In deciding whether Obama's remarks about Rural American will help or hurt, the best sources are the people who actually grew up in small-town Pennsylvania. One of these people is John Baer, who says that Obama's characterization of small-town America is on-target. Baer would know -- he grew up among the people that Obama is talking about.
"Bitter" perhaps best describes my late mother, an angry Irish Catholic who absolutely clung to her religion.
Dad, also a journalist, wasn't really bitter as far as I know, but he sure liked to hunt.
So, despite carping from Hillary Clinton and annoying yapping from her surrogates (really, it's like turning on the lights at night in a puppy farm), I take no offense.
What's offensive to me is suggesting that small-town, working-class, gun-toting and/or religious Pennsylvanians are somehow injured by a politician's words.
That is because that is not for Hillary to decide -- people have to decide what they themselves feel about Obama's remarks, or any person's remarks, for that matter. In fact, it seems that Hillary may have overreached -- in trying to pounce on Obama's remarks, it seems that she may have wound up becoming elitist herself -- by trying to speak for rural PA voters instead of letting them speak for themselves.
They're injured all right, but the injury is long-term and from lots more than "just words."
They've been injured from decades of neglect by political cultures in Washington and Harrisburg driven by special interests.
They're injured by a system of isolated, insulated political leadership that protects itself and the status quo above all else.
They've been harmed by a lack of political guts to fix a health-care system that works against the poor and forces middle-class families to pay more for less, while at the same time giving politicians the best coverage taxpayer money can buy.
They've been taken for granted by political parties and candidates who stay in power by - and this was the apparent gist of Obama's remarks - forcing attention and debate on issues tied to guns, religion and race (precisely because such issues resonate) rather than real problems such as health care and the economy.
They've been consistently made fools of by their own elected representatives who, year after year, pull fat salaries ($169,000 for every member of Congress; $150,000 in salary, perks and benefits for every state lawmaker) with automatic raises no matter how little gets done.
A new Associated Press poll shows Congress' approval rating at 23 percent. And don't even get me started on the Pennsylvania Legislature.
They said it themselves -- Hillary's attacks have failed to resonate. Even Ed Rendell says that her attacks will not resonate with people. He would know -- he has played and won politics in PA for all his life. And Rendell has the intellectual honesty to admit when that dog won't hunt.
And now, even some of Hillary's supporters are now saying that her attacks went too far:
A group of community leaders, laid-off workers, and local elected officials from all over the state come together to endorse Obama:
Standing in the shadows of closed factories throughout the Keystone State today, former plant workers, community leaders, and local elected officials called for an end to the broken Washington politics that have allowed their jobs to be shipped overseas. At eleven news conferences across the state, the voters said that Barack Obama was the one candidate who they trust to take on the special interests and Washington lobbyists and reinvigorate Pennsylvania’s economy.
"It’s no mystery why the jobs keep disappearing, the costs keep rising, and nothing changes," said Ray Prussman in front of his former place of employment, Dana Corporation in Reading. "Nothing changes because the special interests and their Washington lobbyists keep blocking change, and politicians like Hillary Clinton and John McCain take their money, defend their role in the system, and let them set the agenda in Washington."
Rick Towcimak – who paid his way through college working at steel plants and watched his step-father lose part of his pension because he was laid off one month before his retirement age after 32 years of service – spoke in front of American Bridge in Beaver County today. He added, "We’ve spent too long listening to politicians make the same old campaign promises and then go back to Washington only to play the same old political games. We can’t afford four more years of broken promises. That’s why we’re here supporting the candidate – the only candidate – who doesn’t take money from special interest PACs or Washington lobbyists. Barack Obama is the only candidate who has actually passed legislation to reduce their power in Washington, and he will make good on the promises and make towns like Ambridge thrive again."
