Today Mrs. Michelle Obama came to my campus. I'm a student at the University of Virginia. We a mid size fairly conservative school but in the liberal mountain town of Charlottesville, VA. We only found out last night that she was coming to speak along with Dr. Jill Biden. And let me say, both of these strong women kick butt and brought up one of the most hard hitting points against the McCain camp. More below the fold...
I must forgo the usual series of pictures of hundreds of supporters and an on fire Michelle give a great speech. The point of the rally, along with an earlier rally in Richmond, VA was to reach out to undecided women voters. Women are a critical group and we need them on our side in great numbers.
Along with both Michell and Jill and an unknown woman from Alabama spoke. Lilly Ledbetter worked for 30 years as a manager in a Goodyear tire plant. After learning that men with the same job where getting higher raises and bigger bonuses for the same work she was doing she went to court. A jury awarded Mrs. Ledbetter damages for tens of thousands of dollars that Goodyear essentially stole from her. Unfortunately, when the appeal reached the supreme court not long ago, a 5-4 decision took her award away. The court found that since she did not file suit 6 months after the initial injustice she had to standing to sue. This despite that Goodyear's practice of paying men more was kept a secret for three decades.
Because of this, the Ledbetter Bill was written to ensure that women would be paid the same for the same work. The bill passed the house but stalled in the senate due to stiff republican resistance. Obama and Biden both cosponsored the bill, McCain DIDNT EVEN BOTHER TO SHOW UP! Think Progress has more:
Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) skipped the vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which "restores the longstanding interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act," overturned last year by a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. In New Orleans today, McCain explained his opposition to the bill by claiming it "opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems." Later in Kentucky, he added that instead of legislation allowing women to fight for equal pay, they simply need "education and training"
Not only did McCain not vote, then state he would not ever vote for it, he had the gall to say the reason hard working women received less is because they were not 'educated' enough. He said that!
I want everyone to email the Obama campaign and get this issue up as national adds. McCain thinks women are stupid!
Mrs. Ledbetter said she now endorses Obama and thanked Michelle for her support in supporting equal pay for equal work. Michelle picked up on this and ran with it. I felt that Michelle and Obama need to make an add together and hit this issue hard.
She got me and the crowd fired up and ready to go.
Update Today the campaign did roll out ads about this issue. Here it is and it is kick ass:
Equal Pay Ad
Updatex2 Video of the local station covering both the UVA and Richmond events. Here Thanks to user Scarce.