Obama tries to connect with Iowa voters

Davenport, Iowa — President Barack Obama is venturing from Iowa into politically familiar territory, taking his bus motorcade into his home state of Illinois as he wraps up a three-state tour through the cornfields, towns and cities of the Midwest.


The president will hold two town hall meetings Wednesday in western Illinois, the state he once served as senator. He'll then return to Washington for the start of a vacation.


The tour — covering Minnesota and Iowa as well as Illinois — has given Obama a chance to command attention just after Republican presidential candidates dominated the news with a debate and straw poll in Iowa.


Obama made an unscheduled stop in Guttenberg to have breakfast with small-business owners at Rausch’s Cafe. He greeted patrons, who were clearly surprised to see him.


One of them, Jim Pape, a retired plant manager, said he didn’t think much of Washington.


“They ought to plow it under and plant corn,” he said, capturing a sense of the frustration Obama is picking up out on the road.


Obama slammed the Republican presidential field, recalling a moment in last week’s GOP presidential debate when all eight of the candidates said they would refuse to support a budget deal with tax increases, even if tax revenues were outweighed 10-to-1 by spending cuts.