[StBernard] Carroll woman's answer to highly visible Obama: Selling her televisions

[Westley Annis]

Carroll woman's answer to highly visible Obama: Selling her televisions

By DOUGLAS BURNS
Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 29, 2009


A 78-year-old Carroll woman says she's so tired of seeing President Barack
Obama on the airwaves that she's selling her television sets - two of them.

Deloris Nissen, a retired nurses' aide and former Kmart employee who was
raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified advertisement with The
Daily Times Herald for Friday's paper.

In the $5.50 ad, Nissen tells readers she has two television sets for sale.

The reason: "Obama on every channel and station."

In an interview Nissen said she is serious about selling two TVs - and
genuine about her disgust with what she believes to be an overexposed
president.

"I just got tired of watching him on every channel," Nissen said. "I
thought, my gosh, does he ever stay at the White House?"

Nissen, who voted for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the 2008
presidential election, said she could live with seeing Obama come on
television to make serious announcements. But he seems to be on all the
time, Nissen said.

When the president does appear on a channel she happens to be watching,
Nissen said, she quickly turns.

"I have the remote real handy," Nissen said. "I have the batteries. I'm
ready for him."

Nissen's annoyance with the president as a frequent presence on her
television doesn't mean she'll abandon the medium altogether.

She's keeping a bigger flat-screen television and selling an older 20-inch
Sony and possibly a 13-inch set.

"It's too heavy," Nissen said of the 20-inch TV. "I can't handle it
anymore."

That said, she doesn't plan on selling it for less than $100 - even if Obama
was just on Tuesday pitching his health-care-reform plans.

Obama's own advisers and political observers across the ideological spectrum
have for months debated whether the now popular president is overexposed.

For her part, Nissen said she expects to take some flack for the
advertisement in her local paper. After all, Obama did win Iowa and Carroll
County in the 2008 election.

But she's not worried about any criticism.

"I'm an old lady, and I don't care," Nissen said.