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Hillary Clinton’s newest political ad is not airing in Ohio, but only in Texas so far. According to the Associated Press, the ad, with its visuals of sleeping children, prompted an immediate denunciation Friday from Obama, who said it’s meant to scare people.
Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson contended the ad “speaks to what people really know in their hearts” about his candidate’s experience and, by inference, her opponent’s lack of it. “This is a legitimate matter for a presidential campaign,” he said.
In response, the Obama campaign released an new ad on Friday.
It’s the final push here in Ohio, and the fight’s come down to NAFTA.
The Obama campaign this week sent out a new mailer on trade, accusing Clinton of flip-flopping on the issue.
Clinton, meanwhile, has disputed that she ever supported the trade agreement. During the Feb. 26 debate between her and Obama in Cleveland, she described herself as a “critic of NAFTA from the very beginning.”
“I didn’t have a public position on it because I was part of the administration,” she said. “But when I started running for the Senate, I have been a critic.”
She said some areas have benefitted from NAFTA, such as Texas, but said others - such as upstate New York and Ohio - have not.
She said if elected, she would have a trade time-out and spend part of that time trying to fix NAFTA to include core labor and environmental standards in the agreement. And she said she’d work to make the agreement more enforceable.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made lots of changes to prepare for the March 4 primary but one practice she has yet to vanquish is “sleep-overs” where poll workers in some counties are allowed to pick up voting machines on Friday and keep them until election day.
In recent years, a poll worker in Licking County had a machine at home, figured he wouldn’t have time to vote on election day, so he opened the machine and voted, she said. He got caught.
Brunner’s office has instituted a strict chain of custody procedure for all voting machines, which are now sealed with tape with serial numbers. Tampering with a voting machine is a felony, she noted. She hopes to eliminate sleep overs by the November election.
Brunner predicted voter turn out on Tuesday would hit 52 percent — about 4 million voters. She said about 10- to 20-percent of the votes would be cast by absentee ballot.
“The interest is so great in this election because of the particular candidates involved,” she said. “We’re seeing people vote who have never voted in a primary.”
Brunner’s office ordered county boards of elections to have paper ballots on hand in case voters preferred paper over electronic touch-screen machines.
“It’s up to individual preference. I myself will be asking for a paper ballot. I had an experience in the last election where my electronic ballot was different than another ballot in the precinct for the same race. I am more comfortable with a paper ballot,” Brunner said.
Brunner said the secretary of state’s office has improved communications with county boards of elections, distributed four million cards for poll workers to give to voters who want to comment about their voting experience, improved maintenance of the statewide voter registration database, and beefed up the web site to accommodate more than 60 million anticipated hits during the March primary.
She declined to predict whether timely results would be available in Cuyahoga County, where touch-screen machines have been recently replaced along with the board of elections members and top staff.
When asked what advice she has for voters on Tuesday, Brunner said, “Give yourself plenty of time to vote in case there are lines. We’re working hard to ensure there are not. Learn about the candidates and issues so you can make an informed decision.”
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Reps. Ralph Regula and Bob Latta - the dean and the rookie of Ohio’s Republican congressional delegation, respectively - both announced their support for Sen. John McCain for president Friday, Feb. 29.
“While the Democrats offer veiled hope and empty promises, John McCain has the knowledge and experience necessary to lead our great country through challenging times,” Regula, R-Navarre, said in a statement released by the McCain campaign. “John McCain is the only candidate who is prepared to serve as commander in chief on his first day in the Oval Office.”
Earlier this week, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, announced his support. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, has also endorsed McCain.
Regula represents the 16th Congressional District in northeast Ohio. Latta, R-Bowling Green, represents the 5th Congressional District in northwest Ohio.
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Obama ad talks about his economic plan
THE AD: “Plan,” 30 seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: Began airing Wednesday, Feb. 27, on Ohio television stations.
SCRIPT:
Obama: “All across America, people are working harder than ever. Doing the best they can.
