President Obama traveled to Nebraska after his State of the Union speech, where he spoke to an enthusiastic group of supporters – some even wanted him to serve as president for a third term.
“Four more years!” shouted a person in the audience. Another person in the audience shouted that “Keeping you as President!” would help keep America safe and strong.
“Oh, well, I can’t do that,” Obama said. “I can’t do that because of the Constitution. And I can’t do that because Michelle would kill me.”
Obama gave a speech at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, referring them to his State of the Union speech in which he declared that it was “strong.” But he also explained why things “are not terrible.”
“Our starting point has to be things are not terrible if your unemployment rate is at five,” he said, highlighting the latest unemployment numbers. He boasted that the unemployment rate in Omaha was below 3 percent.
Obama recalled that he spent his first State of the Union trying to convince Americans that everything would get better, including the economy.
“I had to tell folks that it was going to be okay,” he said. “That’s how fragile things were.”
Obama complained about the political season where opposing candidates were running negative ads highlighting the negative aspects of the economy.
“I like talking about hope and all the good stuff that was going on, and then you look at some of these ads and it’s some doom and some gloom,” he said.
He criticized Republicans for thinking they could solve problems “just by looking meaner and talking tougher”
“That’s just hot air. It’s bluster. It’s not serious,” he said. “There’s another word for it that starts with a “B” — it’s baloney.”