President Barack Obama gives a salute as he walks down the steps from Air Force One while Governor Sam Brownback waits Thursday evening at Forbes Field in Topeka.

President Barack Obama arrived in Lawrence on Wednesday night in advance of a speech he will deliver on the Kansas University campus Thursday.

Air Force One touched down at 7:30 p.m. at Forbes Field in Topeka, and the president was greeted on the tarmac by Gov. Sam Brownback, Topeka Mayor Larry Wolgast and Col. Ronald Krueger, wing commander of Kansas Air National Guard’s 190th Air Refueling Group, which is based out of Forbes.

The men appeared to have a brief but friendly and animated conversation before the president got into his motorcade and headed to a Lawrence hotel, where he arrived about 8:30 p.m.

President Barack Obama visits with Governor Sam Brownback Thursday evening on the tarmac at Forbes Field in Topeka.

Joan Fowler and her grandson, Rayan Fowler, both of Lawrence, stand with a towel featuring a likeness of President Obama as around 200 people lined the street north of the Holiday Inn Lawrence around 8 p.m. Wednesday hoping to catch a glimpse of President Obama as he arrived in Lawrence.

“I’m delighted to have the president in Kansas,” Brownback said after the greeting. “It’s an honor anytime the president travels to your state.”

Obama is scheduled to speak at Anschutz Sports Pavilion on the KU campus around 11:20 a.m. It will be his second public appearance since delivering his sixth State of the Union address Tuesday night. He also spoke Wednesday in Boise, Idaho.

White House officials said the speech would expand on the theme of “middle class economics” that included proposals for new investments in education and job training, increasing wages and benefits for American workers and creating new, high-paying jobs.

Those initiatives will be part of the proposed budget that Obama sends to Congress, which is now controlled in both chambers by Republicans. That budget includes several higher education initiatives such as providing free community college tuition for two years to qualifying students, reducing monthly payments on student loan debt and expanding tax credits for college tuition.

Awaiting Obama

Danielle Brunin and her two sons, Noah and Henry Chaney, stood in freezing temperatures across from Holiday Inn Lawrence for a chance to see President Obama, who stayed at the hotel Wednesday night.

Accompanied by a crowd of about 200 people, Brunin and her two sons sighed as the presidential motorcade quickly passed by and circled to the hotel’s rear entrance. The huddling masses were unable to catch a glimpse of Obama as he headed into the building.

“We’ve been here since 5:30 p.m.,” Brunin said. “We’re a little disappointed and a little cold.”

Brunin consoled her sons by reminding them not everybody has a chance to even see the presidential motorcade, or speak to Secret Service agents.

“I got a Secret Service badge from one of the agents,” Noah Chaney, 9, said, proudly displaying a small golden pin on the front of his hooded sweatshirt.

“They were, really, really, really nice,” Brunin said. Adding that in addition to the badges, the agent gave her sons two Secret Service pencils.

“I think I’ll take it to school,” Noah Chaney said.

“I don’t think you will,” Brunin replied with a laugh, holding Henry Chaney, 3, off the ground.

In spite of the let down, Brunin and her sons agreed they would do it all over again.

“It’s still better than the Kerry/Edwards fiasco of ’04,” she said, referring to when that presidential campaign passed through Lawrence on a train without stopping. “I’d do it again. You never know what your chances are until you try.”

Obama’s plans

The White House had not officially announced where else the president might go before his speech Thursday, but Wolgast said the president indicated to him that he might meet the KU men’s basketball team.

“He said he was going to be seeing the Jayhawks tomorrow,” Wolgast said. “And I think the governor asked him if he was going to be working out with them, and he said, ‘No, my shot isn’t too good right now.'”

KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self said he hopes to get to shake Obama’s hand.

“Hopefully we are going to get lucky and have a chance to run into him, just like I’m sure everybody else is hoping they can, too,” Self said Wednesday night, declining to discuss any scenarios of he and his players possibly meeting Obama before or after the president’s speech.

The Kansas Young Democrats organization said its members planned to get up early — around 3 a.m. — for breakfast at a local restaurant before getting in line for the speech around 4 a.m. They also said they hoped to entice the president to come to their post-speech reception.

But a schedule released by the White House indicated that Obama plans to leave promptly from KU in order to return to Washington.

Obama may also visit other locations around Lawrence, including the Community Children’s Center, 925 Vermont St., said director Carolyn Kelly.

Kelly said she was contacted by White House officials who informed her the center is on a list of destinations Obama may visit. Nothing has yet been confirmed, she said Wednesday evening.

“From my understanding, typically an advanced team will come in and look around, which has happened,” she said. “But nothing affirmative has gone past that.”

Kelly said although nothing has been confirmed, the center would be honored to host the president. “It would be a great recognition because he is so supportive of early childhood education,” she said. “And for him to come to our program would just be a kind of dream.”

Logistics

The only thing known for sure on Wednesday was that Obama would be speaking at the Anschutz Sports Pavilion, next to Allen Fieldhouse. Anschutz is site of KU indoor football workouts and indoor track meets.

Individuals who work in the fieldhouse and Wagnon Student Athlete Center will be allowed to report to work Thursday.

“If folks want to come in they can. We’re encouraging them if they are not going to the speech they might want to think about coming in at 2 in the afternoon rather than the usual time just to avoid traffic and the adjustments made in the normal traffic patterns,” said Jim Marchiony, KU associate athletics director.

The Booth Family Hall of Athletics, which is connected to Allen Fieldhouse, will be closed until 1 p.m.

“The bottom line is if you don’t have a ticket to the speech, the best thing to do is just stay away because all the parking in the adjacent area will be on lockdown and you are not going to be able to see anything anyway, so it’s best just to stay away,” Marchiony said.

Secret Service agents have been working with Brad Nachtigal, KU associate athletics director for operations and capital projects, and his staff the past several days, inspecting all corners of Anschutz and the neighboring buildings.

Marchiony said the athletics department was happy to oblige. He said everyone is looking forward to Obama’s appearance.

“This is the president of the United States. You don’t often get to work on a project that involves the president of the United States,” Marchiony said. “Yes, it’s additional work, but it’s also a terrific experience for everyone involved.”

Why Lawrence?

KU spokesman Jack Martin said university officials weren’t told why the president chose KU as a venue.

“They felt that the university would be an appropriate venue for the sort of event they were wanting to hold,” Martin said. “We’re fortunate to be chosen.”

Some Republicans have suggested Obama’s trip may be designed to drum up both public and congressional support in heavily Republican states like Kansas and Idaho.

But congressional Republicans, including Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins, whose district includes Lawrence, publicly rejected many parts of the president’s budget, including his free community college proposal, because the costs would be offset by repealing tax deductions for college savings plans known as 529 plans.

Brownback said Wednesday that he also objects to taxing 529 plans. But White House officials said during a briefing with local news outlets Wednesday that those savings plans don’t really expand access to higher education because they mainly benefit families that can already afford to pay for college.

“More than 80 percent of the tax benefits for 529 college education savings accounts go to families with incomes over $250,000,” said

Betsey Stevenson of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. “For families that are not wealthy, giving them the tax incentive to save for college doesn’t actually have much of an impact on whether their kids are likely to go to college or not.”