“But, for decades now, as Wall Street has prospered, most Americans have been running in place because the deck has been stacked against them. We need to change Washington. Put it back on the side of people again.
“My economic plan cuts taxes for workers, helps small businesses create jobs and makes college more affordable.
“I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message because to lift our nation, we need real change.”
VIDEO:
The color video starts with quick scenes of factory workers, and settles on a homey view of a four-member family in front of a modest house with an American flag. Obama appears in a tight shot making his campaign pitch and then the picture quickly drifts to Obama in a workplace.
A term paper-style folder is a crisp backdrop to graphics that repeat parts of his script.
ANALYSIS:
Sen. Obama is driving home his theme of change. He’s touching on voters’ fears about Ohio’s limping economy. Though the details are skimpy, Obama moves past some of his earlier campaign rhetoric.
Viewers will have to go to campaign statements to see that he seeks to create a $4,000 tax credit for college tuition. And he expects to streamline college aid applications by dropping the dreaded FAFSA form — that’s the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that keeps parents up all night.
Obama also plans to push for a $1,000 tax cut for working families.
For job creation, his plan includes federal tax credits for training, research and other initiatives. And, he pushes “green” industries.
David Sartin is a reporter at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. E-mail: dsartin@plaind.com.
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Ohio Governor speaks out for Hillary
THE AD: “Fighter,” 30 seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: Began airing Thursday, Feb. 28, on Ohio television stations.
SCRIPT:
Gov. Ted Strickland: “We need a president who, first of all, is going to be a fighter. That’s the way I see Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s always been an advocate for the middle class.
“She’s got great plans to create new jobs in every part of Ohio. I think she’s a person of deep faith.
“I think she’s a person who has devoted her life to caring about other people — making sure that America works for everyone, not just the privileged few.
“She’s fighting for us. And that’s the kind of president we need.”
Hillary Clinton: “I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message.”
VIDEO:
Opens with a shot of a serious-looking Gov. Ted Strickland wearing a white shirt and tie, but no jacket. As he begins to speak, the video switches to shots of Hillary Clinton in various settings — speaking at a rally, shaking hands with voters, listening intently as people talk to her. It ends with a shot of Strickland and Clinton together signing autographs at a campaign rally.
ANALYSIS:
The commercial is a straight-forward attempt to see if Strickland can transfer his popularity to Clinton before the March 4 primary. Strickland has a job approval rating of 56 percent in Ohio, and he is highly regarded by Ohio Democrats.
In that sense, the commercial may resonate more with younger voters than a Clinton commercial that featured John Glenn backing her.
None of the facts in the commercial are controversial. Strickland speaks of Clinton as a fighter, yet the images display a warm side of Clinton. She is shown smiling and hugging voters. Could the commercial be a preview of coming attractions?
If Strickland’s endorsement carries Clinton past Barack Obama in Ohio and re-ignites her campaign, the Ohio governor could shoot to the top of the vice presidential list.
But a word of caution: Endorsements don’t always carry a punch in primaries. In 1984, Gov. Richard F. Celeste enthusiastically supported former Vice President Walter Mondale in the Ohio Democratic primary. Mondale still lost the state to Colorado Sen. Gary Hart.
Jack Torry is a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. E-mail: jtorry@dispatch.com.
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While Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are getting all press attention and big crowds, Republicans seem set on John McCain as the nominee. Yet, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee told reporters in a conference call Thursday, Feb. 28, that he’s hanging on in the Republican nomination race until 1,191 delegates are pledged to one candidate.
“You guys are missing a good race,” Huckabee chided reporters.
He also again extended his invitation to McCain to debate him.
Huckabee took a swipe at his opponent and his signature McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
“He wrote these laws…I think it’s one of the worst things to ever happen to American politics is the McCain-Feingold campaign finance (law). It has created more problems that it has solved and it may very well be that the law that he pushed comes back to bite him,” Huckabee said.
