GOP leaders criticize Obama in advance of visit

Republican leaders got out front of President Barack Obama's visit to the Quad-Cities Tuesday by saying Iowa isn't the same place the president won in 2008, predicting his defeat next year and blaming him for the country's economic woes.

“This election will come down to the president's clear failure on the economy, and he will lose because of that,” said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Priebus called the 2010 election results a rejection of the president and the Democratic Party. And he and Matt Strawn, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said the political ground has shifted in the state since 2008.

Strawn noted that 65,000 fewer Iowans are registered as Democrats this month than when the president took office. And Scott County, where the president will visit today, is the “epitome” of that shift, Strawn said. He noted that Gov. Terry Branstad won the county last November and so did Republicans on the local ballot.

Scott County Democrats still hold a nearly 6,000-person registration edge, however.

The president will give a speech at the Alcoa Davenport Works plant in Riverdale, part of an effort to highlight manufacturing as a key part of the nation's recovery and the president's policies toward it.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky defended Obama's handling of the economy in a statement released after the GOP conference call.

“The facts are clear, President Obama's leadership has led to 15 consecutive months of job growth, and he has signed serious financial reform to prevent the irresponsible practices that led our country into a recession,” she said. “There couldn't be a clearer contrast between the economy today and the economy that President Obama inherited, where 700,000 jobs were being lost each month and there was no path to recovery in place.

“Iowans from all walks of life realize this and are standing in support of President Obama and his vision for our future.

“In addition to the continued Democratic registration advantage, registered Independents, who make up the largest portion of voters in the state, will reject ideas like ending Medicare as we know it and returning us to the failed financial policies of the past, as the current field of Republican presidential candidates has proposed.”