Iowa is where Barack Obama started his bid for presidency in 2008. Now four years later, the president is wondering whether the state can do for him what it did back then. He is midway through his three day bus tour that takes him from Nebraska to windmill farms and cornfields towards Illinois. He is trying to find the spark that gave him the win in his first presidential campaign. Back to Iowa

President Obama began his trip Monday with the announcement of $170 million aid to farmers and ranchers suffering from the drought. He posed with the Iowa State Fair pageant queen and asked for his share of pork chop on a stick. He was given two Monday evening but they were on a paper plate and not on a stick. They forgot to give the president utensils, which prompted President Obama to ask for a knife and fork.

The president uses his talent as an orator to reignite the flame again. He told the campaign audience in Iowa that the centerpiece of Romney’s economic is to give another $5 trillion tax cut mostly to the rich. It is not asking taxpayers to pay more taxes to decrease the deficit or help children get an education or rebuild roads. The plan is to make taxpayers pay more to give tax break to people making more than $250,000 a year.

President Obama is mixing his campaign rallies with meetings with local business owners. At the Coffee Connection in Knoxville, the president talked with its owner Mark Raymie, who is a Republican. He also talked with the patrons of the coffee shop about White House beer, which is brewed right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He also wrote an excuse slip for a woman who was late for work because she wanted to rub shoulders with the president.