Among the people who spoke out was State Senator Lisa Boscola:
Boscola referenced state job-creation investments that did not result in the job growth promised. "It was just a failed policy, so you have to go beyond those failed policies and Barack Obama talks about it all the time: you tie economic development and job creation and tax incentives all together, and that's what works," Boscola said.
Here is the Obama plan to protect American jobs and fight for the middle class:
As President, Obama will take on the special interests and implement a comprehensive plan to create and protect jobs and reclaim the American dream for working families. He will:
Fight for fair trade and reject trade agreements that don’t benefit American workers
End tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas and reward companies that create jobs in America
Modernize and expand programs to help laid-off workers retrain and provide them with transitional assistance
Invest in millions of 21st century "green collar" jobs that can’t be outsourced
Cut taxes for the middle class by up to $1,000 per working family
Provide universal health care access and lower health care costs
Create a $4,000 college tuition tax credit to make college affordable for all Americans
Rural Schools in PA cutting back on projects, jobs:
There was a larger than normal attendance at Thursday's Johnsonburg Area School Board meeting as the Johnsonburg Educational Support Professionals members, families, friends and supporters showed up in an effort to show the board how they feel.
The board has been in contact with a corporation from Pittsburgh to run the cafeteria program. Should the district go through with it, 11 jobs would be lost. The board was presented with
two petitions; one contained the signatures of 734 people, asking the board to keep the current staff. The second petition came from a high school student who had 157 high school students signatures.
After listening to a lot of the public's opinions, the board responded by saying it recognizes this is an emotional issue, but it is running a $10 million business. The district would save between $30,000 to $35,000 if it would go with the outside company. A member of the public responded back with suggesting the lunch prices be raised; the lunch prices have remained the same for the past eight years.
The board was given a small booklet featuring photographs and mini biographies of the cafeteria staff, putting faces to the proposed job cuts.
In the same article, it noted that the school was also cutting back on a proposed new tennis court for its program; the problem is that nobody will bid on it because of high gas prices. John McCain and the Republican Congress are denying our children the opportunity to be successful in life so that they can follow the McCain doctrine of perpetual warfare in Iraq. John McCain and the Republicans could care less about what is going on with our kids -- they would rather continue such failed programs as No Child Left Behind -- after all, in their twisted logic, people can always go to a private school.
And what John McCain and the Republicans fail to realize is that schools like this one are the lifeblood of small communities in rural America. In their twisted corporatist mindset, they can always consolidate, forgetting the fact that the result would be a loss of community. Obama is right that there is a lot of bitterness in small towns all over America. One of the things that they are bitter about are school consolidation fights; there are people who won't patronize the businesses of neighboring towns because of a nasty school consolidation fight that happened decades ago.
John McCain says deficits do not matter:
Now, McCain’s advisers are abandoning this tough talk. The New York Times reports that chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the next president should not even talk about balancing the budget, adopting a "so be it" approach to the costs of the Iraq war and McCain’s corporate tax cuts:
[Holtz-Eakin] said the benefits of success in Iraq dwarfed the $150 billion annual cost. He also said that if the war and the personal and corporate tax cuts that Mr. McCain advocated added to the federal deficit and debt, so be it.
"I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction," Mr. Holtz-Eakin said at a symposium sponsored by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "The next president should talk about what’s good for American families — education, health care at reasonable costs, pensions that are secure, opening our borders to trade. If we can take care of that, we can take care of the budget."
Holtz-Eakin has gradually moved away from McCain’s budget plan. While originally proposing a balanced budget by 2012, Holtz-Eakin later conceded that McCain’s tax plan "will make deficits expand up front." When asked last week about the budget , "McCain did not explain how he plans to balance the budget, but spoke generally about hoping to stimulate the economy," the Times observed.
So, John McCain could care less if our nation goes bankrupt over the continuation of his 100 year war with Iraq and his proposed invasion of Iran. That would just create the self-fulfilling prophecy that government is the problem and is therefore not needed.
Senator Obama's speech to the Alliance of American Manufacturers:
Being here in Pennsylvania with the primary coming up, I know that politics is what’s on a lot of people’s minds. But as I look out at this crowd, I also know that being here isn’t just about politics for me. It’s personal. Because it reminds me why I entered public service in the first place.
As some of you might know, after college, I went to work as a community organizer for a group of churches on the South Side of Chicago. The job was to help lift communities that had been devastated when the local steel plants fell on hard times. Thousands of folks had been laid off and some plants were closing down. And I can still remember the first time I saw a shuttered steel mill.
It was late in the afternoon and I took a drive with another organizer over to the old Wisconsin Steel plant on the southeast side of Chicago. Some of you may know it. And as we drove up, I saw a sight that’s probably familiar to some of you. I saw a plant that was empty and rusty. And behind a chain-link fence, I saw weeds sprouting up through the concrete, and an old mangy cat running around. And I thought about all the good jobs it used to provide, and all the kids who used to work there in the summer to make some extra money for college.
What I came to understand was that when a plant shuts down, it’s not just the workers who pay a price, it’s the whole community. I saw folks who felt like their government wasn’t looking out for them and who had given up hope. So I worked with unions and the city government, and we brought the community together to fight for its common future. We gave job-training to the jobless and hope to the hopeless, and block by block, we helped turn those neighborhoods around.
More than twenty years later, as I’ve traveled across Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and Ohio, and all across this country, I’m still seeing too many places where plants have closed down and where folks are feeling like they’re not getting a fair shot at life, like their dreams are slipping further out of reach. And that’s partly because of the same kinds of global economic pressures that led steel plants in Chicago to close down in the 1980s.
But it’s also because George Bush has pursued policies that don’t work for working Americans. In recent years, we’ve seen more than 3 million high-quality manufacturing jobs disappear, and more than 40,000 factories close down. And more often than not, the few jobs that are being created pay less than the ones we’re losing and come without health insurance or a pension, which makes it even harder for families to feel secure about their future.
But we also know this is a problem that goes beyond the failures of George Bush – because for decades, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, we’ve seen the number of American-owned steel companies dwindle down. For decades, our economic policies have been written to pump up a corporate bottom line, rather than promote what’s right, without any consideration for the burden we all bear when workers are abused or the environment is destroyed.
It’s an outrage, but it’s not an accident – because corporate lobbyists in Washington are writing our laws and putting their clients’ interests ahead of what’s fair for the American people. The men and women you represent haven’t been getting a seat at the table when trade agreements are being negotiated, or tax policies are being written, or health care and pension laws are being designed because the special interests have bought every chair.
That’s not the America I believe in. That’s not the America you believe in. And that’s why when I’m President, we’ll make sure Washington serves nobody’s interests but the people’s.
You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign lately about who’s "in touch" with the workers of Pennsylvania. Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are singing from the same hymn book, saying that I’m "out of touch" – an "elitist" – because I said a lot of folks are bitter about their economic circumstances.
Now it may be that I chose my words badly. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. But when I hear my opponents, both of whom have spent decades in Washington, saying I’m out of touch, it’s time to cut through their rhetoric and look at the reality.
After all, you’ve heard this kind of rhetoric before. Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough for you. They’ll "promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer.
But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?
I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists, and I’m here to tell you that you can count on me to stand up for you after this election, just as I’ve been standing up for workers all my life. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.
Senator Clinton and Senator McCain question my respect for the workers of Pennsylvania. Well, let me tell you how I believe you demonstrate your respect. You do it by telling the truth and keeping your word, so folks can know that where you stand today is where you’ll stand tomorrow.
The truth is, trade is here to stay. We live in a global economy. For America’s future to be as bright as our past, we have to compete. We have to win.
Not every job that has left is coming back. And not every job lost is due to trade –automation has made plants more efficient so they can make the same amount of steel with few workers. These are the realities.
I also don’t oppose all trade deals. I voted for two of them because they have the worker and environmental agreements I believe in. Some of you disagreed with me on this but I did what I thought was right.
That’s the truth. But let me tell you what else I believe in:
For America to win, American workers have to win, too. If CEO pay keeps rising, while the standard of living for their workers continues to decline, that’s not a win for America.
That’s why I opposed NAFTA, it’s why I opposed CAFTA, and it’s why I said any trade agreement I would support had to contain real, enforceable standards for workers.
That’s why I believe the Permanent Normalized Trade agreement with China didn’t do enough to ensure fairness and compliance.
Now, you can have a debate about whether my position is right or wrong. But here’s what you can’t do. You can’t spend the better part of two decades campaigning for NAFTA and PNTR for China, and then come here to Pennsylvania, and tell the steelworkers you’ve been with them all along. You can’t say you are opposed to the Colombia Trade deal, while your key strategist is working for the Colombian government to get the deal passed.
That’s not respect. That’s just more of the same old Washington politics. And we can’t afford more of the same.
We need real change, and that’s what I’m offering. I’m offering a new, more transparent and more inclusive path on trade so we can help promote an integrated global economy where the costs and benefits are distributed more equitably. And it starts with a principle I’ve always believed in – that trade should work for all Americans.
That’s why we need to finally confront the issue of trade with China. As I’ve said before, America and the world can benefit from trade with China. But trade with China will only be good for you if China itself plays by the rules and acts as a positive force for balanced world growth.
Seeing the living standards of the Chinese people improve is a good thing – good because we want a stable China, and good because China can be a powerful market for American exports. But too often, China has been competing in ways that are tilting the playing field.
It’s not just that China is following the path taken by so many other countries before it, and dumping goods into our market while not opening their own markets, something I’ve spoken out against. It’s not just that they’re violating intellectual property rights. They’re also grossly undervaluing their currency, and giving their goods yet another unfair advantage. Each year they’ve had the chance, the Bush administration has failed to do anything about this. That’s unacceptable. That’s why I co-sponsored the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act. And that’s why as President, I’ll use all the diplomatic avenues open to me to insist that China stop manipulating its currency.
We also have to make sure that whatever goods we’re importing are safe for our families. We all saw the harm that was caused by lead toys from China that were reaching our store shelves. A few months ago, when I called for a ban on any toys that have more than a trace amount of lead, an official at China’s foreign ministry said I was being "unobjective, unreasonable, and unfair." But I don’t think protecting our children is "unreasonable" – I think it’s our obligation as parents and as Americans.
When it comes to trade, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. If countries are committed to reciprocity, if they are abiding by basic rules of the road, then we should welcome trade. Many poor countries need access to our markets and pose no threat to our workers.
But what all trade agreements I negotiate as President will have in common is that they’ll all put American workers first. We won’t ignore violence against union organizers in Colombia, or the non-tariff barriers that keep U.S. cars out of South Korea.
And we won’t just negotiate fair trade agreements, we’ll make sure they’re being fully enforced. George Bush has been far too slow to press American rights. That’s an outrage. When our trading partners sign an agreement with the Obama administration, you can trust that we’ll hold them to it.
Now, if we’re serious about standing up for American workers around the world, we also have to fight for you here at home. That means passing universal health care and making sure every American has insurance you can take with you even if you lose your job, and that a college degree is within reach, even if you’re not rich – because all our children should have the skills to compete in the global economy.
And it also means protecting the rights of our workers. It’s time we had a President who didn’t choke saying the word "union." We need to strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best – organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union, no matter whether they’re full-time, or part-time, or contract workers. And that is why I will fight for and why I intend to sign the Employee Free Choice Act when it lands on my desk in the White House.
Here’s what else I’ll do: we’ll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I’ve been working on since I got to the Senate – so we can stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and start giving them to companies that create good jobs with decent wages here in America.
