1. Presidential visit draws activists of every stripe
January 14, 2015 5:45 pm • By Mike Anderson
CEDAR FALLS | For awhile it looked like Eric Jensen was going to be the only Obama supporter
to show.
There in the cold, across the street from Cedar Falls Utilities, where President Barack Obama was
scheduled to speak any minute, Jensen scoffed at the hecklers, a group of sign-carrying
conservative protesters a few paces away.
They outnumbered him at least 10 to one.
"Look at them, those idiots," Jensen growled beneath his scarf as he smiled and waved.
He didn't know it at the time, but Jensen would soon be joined by a dozen or so fellow Obama
supporters, all waiting for the president's motorcade to come rolling in off the highway and down
Waterloo Road. But for now he was alone. Grumbling to himself, he hefted his sign and
approached the group.
Speaking to Al Clark, a 10-year Army veteran carrying an American flag and a neon sign reading
"Repeal Obamacare," Jensen complained about how the police wouldn't let him any closer to CFU.
"Now, we may have differences of belief," Jensen said to Clark, "but that's a public right of way."
Clark nodded his agreement with a grin. Both shrugged, and Jensen went back to his spot, away
from Clark and Judd Saul of the Cedar Valley Patriots for Christ, the group that organized the
protest.
Saul shook his head as Jensen walked away.

2. "He's lacking in intelligence," Saul muttered.
So was delineated the divide between the two groups, a polite dance of political correctness
peppered with the occasional knife in the back muttered under one's breath. But for a single flare-
up when some bad names were shouted, resulting in a nose-to-nose face-off, the political activism
on both sides was kept at a peaceful but impassioned level.
"I'm not afraid to talk," Clark said as passing motorists honked in support. "That's the problem
with America these days. Everyone's scared to speak up."
This immediately after Jensen's latest foray, when Clark shooed him off with a wave of his hand.
"I thought I saw some sheep pellets drop," Clark laughed as Jensen departed once more for his
spot up the block.
By then Jensen had been joined by others, including Breanna Schlichtmann and Paige Depenning,
who stood shivering in the cold.
"It's worth it to see the president," Schlichtmann said with a smile.
Depenning was pleased to see the president touting the importance of high-speed Internet in
relatively rural areas like Cedar Falls, or the town of Baxter, where she's from.
"It's exciting to see him try to make life better for people like us," Depenning said.
Each side of the political divide had its share to say about the issues of the day, all about what
you'd expect.
"Everyone has their reason," Saul said. "There’s a laundry list of failures of the Obama
presidency."
Conservatives like Saul are for the XL Keystone pipeline, while the liberals like Jensen are against

3. it. The conservatives think Obama needs to be tougher on illegal immigrants, while the liberals
gleefully pointed out everyone in America is descended from immigrants.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still lurk on the fringes of the debate, as do the bailouts of the
Bush and early Obama years. Tax reform, the Koch Brothers, Warren Buffet, gas prices, health
care, the lifting of sanctions against Cuba, the terrorist shootings in Paris, all of it got thrown into
the mix, exhaled from one mouth or another in a puff of so much steam.
One thing each side seemed to agree on: The internet -- which Obama was in Cedar Falls to talk
about -- is a good thing. That's about it.
"I think Joni Ernst should run for president," said protester Larry Wyckoff after calling Obama a
dictator. "I’ll say that categorically. Joni could run and beat Hillary hands down."
"They sound just like each other," said Kate Duffy about the liberal and conservative
demonstrators. Duffy identifies as a political moderate: more liberal on social issues but more
conservative when it comes to foreign policy.
"Maybe I should go stand between them," she said. "Everyone has a right to their opinion, as long
as people do it appropriately and nonviolently."
The minutes ticked by and still Obama hadn't arrived. The members of Saul's group gazed across
the street, looking for snipers on the roof of CFU.
"I wonder if you'd get in trouble for throwing snowballs at (Obama's) limo," Saul said.
A few minutes before the president of the United States arrived in a parade of wheeling emergency
lights, a boy in the crowd asked his mother why people were protesting.
"They have opinions," the mother explained. "That's what we do in America. We have opinions.

4. It's just unfortunate when people are wrong."
A collective shout arose from the demonstrators when the motorcade finally came into view.
Standing between the two groups, it was hard to say whether they were cheering or booing.