Inside D.C.

The Midwest Magical Mystery Tour

This week we in your nation’s capital have experienced the following: A 5.8 earthquake, the biggest in 114 years, they tell us; a 4.8 aftershock – but that occurred while folks were asleep, and a Category 2 hurricane by the name of Irene. There are those among us who believe we are not that far from plagues of frogs, locusts and boils – and there are no doubt many among you who are probably thinking, “serves ‘em right.”

The behavior of DC “permanent” residents in the face of Mother Nature’s “challenges” – it is, after all the dog days of August, Congress is on recess, the President and the First Family are at a 28-acre vacation retreat in Martha’s Vineyard, and the rest of the cabinet is out pronouncing the rural economy a White House priority – gives lie to the widely held notion this city is home to the “best and the brightest.” When the earthquake struck, people went outside; anyone who’s lived in California will tell you outside is the last place you want to be because stuff has a tendency to fall on you when you’re outside in an earthquake; when word went out that Hurricane Irene was a’comin,’ DCers refused to give up their Atlantic beach rentals, clogged the highways, and headed into the storm – after buying their batteries, bread, milk and toilet paper for the two-day siege. Same kind of neurosis sets in when they forecast snow here, and don’t even get me started on why Washingtonians can’t drive in the rain.

Perhaps it’s this kind of contrarian thinking that explains the President’s recent bus tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to hold his “listening sessions,” his Rural Council meeting, and to hang with the “real folks” of the Midwest. The tour was an official Administration function, complete with Secretary of Ag Tom Vilsack in tow, so no snarky comments about presidential campaigning and such.

Why does the White House believe that by touting biofuels – not the average livestock/poultry farmer’s favorite topic because all “biofuels” translate into “corn-based ethanol” in a livestock farmer’s mind – and broadband internet access and off-farm jobs, that it will win the hearts and minds of rural folks who didn’t vote for President Obama in 2008, and likely haven’t been convinced by the shock and awe of a big black bus – and the requisite monster black Secret Service SUV’s – rumbling down 35W to change that political thinking? (Oh, and Mr. White House advance guy, let’s think “carbon footprint” next time we put vehicles which collectively average about 3-5 miles per gallon on the road while we’re talking U.S. energy independence by putting a biomass refinery on every farm.)

There was nary a word said about production agriculture unless someone asked specifically about food production, and then the answers were verbal back-patting. This is odd given the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is about to swing one big old axe into traditional farm programs and ag spending, and there has to be someone out there in the hinterlands who wants to know what the Administration thinks about that. The President did meet with rural leaders, did take credit for record ag exports and the 800,000 jobs “all across America” created therefrom, did say he wanted to pump more money into “small farms” as opposed to “mega-farms” – his words, not mine – and he said many, many, many things about finding some kind, any kind of feedstock for biofuels that doesn’t currently enjoy major ingredient status in the food chain.

I can vividly remember in the 2008 campaign, you had to look hard and long for any word about farming and ranching in any Obama speech, brochure, pamphlet or campaign worker. So, the President’s magical mystery tour through the “fly-over” states is either a change of heart or recognition that you can’t ignore the heartland of America and hope to get another four years added onto your current contract. I’m disappointed the tour revealed this Administration is no more in tune with rural America than I am with the royal family of Thailand.

President Obama took the bus tour opportunity to publicly announce his plan to reveal in September when Congress returns his plan for cutting $1.2-1.5 trillion out of the federal budget over the next decade. So it was high drama — or classic midwest humor — that when he made that pronouncement, an elderly woman – a Minnesotan as I recall – called him out. “Where was the plan a month ago?” she demanded, an obvious reference to the recent political kindergarten wars of deficit reduction; “What are you waiting for?” she asked.

The whys and wherefores of the bus tour remain a mystery, but the answer to the little old lady from Minnesota’s first question is pretty obvious; I’d like to know the answer to the second question.