Obama To Visit Jersey Shore To View Ongoing Recovery Efforts From Sandy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- President Barack Obama has a chance to score a three-point play with a post-Hurricane Sandy tour of the New Jersey coast line that offers a break from the recent controversies that have dogged the White House.
New Jersey's Republican Gov. Chris Christie at his side to witness the coastal recovery, Obama on Tuesday will seek to reinforce a message of effective government, bipartisanship and economic opportunity.
A White House advisory said Obama would view the ongoing recovery efforts from Sandy and talk about "expanding economic opportunity for families hit by the storm."
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Both men will reprise the bipartisan tableau from Sandy's aftermath last October when Obama traveled to New Jersey before the election to examine the wreckage.
Obama To Visit Jersey Shore To View Ongoing Recovery Efforts From Sandy
Hundreds of people lined up on Memorial Day to get tickets for President Obama's speech at the Asbury Park convention center.
"It's a very energized atmosphere," Mayor Ed Johnson told WCBS 880's Monica Miller. "That the Jersey Shore, while we certainly took a blow, that we are standing, that we are recovering."
Mayor Johnson said he's happy with the local, state and federal response to the storm but added they're still trying to get some businesses up and running and some residents back in their homes.
"We're not talking about second vacation homes of rich people. We're talking about everyday families that are just trying to get into their house," Johnson told Miller.
Nearly seven months after the superstorm, many Jersey Shore business have reopened and boardwalks and beaches are also back.
The visit occurs as Congress is away for the week, a vacuum that has quieted attention to upheavals over the Internal Revenue Service, the attack on Benghazi, Libya, and a leak investigation that has swept up journalist's phone records.
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