A Sign Of Things To Come?

Joe "The Gaffemaster" Biden was on a campaign stop in North Carolina Virginia yesterday and tried to stop in a small bakery for a photo op.  It didn't go as planned:

Would you say no to the Vice President? 

One New River Valley business owner turned Vice President Joe Biden down. ... 

This might happen more than you think from both political parties, most businesses just don't talk about it. The owner of "Crumb and Get It" - did. 

Chris McMurray's bakery has been open only since May, barely three months. 

Wednesday morning, advance teams for Vice President Joe Biden walked in. 

"I approached her she said Joe Biden is coming to town today," McMurray said. 

"Crumb and Get It" is a mom and pop store. Literally. Chris and his wife Kelly run the place and need all the business they can get.
McMurray said the Vice President's entourage got to the point and made its pitch. 

"She said they have selected 'Crumb and Get It" to be his stop on his way to Blacksburg and was wondering if that was ok." 

Here's the part that might make other business owners crazy. 

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime but essentially I said 'No offense to you or the campaign but I just decline you guys coming in here. At that time she said 'Are you sure? There's going to be a lot of press, a lot of activity,’" McMurray said. 

Why in the world would a new business owner say "no" to a photo op with the Vice President of the United States? 

McMurray said it was President Obama's recent remarks about small business and who built what. 

"Very simply, ‘you didn't build that’” McMurray said. “Speaking of small businesses and entrepreneurs all across this country and actually last night my wife was up all night. No sleep, she's worked a full 24 hours."

Then this happened:

Secret Service officers associated with Vice President Joe Biden bought a pile of cupcakes from the baker who refused to host Biden at his shop — and they did so out of gratitude. 

It’s a startling news nugget at the bottom of a local report. “[S]hortly after Crumb and Get It told Biden’s advance people ‘no’ — the secret service walked in and told [owner] Chris McMurray ”Thanks for standing up and saying ‘no’ — then they bought a whole bunch of cookies and cupcakes,” according to the Valley Reporter (Va.). 

McMurray refused to host the Biden entourage as a protest of Obama’s comment, made in the nearby town of Roanoke, that “if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”

Then this happened:

The resulting story was picked up by the Drudge Report and a series of conservative blogs, leading to an outpouring of support online and at the store on Thursday.

At noon, McMurray turned down an interview request because he was too busy fielding a steady stream of orders, both from customers at the store and out-of-state patrons. A little more than an hour later, he closed the store because it had run out of cookie dough. It reopened a few minutes later, but with a sign in the window noting that only ice cream was being sold.

“It’s been a great day, a lot of great support,” McMurray said when he had a moment to talk. “A lot of folks are calling orders from out of state for local businesses and charities. That’s what we’ve got to catch up on.”

Anecdotal?  Sure, no question.  But given the repeated statements and policies oriented on penalizing businesses and success, this sort of thing is starting to happen -- or at least be publicized -- more and more often.  Given the sheer volume of small businesses and the jobs they provide in this country, this may have been a monumentally stupid set of voters to alienate.

It's too early to tell if this is truly a sign of things to come, but if it is...Obama's in serious trouble.

And America can finally get back to recovering.