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This week’s issue of The Economist includes an article discussing the Illinois economy, including a brief mention of Deere.  Overall, a fairly depressing article, although they say nothing bad about us.

The picture of the president speaking in front of (ahem) some construction equipment makes me think we need to figure out how to get Obama to come speak at a Deere plant. I remember seeing Bush speak at the Harvester Works in January 2002. It was a pretty neat experience for me (and, I’m sure, the other Deere employees lucky enough to be present), especially as I was an intern in my first year of college at the time.

I actually skipped the first day of classes that semester to see him speak. It was very shortly after (the next day?) Bush’s pretzel incident, so he made a couple jokes about that during his remarks. I got some decent pictures, too.

I also remember walking out to the specific building where Bush was scheduled to speak that morning. Two colleagues and I were strolling down the main thoroughfare between the offices where we worked and the main factory buildings. All of a sudden, we heard a Secret Service agent start yelling, “Stop! Stop!” with great urgency. Of course, we immediately stopped walking, and he ran up to us, pointed out the snipers on the roof of the nearby building, and told us that if we had walked just a few more feet we would have been taken out. Thankfully, he pointed us in a safer direction and we went on our way.