He bought a day pass to Netroots Nation and stopped by in an effort to rustle up votes.
Small-time politicians aspire to be warlords, using hired muscle to deter rivals and rustle up votes.
Still, the shifting environment threatens to make it harder for Mr. Obama to rustle up votes from nervous Democrats who, unlike Mr. Obama, have to run for re-election next year.
The most powerful Democrat in the United States Senate had come to the prairie town of Howard, population 1,156, to rustle up votes.
"Why would you do this?" Susan Ferreri, a small-business owner, asked Mr. Goode recently when he dropped by an Italian restaurant in this Richmond suburb to hand out leaflets and rustle up votes.
To do so, though, would require President Obama to rustle up votes with a passion that he has failed to exhibit up to now, and, more importantly, it would require at least seven Republican senators to put the national interest above party and politics.
So rustling up the votes is likely to be challenging — especially for Republicans.
It's the day before the Florida primary, and while the Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are zigzagging around the state trying to rally support and rustle last minute votes, Roemer and Johnson are here to speak to a slightly smaller audience: the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union, in town for their annual conference.
Armed rebellions and inter-ethnic violence - fuelled by alleged political marginalization, vote rigging, cattle rustling and land disputes - is widespread across the new nation.
Obama really wants a "robust" public option, does anyone doubt that firm calls from the President or Rahm Emanuel couldn't rustle up 18 more Democratic votes?
