To some here, the boarded-up windows and empty storefronts of Main Street present commercial promise. So for weeks Roger Jones mustered up his friendliest phone voice and dialed businesses from Boston to California with a single question: Would you consider setting up shop in Ottumwa? He was lucky to get a call back _ even luckier if the person on the other end didn't laugh out loud in response. But as executive director of the Ottumwa Economic Development Corp., he has decided to try again, because 'even during the roughest time, we try to move forward and make things happen. That's all you can do.' The usually fruitless and possibly quixotic task embodies both the desperation and optimism of this plucky factory town, which was part of President Barack Obama's three-state, two-day swing through the Midwest. Town leaders have tried everything to attract employers and rejuvenate the town, even raising money to open a Video Game Hall of Fame, envisioning a sort of Midwestern Cooperstown. Yet unemployment remains at 9.5 percent, and the median family income is around $30,000. More than half of public-school children here qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches. The downtown is desolate, with a perky coffee shop here, a lively comic book shop there and lots of papered-over glass in between. Last year, John Deere, one of the region's larger employers, laid off 500 workers from its Ottumwa plant. Many of those workers were rehired five months later; nevertheless, the move sent a jolt through the community, which had felt protected from the problems that had devastated places like Detroit. 'There's a lot of despair out there,' said Mayor Dale Uehling. The town had been recovering slowly from decades of battering by the foundering manufacturing sector when the recession came and wiped away much of that hope. Obama is seeking to restore that hopeful feeling on his Midwest trip, which began Tuesday in Fort Madison, Iowa, and ends Wednesday in Quincy, Ill. The president plans to point to new economic ventures intended to revitalize the rural business economy, including tax credits to spur the production of clean energy and an export plan that relies on improving trade opportunities for small businesses. Few here said, though, that Obama would be able to inspire much confidence with just his presence. His last visit to the town was in December 2007, just before the presidential caucuses that jump-started his campaign. Many here believe his trip is a nod, a sort of thank-you status update, to the momentum he gained with that first victory. But he will face a tougher audience than he did during his last trip _ in no small part because times are now much tougher. On Sunday night, dozens of families filed into the First Pentecostal Assembly of God to watch Dizzy the Clown deliver a spiritual message, in the form of magic tricks and slapstick comedy. In the audience was Rhonda Warner, 45, and her two young sons, getting a much-needed distraction. Warner, an in-home caretaker for people with mental disabilities, fell so behind on her mortgage payments that she lost her home _ a reality that brought tears to her eyes as the boys raced across the stage after the show. She makes too much money to qualify for government assistance, she said, so she turned to the church, which is helping her move into her new rental. 'I hope I can make rent,' she said, cracking a dark joke. 'If nothing else, my Aztek's a good sleeping car.' There is also an abiding fear in Ottumwa that Obama's policies may be hindering the recovery and that the federal government is intruding too far into people's personal lives. Uehling believes that the anxiety is testing the longstanding ties people here have to the Democratic Party. 'I want to ask him why we pay so much in taxes and we're beginning to become a communist country,' said Maria Glackin, 45, a former meatpacker. She stood in line with hundreds of others Monday morning for free tickets to Obama's town- hall meeting Tuesday at the local community college. Residents are taking their economic good news where they can find it: The Cargill Meat Solutions plant has not laid off any workers. The U.S. Department of Labor is building a Job Corps center nearby, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs. And great hopes are pinned to a proposed casino. The casino is called Rippling Waters because, like a stone tossed into the Des Moines River, its success is anticipated to radiate out and touch every corner of the community. 'I think we have weathered the storm. The clouds will soon be drifting away,' said Jones, dressed in a suit and tie in his Ottumwa Economic Development Corp office. He has handed over the phone-calling duties to an intern from Indian Hills Community College, whose two weeks of calls have yielded about 15 or 16 'good prospects,' mostly chain restaurants, he said. 'We'd love to get an Outback Steakhouse kind of thing,' he said. 