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Two members of the Kennedy family supporting Hillary Clinton for president are urging Ohio Catholics to back the New York senator in her race for the Democratic presidential nomination against Barack Obama, the Illinois senator.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made their pitch in an “Open Letter to Ohio Catholics” being distributed by e-mail, said Eric McFadden, Ohio Faith Outreach Director for the Clinton campaign. Their father was the late Robert F. Kennedy. Their uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, supports Obama.
The letter says that Clinton, a Methodist, has drawn Catholic support in “record numbers” and stresses her “commitment to and work on behalf of others.”
Here’s the text of the letter:
Catholics across America have turned out in record numbers to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton. In primary after primary, we have witnessed support for Hillary from thousands of lay Catholics, clergy and our beloved women religious. Political pundits have offered various explanations for this phenomenon, but we believe the answer lies with the recognition by Catholic voters of her long commitment to and work on behalf of others.
Hillary’s commitment to the common good parallels Catholic social teaching and work on behalf of women, children, the ill and the destitute has been a life long pursuit. Her Methodist faith, like our Catholic faith has not only sustained her throughout her life, it has also compelled her to find solutions to everyday problems. Hillary is a person of action. Throughout her adult life she has used her time and talents to advocate for others.
Hillary Clinton understands the issues facing working families all across the country. Whether it is the nation-wide mortgage crisis that has resulted in more than 150,000 foreclosures in Ohio , the ever rising cost of fuel, or the fact that more than one million people in Ohio have no health insurance, Hillary has offered concrete proposals to overcome these problems. Never afraid of hard work, she is someone who listens, learns and then acts to improve conditions and solve problems.
Catholics have a partner in Hillary Clinton, one who will work to advance the common good of all Ohioans and all Americans. Her record and experience promoting peace and social justice, respecting the dignity of the individual, family life, human rights, concern for the poor and the dignity of work is well documented. With Hillary Clinton Catholics know they will have a President who understands that the well being of the working family is a cornerstone of American values.
Yours,
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Obama ad talks about energy
THE AD: “Quiet,” 30 seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: Began airing Wednesday, Feb. 27, on Ohio television stations.
SCRIPT:
I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message. I don’t accept that we should be still sending $800 million dollars a day, part of it to hostile nations because of our addiction to foreign oil, and in the bargain we’re melting the polar ice caps. I went to Detroit to insist that we have to increase fuel efficiency standards. Now, I have to admit, the room got kind of quiet. We can’t just tell people what they want to hear. We need to tell them what they need to hear. We need to tell them the truth.
VIDEO:
The ad flashes a black and white picture of Obama, then cuts to him talking, clad in a dress shirt and red and white tie, to a medium-sized crowd. It shows a close-up of a woman in the crowd, then flashes back to Obama before cutting to a screen that lists components of Obama’s energy plan: Reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050; invest $150 billion in clean energy and create a Green Job Corps. Then it cuts back to Obama addressing the crowd. It closes by displaying a blue screen urging people to vote Tuesday and giving them information about early voting.
ANALYSIS:
This ad is really about two things: Sure, it’s about global warming and energy - issues that don’t really poll high in the Buckeye State - but it also aims to paint Obama as a tough-talker who is willing to tell uncomfortable truths - something that appeals to supporters of front-running Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, ironically. Obama’s energy and global warming position is not that disparate from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s - both call for a cap-and-trade system that would cut carbon emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. Both have also called for additional investment in clean energy technologies, though Obama calls for a $150 billion investment over 10 years while Clinton calls for a $50 billion strategic energy fund to invest in alternative energy.
Both also call for increasing fuel economy standards, albeit by slightly different standards. And both would aim for 25 percent of electricity being used in the U.S. to come from renewable sources by 2025.
Jessica Wehrman is a reporter at The Dayton Daily News.
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Rep. Mike Turner Wednesday formally endorsed Sen. John McCain for president, issuing a statement out of his office saying he believed that front-runner for the Republican nomination would be the most effective leader on both fiscal and national security issues.
