Obama consoles Isaac victims on eve of DNC

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

President Barack Obama consoled victims of Hurricane Isaac along the Gulf Coast on Monday and stoked the enthusiasm of union voters in the industrial heartland, blending a hard political sell with a softer show of sympathy on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

At times like these, “nobody’s a Democrat or a Republican, we’re all just Americans looking out for one another,” the president said after inspecting damage inflicted by the storm and hugging some of its victims. He was flanked by local and state officials of both parties as he spoke.

There was nothing nonpartisan about his earlier appearance in Toledo, Ohio. There, the president said Republican challenger Mitt Romney should be penalized for “unnecessary roughness” on the middle class and accused him in a ringing Labor Day speech of backing higher taxes for millions after opposing the 2009 auto industry bailout.

Unlike Obama, Romney made no mention of federal aid in his own trip to Louisiana last Friday showing concern and support.

First lady Michelle Obama was already in the Democratic convention city as her husband spent his day blending the work of president and candidate.

He doesn’t arrive in North Carolina until later in the week, after concluding a slow circuit of campaign stops in battleground states and the trip to Louisiana.

In LaPlace, Obama went from yard to yard, shaking hands, embracing residents, sometimes posing for photos they snapped. “I know it’s a mess,” he said of the damage, “but we’re here to help.”

A few hundred miles away in Charlotte, the conversion of the Time Warner Cable Arena into a political convention hall was nearly complete. Democrats convene there today.

Nearby, union members staged a Labor Day march through downtown. Though supporting Obama, they also expressed frustration that he and the Democrats chose to hold their convention in a state that bans collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees.