Obama, in Pa., prods companies and banks

SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. - President Obama yesterday gave a Lehigh Valley audience "some modestly encouraging news" on jobs as he prodded companies to return to the business of hiring, and banks to their "responsibility" of lending money again.

Buoyed by a slight drop in unemployment numbers, and promising to lay out details of job-creation proposals Tuesday, an upbeat Obama traversed a microcosm of the nation's struggling economy, from this tiny farming hamlet to an Allentown struggling to maintain its industrial roots amid urban decay.

At Lehigh Carbon Community College, an audience of students, teachers, and other invitees cheered as the president touted hallmarks of his recovery strategy, targeting infrastructure, clean technology, and small businesses.

To that end, the Associated Press reported yesterday that Obama wants to expand cash incentives to homeowners who improve their homes with energy-saving materials and to create incentives for small businesses that hire new workers.

The Lehigh Valley had a 9.8 percent unemployment rate in October, but Obama was able to deliver the morning's good tidings - the national jobless rate in November fell from 10.2 percent in October to 10 percent. The country lost 11,000 jobs instead of the predicted 115,000, and far fewer than the 597,000 jobs shed in November 2008. While still cautious, Obama called it "the best jobs report that we've seen since 2007."

"We've still got a long way to go - I consider one job lost one job too many," Obama told an audience that included local business leaders, along with Gov. Rendell and other Democratic officeholders. "Good trends don't pay the rent."

Departing from his prepared text, the president said his own family had members who were looking for work. He did not elaborate. The CBS News blog "Political Hotsheet" last night quoted a White House official as saying, "I don't think they are close close" family members.

"Americans who've been desperately looking for work for months - some of them maybe for a year or longer - they can't wait. And we won't wait. We need to do everything we can, right now, to get our businesses hiring again so that our friends and our neighbors can go back to work," Obama said.

Appearing at ease in the friendly auditorium, the president nimbly handled four audience questions on a wide range of subjects, drawing peals of laughter when he addressed a second-year college student who asked if Obama had considered "legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs, and nonviolent crime in order to stimulate some of the economy."

"I appreciate the boldness of your question," said Obama, strolling the stage with microphone in hand. "That will not be my jobs strategy."

Leonard Martin, who identified himself as a Lehigh Carbon student and an Army veteran, told Obama he was having trouble reaching Veterans Affairs officials to take advantage of the G.I. Bill. He asked: Could the president "call them up?"

Obama replied, "You went straight to the top here, so . . . I suspect somebody will be calling you on your cell phone in about two seconds."

The president also sank his teeth into a question from a business owner about what he was doing to loosen credit markets for small business. Obama lamented: "Banks have swung in the opposite direction, and they're not giving any credit to some very credit-worthy businesses. They used to say yes to everything; now they're just saying no to everything.

"If there's a manufacturer in Pennsylvania, if there's a business in Ohio, that is making profits, that has a good idea, that has a customer base - give them a loan, on fair terms," Obama said, adding that "the government is willing to step into the breach in some circumstances to help."

Republicans yesterday portrayed the Lehigh Valley visit as a hollow exercise, an example of Obama's "public-relations presidency, in which he stages photo-ops to cover his failures," state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason told reporters in a conference call.

After the speech, Obama ate a cheeseburger at the Hamilton Family Restaurant in Allentown just after 1 p.m. He dined with local business owners and Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

Earlier in the day, he and his entourage strolled through Allentown Metal Works, in an industrial section where Mack trucks were once made.

He later joined a roomful of job-seekers at the Lehigh Valley Careerlink office in Allentown, where people polished their resumes in the computer lab.

There, Judy Hartzell of Salisbury Township asked Obama how he would bring back manufacturing jobs. Hartzell had been laid off from Tama Manufacturing Co. a local textile company Obama visited during his campaign.

The president told her that some jobs like hers may never come back. He said the country must focus on industries where it has a technological edge - "clean energy, infrastructure, increasing our exports."

Obama finished his Lehigh Valley day at the Nestlé Purina PetCare plant in Allentown, where he greeted about 180 workers with handshakes and "Happy Holidays."