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The New York Times/ - Politics, Sex, 30 de Março de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Campaigning, Obama Is Mute on
Supreme Court Hearings
BURLINGTON, Vt. — President Obama made no
mention of this week’s closely watched Supreme
Court hearing on the constitutionality of the 2010
health care overhaul when he delivered his standard
stump speech at a fund-raiser attended by the party
faithful here on Friday.
But the fate of his signature health care law hovered
over his remarks anyway, lending added weight as he
listed what he considers the accomplishments of his
presidency.
“Change is the health care reform we passed after a
century of trying,” Mr. Obama said to rousing cheers
from the crowd gathered in a field house at the
University of Vermont.
Because of his health care law, Mr. Obama promised,
“in the United States of America, no one will go broke
because they got sick.”
He received thunderous applause from a pumped-up
Democratic crowd that seemed eager and willing to
cheer his every utterance, even interrupting his
opening line.
“I’m here —— ” Mr. Obama began, and the applause
erupted, causing the president to stop and grin. “I
should quit while I’m ahead,” he said.
The Supreme Court was to begin deliberations over
the law after a week of arguments, with a decision
expected to be announced in June. White House
officials have publicly struck a confident air, refusing to
discuss any contingency planning under way in the
event the high court strikes down all or part of the law.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, stuck to his oft-used campaign
lines extolling the benefits of the law, reminding the
audience that people with pre-existing conditions could
no longer be denied coverage.
He characterized this year’s presidential election as a
fight to reclaim the country for the working class. “This
is not the usual run-of-the-mill political debate,” Mr.
Obama said. Rather, he added, “this is the defining
issue of our time.”
Mr. Obama’s remarks came midway through a daylong
fund-raising trip to Vermont and Maine. The president
began with a lunch in Burlington with about 100
supporters who paid at least $7,500 each, campaign
officials said. Then some 4,500 people — many of
them students who paid $44 — attended the University
of Vermont event, which featured a performance by
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
The Obama campaign is trying hard to replicate the
enthusiasm young voters showed in 2008, with mixed
results so far.
Vermont’s population is reliably Democratic, and
protesters gathered along the president’s motorcade
route featured a lefty tilt, with signs demanding the
closing of the military prison on Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, and a speedy exit from Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama’s campaign officials said he was the first
president to visit Vermont since Bill Clinton in 1995.
After Vermont, the president’s schedule called for two
more fund-raisers in Portland, Me.
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