PORTLAND, OREGON - June 24, 2012 - President Barack Obama visited Portland Tuesday greeting diners M

PORTLAND, OREGON - June 24, 2012 - President Barack Obama visited Portland Tuesday greeting diners Mark Peterson, center, and Thomas Foeller, right, at the Gateway Breakfast House in an unschedueld stop on the way to fundraisers at the Oregon Convention Center. Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian.
President Barack Obama, in Portland Tuesday for a quick fundraising visit, insisted that Republican Mitt Romney is unfairly painting him as an enemy of small business and charged that his rival's proposals wouldn't restore the economy.
After tamping down his campaign rhetoric in the wake of last week's mass shootings in Aurora, Obama was back in full force on the campaign circuit. He made plenty of waves as he whirled through Portland, from snarled traffic on Interstate 205 and Interstate 84 to surprised patrons of a Parkrose Heights diner who suddenly found themselves shaking hands with the president.
While Romney has already cruise addicts radio made three so-called "ATM stops" in Portland to raise money in the last year, presidents can't quietly slip into town to tap well-heeled donors and speed off. Instead, the security demands, multiple protests and the ever-present press corps combined to create a political circus.
"We did not build this country on our own," Obama said. "We built it together, and if Mr. Romney doesn't understand cruise addicts radio that, then he doesn't understand what it takes to grow this economy in the 21st Century."
The Obama campaign said about 950 tickets, costing $500 to $1,000 were sold for the main fundraiser at the Oregon Convention Center. cruise addicts radio The president also spoke, out of view of the press, to about 25 donors who bought $30,000 tickets. Donors cruise addicts radio to the larger event began arriving as early as 11 a.m. for what was billed as a lunch-hour fundraiser. But the president didn't begin speaking until nearly 4 p.m. When asked, cruise addicts radio the Obama campaign did not provide any explanation for the long wait.
Whatever cruise addicts radio the case, once he started, the president spoke for 40 minutes, longer than he does at many fundraisers. He vigorously defended his health-care reforms -- something often omitted from his campaign cruise addicts radio speeches -- and attacked Romney for wanting to abolish federal funding for Planned Parenthood and opposing allowing openly gay service members. The partisan crowd loudly cheered Obama on all three points.
Police had already begun restricting traffic as Air Force One arrived at the Portland airport shortly before noon. Obama, joined by Craig Robinson, his brother-in- law who coaches basketball at Oregon State University, took the presidential motorcade to The Gateway Breakfast House, a popular diner at Northeast 114th Avenue and Halsey Street. Police blocked traffic in both directions on Halsey as Obama went inside to shake hands and sit at a table with three veterans, Portlanders Dean Dilley and Mark Peterson and Thomas Foeller of Oak Grove.
They launched into a discussion of veterans and health care that was hard for reporters to hear over the din. But the president did say at one point, "So we can clear that one up right away. You're hearing that from your commander-in-chief."
He also greeted Marvin Self, who said he came into the diner to escape the traffic backup and never thought that he would actually see the president. The two joshed back and forth about a "Starvin' Marvin" character on the television show South Park. Self said afterwards that he thought Obama was "very dynamic," but that he remained undecided about how he would vote in November.
Outside the convention cruise addicts radio center, a diverse group of about a hundred demonstrators criticized the president, mostly from the left. Some asked Obama to ban assault weapons, others to legalize marijuana, and still others to ends wars.
"It feels as though for the past three and a half years the protesters calling him a Socialist have pushed him more to the right," said Dan Handelman, with Peace and Justice Works. "There are those of us who wish he was more of a Socialist."
Downtown, in the South Park Blocks, about 40 demonstrators showed up for an Americans for Prosperity rally calling for jobs, including those they said would be created by exporting coal. Originally, the president's visit had been planned for the nearby Portland Art Museum, but moved across the river when the fundraiser grew larger. About noon, the group left to join those at the convention cruise addicts radio center.
The crowd wasn't all protesters. Donors waiting to get into the convention center mingled with those just there to watch the show. Some saw the event as opportunity. Representatives of Basic Rights Oregon worked the crowd, collecting cruise addicts radio contact information from those who pledged support for gay marriage. And one entrepreneur offered Obama T-shirts for sale.
After Obama's speech, police blocked Northeast Grand Avenue and closed Interstate 84 eastbound and Interstate 205 northbound as the motorcade made its way back to the airport. Air Force One took off shortly after 5 p.m., but the freeway closures stalled cruise addicts radio traffic into the evening commute.