Obama stops for pizza, N. Illinois score at Sioux City sports bar

By Sun-Times Wire

President Obama chats with patrons at Bob Roe’s Point After sports bar in Sioux City, Iowa, during a stop for pizza while on the campaign trail Saturday. Getty Images

While stumping in Iowa, President Obama took a few minutes to duck into Bob Roe’s Point After, Sioux City sports bar, to grab a pizza and chat.

The Sioux City Journal reports that the president’s motorcade decamped for about 45 minutes as the Iowa-Northern Illinois game was underway. According to the report, Obama got some attention, but the hardcore Hawkeye fans had trouble peeling their attention away from the game:

Many televisions were carrying college football games, with most tuned to the Iowa Hawkeye contest with Northern Illinois. The president moved from table to table, posing for photos, but many people kept taking in their favorite game. . . . A few seconds later, a man yelled, Oh, come on! On a screen, a play unfolded in which Jordan Lynch of Northern Illinois scored on a 73-yard play. Obama finally looked up at the screen to see him complete the final 10 yards of the play, and NIU moved ahead 17-9. As a replay aired, the president said, Sorry about that play. I don’t want to be associated with that play.

Obama probably hopes the election turns out like the game. The favored Hawkeyes – think incumbents if you will – were forced to pull a last-minute comeback over the upstart Huskies in Iowa’s 18-17 win at Soldier Field on Saturday.

Obama was on a tour of battleground states on his way to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., which kicks off this week.

Next Up In News

Netflix looks to curb password sharing, considers ads

Aiming to predict COVID, future pandemics better, CDC opens infectious diseases forecasting center

Joliet farmers wrangle cows thrown from semitrailer after crash on Interstate 80

1 killed, 3 wounded in shootings Tuesday in Chicago

Obama relatives sue Milwaukee school alleging racial bias

Unmasked transit: Pritzker ends mask mandates in public transportation, airports