Obama fan is now frank-ly fed up
Tells him failures mean 'hot dogs & beans' for family
By S.A. MILLER and GEOFF EARLE, Post Correspondents
Last Updated: 9:21 AM, September 21, 2010
WASHINGTON -- A "deeply disappointed" supporter put President Obama on the grill yesterday at a town-hall meeting, telling him that he hasn't lived up to hopes, that she's grown exhausted defending him and that she is fearful about returning to the "hot dogs-and-beans era" of her life because he's not helping the financially strapped middle class.
"I've been told that I voted for a man who said he's going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I'm one of those people, and I'm waiting, sir," Velma Hart told Obama.
"I'm waiting. I don't feel it yet," the mom and Army Reserve veteran continued.
"And I thought, while it wouldn't be in a great measure, I would feel it in some small measure."
Hart, the chief financial officer for the veterans group AMVETS, was among the roomful of businesspeople pressing Obama for answers at a televised town hall in Washington sponsored by CNBC.
Hart lives with her husband, Karlton, who works as a facilities administrator at DC's Verizon Center, and their two teenage daughters in suburban Maryland. Yesterday she said she feels their middle-class lifestyle slipping away.
"I'm also a mother. I'm a wife. I'm an American veteran, and I'm one of your middle-class Americans. And, quite frankly, I'm exhausted," she said.
"I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now."
"I have two children in private school. The financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family," Hart said.
"My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs-and-beans era of our lives. But, quite frankly, it is starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we are headed again."
Hart concluded, "Quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly: Is this my new reality?"
Obama responded: "As I said before, times are tough for everybody. So, I understand your frustration."
He insisted that the policies he has already implemented, including more college scholarships and consumer protections against credit-card and mortgage companies, will help the Hart family.
Obama said Hart represented the "bedrock of America."
"The life you describe -- one of responsibility, looking after your family, contributing back to your community -- that's what we want to reward," Obama said.
Last night, Hart told The Post that she was not completely satisfied with Obama's answer.
She complained that he didn't say whether these tough times are a "new reality" or just temporary.
"He didn't answer that," she said. "That was the heart of my question. Like most Americans, fear is starting to take hold, anxiety is taking hold.
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