And to those who think that the decline in American manufacturing is inevitable; or that manufacturing has no place in a 21st century economy; we say right here and right now that the fight for manufacturing’s future is the fight for America’s future. And that’s why we’ll modernize our steel industry, strengthen our entire domestic manufacturing base, and open as many markets as we can to American manufactured goods when I’m President.
We’ll also make necessary long-term investments in job-growth. Back in the 1950’s, Americans were put to work building the Interstate Highway system and that helped expand the middle class in this country. We need to show the same kind of leadership today. That’s why I’ve called for a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years and generate millions of new jobs. We can’t keep standing by while our roads and bridges and airports crumble and decay. We can’t keep running our economy on debt. For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America.
And we need to invest in green technology. We can’t keep sending billions of dollars to foreign nations because of our addiction to oil. We should be investing in American companies that invest in American-manufactured solar panels and windmills, and in clean coal technology. That’s why I’ve proposed investing $150 billion over the next ten years in the green energy sector. This will create up to five million new American jobs – and those are jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. That’s a promise that we are making not just to this generation of Americans, but to the next generation of Americans. And that’s why this will be a priority in my administration.
Now, I know some will say we can’t afford all this. But let me just say this – if we can spend $10 billion a month rebuilding Iraq, we can spend $15 billion a year in our own country to put Americans back to work and strengthen the long-term competitiveness of our economy.
So make no mistake - the American people have a choice in this election. We can talk about our economic problems with trade all we want, but unless we change the broken system in Washington, nothing else is going to change. We can talk all we want about respecting workers and their way of life, but unless we have a President you can trust to listen and put working Americans first, nothing is really going to change.
And you can trust me. Because politics didn’t lead me to working folks; working folks led me to politics. I was standing with American workers on the streets of Chicago twenty years ago, and the reason I’m here today is because I don’t want to wake up one day many years from now and see that our companies are still getting hurt because foreign governments are still bending or breaking the rules, or that we’re still standing idly by while American jobs get shipped overseas, or that we still haven’t made the investments in infrastructure and in training our workers that we desperately need.
The reason I’m here today is because I know what it’s like to go to college on student loans, and see a mother get sick and worry that maybe she can’t pay the bills. I know what it’s like to have to scratch and work and claw to build a better life for your family. And I don’t want to wake up many years from now and find that the American dream is still out of reach for too many Americans.
The reason I’m here today is because I believe that if we can just put an end to the politics of division and distraction, and reclaim that sense that we all have a stake in each other, that we rise and fall as one nation; if we can just unite this country around a common purpose – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American; labor and management; Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – there’s no obstacle we cannot overcome, no destiny we cannot fulfill.
That’s the fundamental truth I learned on the streets of Chicago. That’s the idea at the heart of your Alliance for Manufacturing. And that’s the opportunity we have in this election. There is a moment in the life of every generation where that spirit of unity and hopefulness has to come through if we’re going to make our mark on history. This is our moment. This is our time. And if you will march with me, and organize with me, if you vote for me, then I promise you this: We will not just win this Democratic Nomination, we will win the general election and then together – you and I – we’re going to change this country, and we’re going to change this world. Thank you.
Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has endorsed Obama:
As a grandfather and a citizen of this community I think Barack Obama's thoughtful, strategic approach is important for America," said Rooney. "When I hear how excited young people seem to be when they about this man, I believe he will do what is best for them, which is to inspire them to be great Americans.
Hillary Clinton's negative attacks on Obama creating a backlash:
"I understand my opponent came this morning and he spent a lot of his time attacking me," she said, before being interrupted with several seconds of murmurs and groans from the crowd. "Well, you know, I know that many of you, like me were disappointed by recent remarks that he made."
More groans and at least one "No" from the crowd.
"And I think it's important that, you know, we give people the chance to really compare and contrast us," Clinton continued. "You know, I am well aware that at a fundraiser in San Francisco, he said some things that many people in Pennsylvania and beyond Pennsylvania have found offensive."
A few more "No"s.
