Obama addresses crowd, answers questions

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MICHAEL PISTELLA President Barack Obama speaks at the beginning of the town hall meeting he held at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers on Tuesday. More photos are available online at: cu.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com.

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The Rev. James Bing, of Friendship Baptist Church in Fort Myers, gives the opening prayer for President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers on Tuesday.

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Julio Osegueda, 19, reacts to President Barack Obama’s answer to his question during the town hall meeting at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers on Tuesday. Osegueda is a sophomore at Edison State College.

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A retired schoolteacher who was seated behind President Barack Obama asks a question during a town hall meeting at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers on Tuesday.

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A young girl holds an American flag during President Barack Obama’s speech at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers on Tuesday.

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Cape Coral City Councilmember Derrick Donnell listens to President Barack Obama’s speech during the president’s town hall meeting at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers on Tuesday.

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An audience of 1,500 people greeted President Barack Obama with a sea

of lofted cell phones and cameras as he entered the Harborside Event

Center in Fort Myers today, as people clamored to capture a piece

of Obama’s speech.

Obama delivered a 20-minute speech emphasizing the need for a more

than $800 billion economic stimulus package and how it will affect

Southwest Florida residents, before taking questions from the audience.

“We cannot afford to wait. I believe in hope, but I also believe in

action,” Obama told the crowd.

“We can’t afford to posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place,” he added, prodding recalcitrant Republicans to support the stimulus package.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist also embraced the bipartisan spirit

advocated by Obama, and stressed how the stimulus could help Florida

balance its budget and jump start infrastructure projects.

“We need to do this (pass the stimulus package) in a bipartisan way.

Helping the country should be about helping the country, not partisan

politics,” Crist said before introducing Obama.

In a moment of serendipity, Obama announced to the crowd that the

Senate passed its $838 billion version of the stimulus plan. The

news was met with raucous applause and chants of, “Yes we can!”

The vote came down 61-37, largely along partisan lines.