LARGO, Md. – Officially, President Barack Obama’s speech here at Prince George’s Community College on Thursday was billed as an effort to underscore how the college is partnering with local businesses to prepare people for the workforce.
Obama did that for several minutes by giving a shout-out to TeamBuilders Academy – a campus-based program that, among other things, got a half-dozen or so area residents into subsidized, $10-an-hour internships doing home weatherization work for an area construction firm that lasted six weeks.
But right after Obama proclaimed that he was “proud” and “very impressed” with TeamBuilders Academy’s partnership with Sustainable Star – a renewable energy and construction firm with offices in Maryland and Virginia – he launched into a political speech in which he extolled his administration’s energy policies as progressive and derided rivals who are currently vying to unseat him in November.
Much of the president’s speech focused on the economic pain that Americans are feeling at the gas pump—something that Gallup recently said is likely to influence his job approval rating in the coming months—and how alternative energy sources are vital to changing that reality.
The president urged a mostly, if not, an entirely enthusiastic crowd of students here not to believe the hype that other wannabe presidents are pushing as gas prices rise.
“Every time prices start to go up, especially in an election year, politicians dust off their three-point plans for $2 gas,” Obama said. “I guess this year we’re going to make it $2.50,” he said, evoking laughter in a thinly-veiled attack on GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich’s $2.50 gas plan.
“We know better. You know better. There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to high gas prices,” Obama said. “There’s no silver bullet, and anybody who tells you otherwise isn’t really looking for a solution. They’re trying to ride the political wave of the moment.”
