Obama passes on meeting with ‘Occupy’ activists

President Obama has taken nearly every opportunity lately to express support for the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, but he failed to meet with some of the movement’s activists when he had the chance on his Southern bus trip.

A group of “Occupy” activists in Greensboro, N.C., asked for a meeting with the president, who stayed overnight Monday in a local hotel. But Mr. Obama didn’t bite.

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with the president that the White House communications staff had no contact with the “Occupy Greensboro” movement. Apparently, that left some of the activists frustrated.

“About 50 people protested as Obama’s motorcade made it’s way to theProximity Hotel,” Ben Lassiter, a member of Occupy Greensboro, wrote on the group’s Facebook page. “As he passed the chant was, ‘Hey Obama, I’m no fool, I know you’re a corporate tool.’”

Scores of protesters had set up camp in downtown Greensboro since Saturday, and about 600 people marched through the city Sunday protesting what they say are financial inequities. As Mr. Obama, who has been demanding that “millionaires and billionaires” pay higher taxes to help finance his jobs package, began a campaign-style bus swing through North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, some of the activists sought to form a delegation to meet with the president at his hotel and present him with a letter.

“Here we are, peaceably assembled, seeking to petition our government for redress of grievances,” their letter to Mr. Obama stated. “Desiring to expedite this process, we thought it best to start at the top.”

In his public appearances, Mr. Obama has expressed sympathy with the protesters and has laid the blame for the financial crisis of 2008 at the feet of Republicans. He said Monday in Asheville, N.C., that a GOP jobs plan shows that Republicans “want to let Wall Street do whatever it wants.”

Mr. Carney told reporters  that the president understands the grievances raised by the protesters and feels that his policies support their view that Wall Street needs tough regulation.

“The president has expressed an understanding of the frustration that the demonstrations manifest and represent,” Mr. Carney said. “There is frustration now, I believe, with the efforts by some to roll back the protections the president fought so hard to put into place through the Wall Street reform act that was passed and signed into law.”

After the activists’ hoped-for meeting with the president in Greensboro didn’t take place, some local TV personalities expressed the view that the protesters lacked organization and a unifying message.

“A lot of emotion here, but they seem to lack a plan,” News2 anchor Frank Mickens said on the air.

Added reporter Meghan Packer: “They haven’t necessarily agreed on the details of what to do. They can’t tell me much more what they’re doing beyond tomorrow.”

One member of the group, Maria Cichetti of Greensboro, posted on her Twitter account after the president’s visit: “Sad to leave the picket line, but have to go walk and feed the dog.”

As Mr. Obama was leaving town for the next stop, Bank of America reported Tuesday a third-quarter profit of $6.2 billion. The increase in profits came after the North Carolina-based bank, which received taxpayer money under the 2008 TARP bailout plan, angered customers by announcing it will charge a $5 monthly fee for debit-card purchases next year.

Posted in: movments