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Tuesday, Aug 14, 2012 3:16 AM UTC

In Iowa, Obama surprises fairgoers with a visit

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Topics: From the Wires,

In Iowa, Obama surprises fairgoers with a visitCole Nelson, nine months, held by his mother Deborah Nelson, inspects President Barack Obama's face as during a visit to the Iowa State Fair, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. The president is on a three-day campaign bus tour through Iowa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)(Credit: AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Fair wasn’t on President Barack Obama’s itinerary, but the lure of beer and pork chop may have been too much to pass up.

Obama’s three-day tour of Iowa by bus made the unscheduled stop Monday at the fairgrounds in Des Moines just a few hours after the Republican vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, appeared at the fair.

Obama spent an hour at the fair, greeting throngs of parents and their children, and enjoying a Bud Light and a pork chop with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of the state.

A large crowd outside the Bud Tent chanted “Four more years” and then some yelled, “Four more beers!”

Holding a beer in a plastic cup, Obama said, “It’s going to go well with my pork chop.”

More Ken Thomas.

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