MANCHESTER, N.H. — President Barack Obama dashed into politically important New Hampshire on Tuesday, seeking to steal the spotlight from Republican presidential candidates and challenging GOP lawmakers back in Washington to stand by their anti-tax pledges on one big measure.
He was greeted with a blunt message from Republican contender Mitt Romney, who bought campaign ads telling Obama, “Your policies have failed.”
In his first trip to New Hampshire in nearly two years, the president was confronted by a state that has shifted sharply to the right since his victory here in the 2008 election. The state’s crucial independent voters sided solidly with Republicans in the 2010 midterms, and recent polls suggest Obama would lose to Romney by 10 percentage points here if the election were held today.
Seeking to boost his appeal with independents in this low-tax state, Obama urged Congress to extend a Social Security payroll-tax cut due to expire next month. In effect, he dared Republicans — many of whom have signed anti-tax pledges — to vote against an extension, a move the White House says would lead to a $1,000 tax hike on a family making $50,000 a year.
Much of Obama’s stop in Manchester was about trying to gain a foothold for his economic message in New Hampshire to balance the anti-Obama rhetoric from the Republican candidates swarming the state ahead of the Jan. 10 presidential primary.
Obama came face to face with the frustration of some New Hampshire voters, who are fed up with a local economy that is struggling to grow and increasingly unhappy with the president’s leadership.
A group of protesters outside Manchester Central High School carried signs that read “Obama Isn’t Working.” And the president’s speech was interrupted by a handful of people venting the frustrations of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread across to a number of cities.
Even some Obama backers have sensed a shift in the state.
Naomi Preble, 62, backed Obama in 2008, and the independent voter plans to vote for him again. But she said young people in New Hampshire have soured on the president. “I think they’re worried,” she said. “They don’t see the strong leader they thought they elected.”
Obama never mentioned his GOP challengers by name during his 2½-hour stop in New Hampshire, making only a veiled reference to their constant presence in this swing state.
“The next time you hear one of these folks from the other side coming and talking about raising your taxes, you just remind them that ever since I’ve gotten into office, I’ve lowered your taxes, haven’t raised them,” he said.
While the White House insisted the president’s stop was not about politics, the trip had a campaign feel, from the packed high school gymnasium where Obama spoke to the local restaurant where he dropped by to have lunch with a New Hampshire family.
