I know East Davenport like the back of my hand. My son organized his international cricket games in the park there. We used to eat at the local Mexican restaurant, Rudy's, right there. The views of the Mississippi River are great from the hills and politics is the local sport. If you were in a local restaurant, you would see people reading (yes, they read) and talking about politics intelligently, with facts. That is the Iowa way. Soybean, Black Angus and corn prices, gay marriage, the GOP governor and all types of interesting topics would be overheard.
There is also an ice cream and locally made chocolate shop to die for called Largomarcino's. If you go there, get a hot-fudge Sunday and a Green River drink.
POTUS was there on Thursday. I hope other people are as fed up as Mr. Murty. Love the tee-shirt.
I used to live just down the road in downtown Davenport, in a great loft apartment. It is not a Catholic city, but it is a political one.
Iowa deli co-owner caters for Obama visit, but his T-shirt tells another story
By Amy Gardner,
DAVENPORT, Iowa — Ross Murty likes business, but he doesn’t like President Obama.And so the co-owner of the Village Corner Deli here agreed to cater Obama’s visit Wednesday — but not before donning a T-shirt blaring the message: “Government didn’t build my business. I did.”
It was a reference to a remark Obama made several weeks ago that his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, has seized upon to portray Obama as anti-business. Obama, referring to the help government provides to businesses by building roads and providing education and other services, said, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that."
“No one from the government was there when we were sweating it, when we were building this business,” Murty said. Before him was a bank of chafing dishes filled with smoked beef brisket, pulled pork, vegetable parmesan bake and cheesy hash brown casserole provided to the White House press corps covering the president’s three-day swing across Iowa this week.
But that’s not why he got the contract.
“One of Obama’s lead people came into the deli Saturday morning,” Dalton said. “I didn’t even know it was for Obama until that night.”
When he found out, though, Dalton had some fun. He called up Murty, who was driving back from Chicago, and asked: “Guess who’s coming to town this week?”
“He was a little stunned,” Dalton recalled. But the two take their political disagreements in stride, and the conversation was all in good fun, both said.
“I would never say no to anybody for any reason,” Murty said. “My partner and I have different views in politics, but business is business.”
The White House performs background checks on contractors for security reasons, but it does not vet them for their political views. Also, the caterers are hired to provide food for the White House press corps, which pays for the food, even though the White House makes the arrangements.
The Obama campaign had no comment on Murty's T-shirt.
