good job avoiding the question and instead laid out what he thought needed to be included in any good education plan. Secretary Duncan then presented four questions that he felt all the candidates needed to be asked. Obama added that any candidate who blames problems in education on teachers does not deserve our vote. That was dig number one at the GOP candidates, who blame the teachers unions for everything.

Later President Obama took a question from an intern working on the Hillary Clinton campaign. She prefaced her question by admitting that originally she was going to ask him if he thought Bernie Sanders’ plan for free college tuition in America was realistic, but instead, since he didn’t want to talk about the candidates, she would just ask if he thought it was realistic for there to be free college tuition in America. No agenda in that question; the girl has a bright future in politics. To the president’s credit, he didn’t give her the answer she was seeking but instead presented his own plan for the first two years of college to be free and said that he pays for it in his budget. In no way did the president indicate that he thought Senator Sanders’ plan was not doable.

When a young Latina student asked if Obama’s plan for free tuition at community colleges would include the children of illegal immigrants, he had the opening he was looking for. Finally he could really take aim at Donald Trump and the tone of the GOP debate. First he had to break the bad news that on the federal level there is no assistance for illegal immigrants, but that she should apply anyway since there is help available in many states for “dreamers.” That might have been good advice in Maryland, but I wonder how wise it was in Iowa.

President Obama then segued into a blistering attack on the candidates who are using immigration to divide the electorate.

“This whole anti-immigrant sentiment that’s out there in our politics right now is contrary to who we are,” the president said. “Unless you are a Native American your ancestors came from someplace else”... “Don’t pretend that somehow 100 years ago the immigration process was all smooth and strict. That’s not how it worked. There are a whole bunch of folks who came here from all over Europe and all throughout Asia and throughout Central America and certainly who came from Africa who, it wasn’t some orderly process where all the rules applied and everything was strict and ‘I came the right way,’” Obama said. “That’s not how it worked.”

Obama didn’t use the name Donald Trump, but you could tell he was sending him a message. He was strongest when it came to the children of immigrants.

“The notion that somehow we would not welcome their desire to be full-fledged parts of this community and this country and to contribute, to serve, makes absolutely no sense,” Obama said. “When I hear folks talking as if somehow these kids are different from my kids, or less worthy in the eyes of God, that somehow they are less worthy of our respect and consideration and care, I think that’s un-American. I think it is wrong.”

While President Obama “begged off” the first question, he did come to Iowa to influence the debate. His sights were clearly set on the tone of the Republican debate. He is wise to not take sides at this point, especially in his party’s contest. Using the bully pulpit to weaken the other side, however, is his duty as the outgoing leader of the Democratic Party. He is at his best when he is candidate Obama and can still do a lot of damage to the Republican Party from the campaign trail.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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