U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta), Cherokee's would-be congressman, walked out of President Barack Obama's address at the National Pancake Breakfast on Thursday morning.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gingrey was "offended" by the "injection of political rhetoric into an occasion of non-partisan reflection."

Gingrey spokeswoman Jen Talaber told the AJC's Jim Galloway that the congressman listened to a few minutes of Obama's speech before exiting the event that was attended by more than 3,000 people. 

“He was glad that the president attended, but he felt that there were 364 days in a year to give a speech on your policies or campaign rhetoric,” Talaber told the newspaper. "[Gingrey] said he was disappointed, because he wanted to know what was in the president’s heart, and not just rhetoric. So he said that he decided to quietly get up and leave because he felt that it wasn’t the time or the place, and that the president didn’t seem to be aware of the meaning of the breakfast or why so many people came to hear him speak. He was offended by the very tone of the speech.”

According to an Associated Press account of Obama's opening remarks, the president talked about how his faith has factored into the decision's he's made. However, the AP did report that Obama's defense of his policies was a "rare injection" of politics.

Read Galloway's entire blog post here, and then come back to Woodstock-Towne Lake Patch and vote in our poll to let us know whether or not you agree with Gingrey.