Knox in the News

From: Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO)

President Barack Obama worked Wednesday to focus attention – again – on the growing income disparity between rich and poor that he says is a top problem for the country but which persists five years into his presidency… He focused on the issue during a commencement address at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. before he was president and a speech in Osawatomie, Kan., in late 2011. In August, he honored the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington by calling for economic equality – what he called a crucial step to long sought after racial equality… Read more at Kansas City Star…

From: NBC TV 5 (Chicago, IL)

There’s another, more obscure, county that also serves as a bellwether for Illinois. That’s little Knox County, pop. 52,000, in northwestern Illinois. In every election since 1964, [Knox County] has voted for the candidate who won the state’s electoral votes… Knox County has another presidential distinction: it’s the home of Knox College, in Galesburg, where both Barack Obama (then a senator) and Bill Clinton have delivered commencement speeches.

Unlike many Downstate counties, Knox County voted for Clinton and Obama in both their elections, but it also voted for Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry — who [lost the Presidency, while they] won Illinois… Read more at NBC TV 5… Read more about Barack Obama at Knox, and other US presidents at Knox…

International media reported on the visit to Knox College by President Barack Obama. Coverage has included:

From: China Daily (Beijing, China)

The United States and China - the world’s two largest economies - are both facing a tough fight on their own home fronts: ever widening income gaps between the haves and the have-nots. In his speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, President Barack Obama said incomes of the top 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans nearly quadrupled from 1979-2007, but the typical family’s income barely budged. Obama recalled his speech at the college in 2005 as a young senator from Illinois, when he talked about the trend of a winner-take-all economy, where a few do better and better and better, while everybody else just treads water… Read more at China Daily…

From: Business Standard (New Delhi, India)

In an interview with New York Times, [President] Obama commented on one of his most anticipated decisions - to find a replacement to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term expires on January 31… On Tuesday, Obama had said the US has fought its way back after suffering one of the worst economic recessions in years and asserted that fixing economy would be the “highest priority” of his second term. “Five years after the start of that Great Recession, America has fought its way back. We fought our way back,” he said in a speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he had delivered his first major economic speech on the national stage in 2005… Read more at Business Standard…

From: The Korea Herald (Seoul, Korea)

President Barack Obama is imploring Americans to join him in breaking free from what he sees as the partisan shackles holding back a robust economic recovery… In three campaign-style appearances in two days last week, with more promised in the weeks ahead, the president blamed political opponents for trapping the American middle class in a perpetual downward spiral. In his economic speech [July 24] at Knox College in Illinois, Obama spoke about “growing inequality” and promised to outline proposals later this summer aimed at adapting the US economy to an increasingly competitive and interconnected world… Read more at The Korea Herald…

From: BBC (London, UK)

Reversing US economic inequality should be Washington’s top priority, President Barack Obama has said, as an autumn budget battle with Congress looms… On [July 24], Mr Obama returned to Knox College, where in 2005 he gave one of his first addresses as a newly elected US senator, discussing the economic forces that had depressed the US middle class… Read more at BBC…

From: Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA)

President Obama tried to steer the nation’s attention back to his stewardship of an improving economy with a high-profile speech that took credit for a comeback but warned against persistent “inequality of opportunity” and fights over the federal budget that could undo progress…

Obama tried to keep his speech in Galesburg out of the political fray, aiming for the sweeping rhetoric he prefers to appeal to his liberal political base. The White House tried to distinguish the speech from other similar and failed attempts to refocus on the economy by staging it at Knox College, where Obama delivered his first major economic address as a new senator. The 2005 commencement address laid out themes and phrases Obama speechwriters recycled repeatedly, and the White House says the speech captures the first articulation of Obama’s economic views… Read more at Los Angeles Times…

From: The Wall Street Journal (New York, NY)

President Barack Obama on Wednesday repeated his call to make jobs and the economy Washington’s top priority, returning to a small liberal-arts college to argue for investments and initiatives aimed at building out the middle class… “Washington’s taken its eye off the ball,” the president said at Knox College. “I’m here to say, it needs to stop.”

Knox College was the site of Mr. Obama’s first major economic speech, delivered in 2005, in which he laid out the government’s role in bolstering the middle class. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama echoed the same theme, touting the economic growth of the last few years while arguing that the middle class hasn’t seen enough of the benefits. Read more at The Wall Street Journal…

From: Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama sought to inject momentum into his economic and domestic policy agenda on Wednesday with a speech designed to clarify his vision for his second term and hammer Republicans in the House of Representatives for getting in his way… Obama promised an “aggressive” strategy to overhaul education, lower costs and help students gain more relevant skills. That pledge drew sustained applause from supporters in a gymnasium at Knox College in Galesburg…. Read more at Reuters…