Audio By Carbonatix
President Barack Obama came to Denver yesterday to raise funds for incumbent (by a year) Senator Michael Bennet — but he probably lost him votes with a massive, rush-hour traffic jam that was messier than a Florida hanging-chads recount.
Obama landed at Buckley shortly before 3 p.m. and went straight to the Fillmore for a “Grassroots Rally.” That snarled traffic along Colfax and in Capitol Hill and Uptown — but the worst was yet to come, as he headed downtown for a bigger-ticket fundraiser at the Sheraton.
The hotel was only a dozen blocks away, but the tangles that resulted from barricades and blocked streets extended for miles. I was caught in a standstill at Speer and 13th Avenue for a good ten minutes, during which I heard the following exchange between a driver and a panhandler.
“What’s happening here?
“The President’s come to town.”
“This is worse than watching Congress try to pass a health-care bill.” The funny thing? That line came from the panhandler.
I gave him a buck.
