It’s official, President Obama is finally coming to Utah. He’s expected to fly into Hill Air Force Base where he will give a speech on the economy. Utah is only one of two states that Mr. Obama has not yet visited as president.
Ron Fox was an advance man for several Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. That means he helped plan presidential visits all over the world. He says it takes a small army to pull off even a short visit.
“Oh yeah, you’re going to see hundreds of members of the secret service fly in to Salt Lake over the next few days. But, candidly, Security is the number one factor and his movements are such that you have to get them from point A to point B and that’s a logistical nightmare.”
Governor Gary Herbert is expected to greet Obama on his arrival.
“I hope to take the opportunity to talk to him about issues that are near and dear to our hearts. Some of the health care issues that we’ve debated here in this past legislative session that I hope that we can maybe get some answers to on capping costs so we don’t have a program we buy today that we can’t afford tomorrow.”
Herbert says he’s also looking forward to discussing public lands and energy development issues with the president.
After Friday’s visit, South Dakota will be the only state Obama hasn’t been to as president.