President Bush paid a brief visit to Cincinnati Monday afternoon to promote his handling of the economy and raise a nice chunk of money for Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine, who is facing a stiff challenge from Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown for his Senate seat this fall.
Bush “toured a Cincinnati factory that makes gas turbine engines for airplanes and spoke for two and a half minutes about his tax cuts,” reported the New York Times. “Then he zipped off to another private event, a dinner at the home of John F. Barrett, chairman of a financial services company, which raised $1 million for Ohio Republicans — $400,000 of it for Mr. DeWine.”
The Bush visit drew a smattering of national print coverage and heavy coverage from Cincinnati’s two newspapers, including a highly colorful story from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Its afternoon counterpart, the Cincinnati Post, meantime ran three Bush appearance-related pieces on Tuesday. One was a lengthy analysis of DeWine’s election prospects from its Washington bureau. One was a detail-oriented report on Bush’s visit (best line: “About 30 employees looked on during Bush’s speech — which was directed to the media — but could not hear it over the noise from the plant’s machinery”). And one, an unbylined piece entitled “Bush benefactor hails from a Cincinnati 1st family,” simply did not belong:
John F. Barrett, who played host to President George W. Bush Monday night, and the company he heads are as deeply ingrained in Cincinnati as the Reds and chili that’s served atop spaghetti.
Barrett is a Cincinnati native, 1971 graduate of the University of Cincinnati business school and the fifth member of an old-line Cincinnati family to run Western & Southern Financial Group, a company that traces its roots back to 1888.
And if President Bush were looking for good examples of what the Republicans like to call “compassionate conservatives,” the president could do worse than take a look at Barrett, his family and Western & Southern.
The Post told us how Barrett and Western & Southern’s PAC have been consistent Republican donors, and related a Western & Southern spokesman’s belief that Barrett’s fundraising role for DeWine “should be considered something that is divorced from his role with the company.”
That taken care of, the paper continued its ode to all things Barrett, reporting how “the Barretts and Western & Southern have played prominent roles in the city’s development,” how the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters brings “world-class tennis” to the area every August, and how the University of Cincinnati’s Charles M. Barrett Cancer Center is a “world-class facility.”
And on the civic boosterism went, from a look at Western & Southern’s impressive financials (it’s No. 473 on the Fortune 500 list), to a long recitation of John F. Barrett’s resume. “Since he moved back to Cincinnati, Barrett and his company have played key roles in a long list of organizations that were created to make Cincinnati a better place to live,” reported the Post. “He is immediate past chairman of the influential Cincinnati Business Committee, president of the Commercial Club and a past president of the Commonwealth Club.”
Hurrah. With Bill Clinton due at a fundraiser for Democratic House candidate John Cranley in Cincinnati Oct. 24, we look forward to an equally effusive contribution from the Post then.
Or maybe it could just stick to reporting, and leave unadorned praise on the cutting-room floor.
Edward B. Colby was a writer at CJR Daily.