People around the world are continuing to riot over high food prices.
In Haiti, the prime minister was kicked out of office Saturday, and hospital beds are filled with wounded following riots sparked by food prices. Watch Haitians riot over food prices »
The World Bank announced a $10 million grant from the United States for Haiti to help the government assist poor families.
In Egypt, rioters have burned cars and destroyed windows of numerous buildings as police in riot gear have tried to quell protests.
Images from Bangladesh and Mozambique tell a similar story.
It is obvious that the Bush administration is moving very slowly on this issue. And yet, John McCain has the gall to claim that Barack Obama is elitist. But given the fact that a vote for John McCain would be a vote for a third term for Bush, I suggest that there is another term for John McCain that is a lot more appropriate -- projection. Watching how slow George Bush is reacting to these riots, we can see for ourselves how a McCain administration would be -- slow to react to threats, ignoring warnings of trouble before it is too late, and depriving people of the resources that they need to solve problems.
Check this interview of Senator Ted Kennedy by the Erie paper. Kennedy was in that city to stump for Obama.
Responses from rural PA voters are pouring in, saying that Obama speaks for them:
From Ethermind:
Barack Obama you are not out of touch my friend. You are the leader that understands the massive issues this country is facing. We are at a very critical crossroads and let me tell you this...this former combat veteran Marine stands behind you 110% as the only man with the insight and true raw grit determination to do what needs to be done. I love the path you are paving and the future you are striving to create one vote at a time.
From They call me "B":
Senator Obama, you hit the nail on the head! Voters are bitter ... Americans, such as myself, are bitter that their voices are not being heard. I commend you sir for telling it like it is. Being called bitter, in this situation, is spot on. It is not a negative comment. It's the truth, and I believe that the American people know the difference.
From J.T.:
Thank you for saying how we’re really feeling!!!
And from Michelle:
Barack, the people of America understand what you are saying ... Stay strong, you are the candidate we've all been waiting for.
Politico reports that while Barack Obama is running as an outsider, John McCain is quietly courting Washington insiders:
While John McCain travels the country, giving policy speeches, weighing in on the news of the day and raising much-needed cash, his campaign manager is quietly selling their gameplan to the inside-the-beltway crowd.
Last Friday morning, Rick Davis met with over 100 Republican Chiefs of Staff at the Capitol Hill Club and presented the campaign's de-centralized strategy and talked up their interlocking efforts with the RNC, according to sources who were present.
The previous night, Davis was giving a similar, if broader, presentation to a smaller group of the capital's top lobbyists and p.r. gurus at Johnny's Half Shell, a Capitol Hill watering hole.
Davis spoke to about 30 people, according to a lobbyist who attended, and described the gathering as the manager's "first major outreach to the Washington community."
Present were top officials from energy and utility concerns such as Nuclear Energy Institute, Edison Electric, the American Petroleum Institute, American Gas Association and Exelon. Also there were senior executives from heavyweight p.r. firms Edelman and Burson Martseller.
Barack Obama talking about moral issues at the recent Faith Forum:
On his remarks about Rural America:
Obama said he was not attempting to demean religion, but rather say people are losing their faith in government.
"They don’t think that government is listening to them," he said.
On God's will:
He answered saying: "You know, what I believe is that God intervenes, but that his plans are a little too mysterious for me to grasp. And so what I try to do is, as best I can, be an instrument of his will. To act in what I think is accordance to the precepts of my faith."
On choice:
Obama also pointed out that women who get pregnant unexpectedly often face numerous problems, so safe sex education is very important.
"We want to make sure that, even as we are teaching responsible sexuality and we are teaching abstinence to children, that we are also making sure that they’ve got, you know, enough understanding about contraception that they don’t end up having much more severe problems because of a dumb mistake," he said.
On euthanasia:
"I do not think that is appropriate to empower doctors themselves to make that decision," Obama said.
He said that it should be for the families to decide.