You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.


And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.


I'm one of those small town guys who believes in the Bible and also in the right to keep and bear arms. Yep, he is the President, and for America's sake I wish him a successful term, or maybe I should say I wish America a successful term while under his watch. As far as the inauguration went, I'm not one to sit in front of a tv for hours upon end watching the politico's dance and get sworn in. All the money that they spent on that shindig could've been spent better elsewhere.
But what does this have to do with Obama, specifically?

Providing local jobs is a responsibility of local government, not of the presidency.
Obama could boost the US economy nationwide, but that still wouldn't mean that industry would come to every small village.

You can dislike Obama for several reasons, but the presidency has no direct effect on small town industry, any more than Bill Gates is directly responsible for every line of windows code that was ever written.

Btw, We had the same here a couple decades ago when the mines closed. Entire cities became ghost towns. Eventually the local economy recovered (partially) but a lot of people had to move to where jobs are.
Even in my hometown, there is little work for people with masters degrees. We had only local stuff (butcher, baker) small busineses and some semi heavy industry. I had to relocate or face a horrible commute. So I relocated.