Opinion: Obama risks egg-throwing in trip to Texas A&M

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Texas is not Obama country. In fact Barack Obama lost the Lone Star State to Republican John McCain by a not-even-close 55-43 margin.

But today the president makes his first trip to Texas since winning the White House, accepting the invitation of former President George H.W. Bush -- otherwise known as Bush 41 -- to join him at Texas A&M University to celebrate volunteerism.

And conservatives on the Aggie campus are planning to protest, a wide-ranging complaint about everything from Obama’s healthcare plan to his recently announced Nobel Peace Prize. As one put it on meetup, ‘The opportunity to make sure Obama gets a very clear TEXAS-SIZED MESSAGE to stop the liberal assault on our country cannot be passed up.’

Worried the protests might get out of hand, Bush 41 wrote an open letter to ‘the A&M Family,’ on Wednesday that began with “Howdy” and concluded, “I cannot wait for Obama to experience the open, decent and welcoming Aggie spirit for himself. This will be an important national moment, and a moment for Texas A&M to shine in the national spotlight as it always does. I hope and believe it will serve as a point of Aggie pride for many years to come.”

Does the first Bush have cause for worry? Well, you be the judge. Last fall the school’s Young Conservatives held an anti-Obama event on campus, encouraging students to throw eggs at a picture of the presidential candidate and participate in a ‘socialist on a stick’ Obama ring-toss.

-- Johanna Neuman

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