Though President Obama declined Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s request to stop in Louisa, the site of a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, during his three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia to promote his jobs package, it would appear any potential lingering hard feelings have been quashed: Mr. McDonnell will attend the president’s event at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton on Wednesday.
“The Governor welcomes the President to Virginia; The Commonwealth is always honored to host the Commander-in-Chief,” McDonnell spokesman J. Tucker Martin said in an email. “The White House has said Wednesday’s event will focus on ‘the importance of hiring American veterans.’ The Governor looks forward to it. As a veteran, and as the son and father of veterans, he is always interested in new ideas about how to get more of our veterans back to work in this tough economy. The Governor has set a goal of making Virginia ‘The Most Veteran Friendly State in America’ and he is interested in hearing the President’s thoughts on this important issue.”
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First Lady Maureen McDonnell, who has made supporting military families a chief focus, will also attend. Mr. McDonnell, a Republican, served 21 years in the Army, retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 1997, and his oldest daughter Jeanine also served in the Army, including a tour in Baghdad in 2005-2006.
At a stop in Asheville, N.C., Monday Mr. Obama called on the Senate to pass a part of his jobs bill that would spend $35 billion more for teachers and first responders, and later stopped for lunch at Countryside Barbecue in Marion.
He is scheduled to travel to Jamestown, N.C., and Emporia, Va., on Tuesday. After the stop at Langley-Eustis on Wednesday, he’s scheduled to visit a fire station in North Chesterfield.
