—By Bay City News Service
President Barack Obama has arrived in the Bay Area for a visit that will include a pair of Democratic Party fundraisers tonight and a talk at the Fairmont hotel in San Jose on Friday morning.
Air Force One touched down at Moffett Field in Mountain View at 5:41 p.m., about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Obama jogged down the steps from the plane at 5:56 p.m. wearing a black suit and a blue tie.
He greeted about 50 people invited to the landing, including Sunnyvale Mayor Tony Spitaleri, Ames Research director Peter Worden, California National Guard Col. Steven Butow and Mountain View Mayor John Inks.
After shaking Obama's hand, Inks said, "He told me how much he likes Mountain View. He says when his term is over he's going to be enjoying California more."
"He looks very, very good for having a tough job. His face is bright. That is a job that wears on you," Inks said.
After shaking the hands of some of the guests, the president quickly got into black limousine with presidential flags and his motorcade drove on with vans full of reporters and several California Highway Patrol cars following.
Obama is heading to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraisers at the home of tech entrepreneurs Mike and Marci McCue in Palo Alto and the Portola Valley home of Neeru and Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems.
He will spend the night in San Jose and will speak at the Fairmont on Friday morning about the Affordable Care Act and its benefits for Californians before departing from Moffett Field later in the day.
While he is in town, protesters plan to let him know how they feel about issues such as the Keystone XL, a proposed pipeline that would carry oil from tar sands in Canada to the Gulf Coast. The project has been harshly criticized by environmentalists.
"We want to show him we're passionate about this issue and remind him what he campaigned on," said Fay Chazin-Seidelman, who is planning to participate in a protest this evening at University Avenue and Middlefield Road, near the site of Obama's first fundraiser in Palo Alto.
The protest is being organized in part by the environmental group CREDO, which held similar demonstrations during the president's last visit to the Bay Area in April.
"He speaks to wanting to reduce global warming and climate change and he's very big on alternative energy sources, so it would be kind of hypocritical for him to in any way consider supporting the Keystone pipeline," Chazin-Seidelman said.
Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Replication or retransmission without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
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