-By Warner Todd Huston
It’s always nice to have a visit by a sitting president, I suppose, but these days security concerns are so overwhelming that it is often very uncomfortable for those residents and businessmen that live nearby and with Obama’s visit to the Iowa state Fair one small businessman ended up losing $25,000 in income as a result.
Small businessman Mike Cunningham runs the Bud Beer tent at the state fair but saw the Secret Service shut him down for several hours at a peak sales time when the President came to town.
The Bud Beer tent is known as the center of the evening festivities at the state fair but as Obama visited the fair, the beer tent was shut down to accommodate the needs of the Secret Service sent there to protect the President. Mr. Cunningham is a third generation owner of the tent which has been a fair staple for 65 years.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley apparently spoke to the Bud tent operator after the President’s visit and Tweeted that he lost $50,000 in sales as a result. Grassely’s Tweet said: “How does PresO justify havin secret service shut down the bud tent @ the state fair nd the owner told me he loses 50,000 n 1 nite.”
However, Cunningham disputes that figure by about half.
Cunningham said that the more accurate figure for what he likely lost in sales Monday night is $25,000. He appreciated that fellow fair vendor Barksdale allowed him to set up a Bud beer station near the amphitheater stage and recoup some dollars from those Hairball fans [a rock band].
Mr. Cunningham admitted that he wasn’t a supporter of the President before and won’t change his mind this time out, either.
This story is one more small example of how Obama hurts small business in America.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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