Posing, Parsing, Politicking In a Presidential Season

The image of Gov. Susana Martinez embracing President Barack Obama with a warm handshake on the tarmac in Roswell on Wednesday came in sharp contrast to a recent photograph of another Republican governor appearing to use an airport meeting to shake her finger at the president.

The image of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wagging her finger at Obama – she said it was about her book – was criticized for showing disrespect, but some supporters praised Brewer for standing up to a president with whom they disagree.

Martinez said she set out to strike a more cordial tone when Obama came to New Mexico on Wednesday, thanking the president for the administration’s assistance to her to create broad changes in the state’s public school system.

“Regardless of political differences, Gov. Martinez believes the president of the United States deserves respect and was glad to have the opportunity to welcome him to New Mexico,” Martinez spokesman Greg Blair said in an email.

Martinez had to make a special request with the White House to greet Obama at the Roswell airport and talk to him briefly about education policy, Blair said.

Word for word: A Republican advocacy group is looking to get the last word on the heels of Obama visiting New Mexico to tout record-high fossil fuel production in the U.S.

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a political group affiliated with Republican strategist Karl Rove, responded to the visit with a TV commercial attacking the president as the culprit for gasoline prices “we can’t afford.”

Crossroads GPS spent $650,000 to air the commercial in Albuquerque and other TV markets where Obama visited this week to tout his energy policies.

But the nonpartisan consumer advocacy website Factcheck.org called several of the Crossroads GPS claims “false and exaggerated.”

Obama, during his quick stop in southeastern New Mexico’s oil fields, affirmed his support for U.S. drilling and praised the nation’s declining reliance on foreign oil imports during his administration.

But “even if we’re drilling nonstop” in the U.S., Obama said, high gas prices will continue to be set by volatile world markets unless the nation also expands alternative energy development.

Adding on: An Albuquerque woman is the focus of a new Obama campaign video promoting the president’s health care law, The Associated Press reported.

The 2 1/2-minute spot features Judy Smith, who talks about how the Affordable Health Care Act saved her life by ensuring she could get free mammograms. She said her ability to get the free tests enabled her to catch her breast cancer early.

The video, which is being promoted on the campaign’s national and state-level social media sites, shows Judy at her home and walking in Albuquerque’s foothills.

The Albuquerque Tea Party on Friday demonstrated in front of the federal courthouse, contending Obama’s health care changes – the subject of U.S. Supreme Court arguments starting Monday – are unconstitutional.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal