On Boeing Stage, Obama Pushes Plan for Exports EVERETT, Wash. - President Obama, wrapping himself in one of the country's most glamorous exports, Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner, vowed on Friday to boost government help for American companies seeking to sell their goods overseas. "I want us to sell stuff," Mr. Obama said as he finished a trip to the West Coast, calling on Congress to continue supporting export financing agencies and announcing an array of plans aimed at helping manufacturers. As this is an election year, Mr. Obama went for the ultimate photo op, using the spectacle of a new United Airlines Dreamliner as his backdrop to ask Congress not to cut financing for the Export-Import Bank, the American export credit agency. The event exceeded the standards of the usual presidential factory tour. Boeing's plant here, Mr. Obama said, is the biggest building in the world, and the president seemed to delight in his tour of the new plane, marveling at windows that tint turquoise at the touch of a button. Mr. Obama even struck a nostalgic chord, telling workers that the plane he arrived on - Air Force One - was made at this Boeing plant 25 years ago. "One of the guys I met on the tour worked on the plane," Mr. Obama said. I told him he did a pretty good job. It's flying smooth. For Mr. Obama, export growth is one area where he can point to success. Two years ago, he said in his State of the Union speech that he would work to double United States exports in five years, an announcement that sparked incredulity among trade economists. At the time, Mr. Obama had yet to articulate a trade policy. Since then, the president's goal seems less pie-in-the-sky, thanks in part to, of all countries, China. While China still serves as a foil for American politicians who want to talk about unfair trade practices and to score points with labor unions and manufacturing companies simultaneously, the reality is that China's economic growth - and the ascendance of its middle class - have enlarged the market there for American goods. United States exports last year hit record levels, buoyed by export growth to China, the Commerce Department reported. The Obama administration has had some success in its efforts to pressure the Chinese government to allow its currency to appreciate; administration officials took up the issue again this week, when China's presumed next leader, Vice President Xi Jinping, was in Washington. The president lavished praise on Boeing during his visit for helping to lead American export growth. But the White House also carefully calibrated the optics of the trip, choosing to visit a unionized Boeing plant in Washington State just a few months after the National Labor Relations Board dropped a lawsuit against Boeing over complaints that it built a nonunion plant in South Carolina to retaliate against the union in Washington State for strikes. The case was dropped after the machinists" union approved a contract extension with Boeing, but the issue has been trumpeted on the Republican presidential campaign trail as an example of the government - and Mr. Obama - trying to beat up Boeing. A spokesman for Boeing said there was no connection between the dropped labor complaint and Friday's visit by the president. Labor leaders were buoyed by Mr. Obama's visit, interpreting it as a sign of presidential support. During his remarks, the president steered clear of the labor-management fight, filling his visit with oratory about Boeing, and its new 787, as the perfect example of American ingenuity. But he also managed to entwine his remarks with homages to American workers. "In December 2009, the first Dreamliner took off on its maiden flight right here in Everett," Mr. Obama said. It was a cold and windy day, but that didn't stop more than 13,000 employees from coming out to see the product of all their hard work finally take to the skies. He spoke of one Boeing worker, Sharon O'Hara, who was there, and who was in the audience on Friday, and quoted her as saying: "I had goose bumps and tears. We said we would do it and we did. Mr. Obama concluded: "You said you would do it, and you did. That's what we do as Americans.