By James Lynch, Reporter
By Aaron Hepker
Story Updated: Oct 17, 2012 at 11:30 AM CDT
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa - Dick Steines’ employer and co-workers sent him to President Obama’s rally in Mount Vernon to deliver a message: They did build it. Steines delivered it in the form of red, white and blue bulldozer with a “Romney-Ryan 2012” painted across the blade.
Mount Vernon was just the first stop for the heavy-duty message.
Steines said he will be on the road for the Romney-Ryan campaign for the next three weeks displaying the bulldozer at “strategic locations.”
The bulldozer from J.J. Scheckel Heavy Equipment Corporation in Bellevue quickly became the center of attention at a pro-Romney rally at Memorial Park in Mount Vernon, a few block from the Cornell College sports arena where the president spoke later Oct. 17.
The rally attracted College Republicans from the University of Northern Iowa who are concerned about the growing national debt – more than $50,000 per person --they will inherit and the lack of jobs they will face when they graduate.
“We’re not happy with President Obama,” UNI student Christie Tague of Cedar Falls said. “I’m sick of hope. I haven’t seen any.”
Tague, who had to head back to campus to take mid-terms later Wednesday, said many of her friends who have graduated have been unable to fund work and continue to work at their part-time college jobs.
Steines voiced a similar frustration with the president’s comments suggesting that successful business owners owe at least part of that success to the government.
Back in July, the president said: “Look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. ... If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Steines wasn’t buying it.
“My boss built his business from scratch and he wants other to succeed,” Steines said in explaining why Josh Scheckel is putting the bulldozer – and his message – on display.
“They did build it,” Steines said. “It’s the person you are who builds the business.”
Scheckel employees painted the bulldozer in recent days with the help of other small businesses, Steines said.
Although it was his first day on the road with the bulldozer, Steines said he already had noticed it was getting a reaction.
“I saw a lot of people looking in their rear-view mirrors like, ‘What the heck did I just pass?’” he said.
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To read a local story from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, click here.
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