“In his 25 years in Congress, Sen. McCain has worked to reduce federal spending and lower taxes,” Turner, R-Centerville, said. ” The senator’s vow to permanently reduce the taxes which are burdening American families while cutting rising federal spending is the right approach to our budget process. I am proud to support Senator John McCain for President.”
Turner is the second Miami Valley congressman to endorse: House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, backed McCain last week.
At her annual state of the city address today, Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said she will wait to see how the city of Dayton votes on March 4 before giving her support to a Democratic candidate.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/mplayer/election 2008/68826
“This is one time I can sit back and let the people tell me exactly what they want,” said McLin, also a superdelegate to the Democratic Convention in Denver.
In comparing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, McLin said. “Either one, I think, would make a great president.
By Laura A. Bischoff Staff Writer
ZANESVILLE — While Sen. Hillary Clinton advertised her roundtable on Wednesday as an “Economic Solutions Summit” it seemed short on solutions and heavy on sad stories: home foreclosures, the loss of manufacturing jobs, a broken health care system and staggering college tuition costs.
But most of the 15 panel members - business leaders, governors, union members and others — agreed Clinton is the best candidate to address these troubles.
“I’ve known you for 15 years but I wouldn’t support you if I didn’t think you’re the best candidate for Ohio,” Gov. Ted Strickland said, telling Clinton that the state needs jobs, help from the federal government, and universal health care.
Clinton promised to close tax loopholes that benefit companies moving jobs overseas, reinvest in the manufacturing sector, put a moratorium on home foreclosures, and create 5 million “green collar” jobs in the clean energy industry.
“I think we’ve got some great opportunities here. We hear a lot about the problems and they are serious but I believe for every problem there is at least one solution,” Clinton said. “We just have to start acting like Americans again, and roll up our sleeves and actually solve our problems. No more whining, no more finger pointing. Let’s get to work.”
Clinton assembled plenty of horse power for the Zanesville summit: two governors, two lieutenant governors, former Sen. John Glenn, labor leaders and business executives, as well as Robert Landry and Beth Dlabay of Dayton who told their story of losing their East Dayton home to foreclosure on Christmas Eve.
Clinton said she invited the Daytonians to put a face on the staggering numbers: 150,000 home foreclosures in Ohio last year and 13,000 notices sent out in January. “We just needed someone to be there for us. We felt lost,” said Landry, 43, a postal worker. He added that he found help from the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center.
Zanesville was the first stop on a two-day tour of Appalachia Ohio for Clinton. At times, the hour and 40 minute forum felt like a Clinton informercial. At one point, it even got to be too much for Clinton.
“We’re going to put a moratorium on compliments,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Barack Obama appeared at a campaign rally at Ohio State University’s St. John’s Arena with nearly 8,000 people.
A poll released this morning of Ohio voters found that if the general election were held today, Democrat Sen. Barack Obama would be more likely to eke out the narrowest of victories over Republican Sen. John McCain than Sen. Hillary Clinton would.
In a poll with plus or minus three percent margin of error, Obama beat McCain 48 to 47 percent.
Clinton didn’t fare as well in a match-up against McCain, the poll found: She received 47 percent of the vote to McCain’s 51 percent.
The results of the Ohio Poll, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati, predict that Ohio’s 20 electoral votes will be hotly contested in November, with the state again looking like a crucial swing state.
Women, the poll found, overwhelmingly backed Clinton or Obama, while men were more likely to support McCain.
In Southwest Ohio, the poll found, voters overwhelmingly preferred McCain to Obama or Clinton: McCain received 51 percent to Obama’s 45 percent in the region and he received 55 percent to Clinton’s 44 percent in southwest Ohio.
The poll of 1,049 registered voters from around the state was taken Feb. 21 through Feb. 24. It has a three percent margin of error.
11:15 p.m.
In the “spin room” after the debate, supporters of the candidates each said they thought their’s “won” the debate.
Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray , who has endorsed Obama, said the debate showed how close the candidates are in their positions. Cordray said the tone of the debate also showed “there’s clearly an underlying respect for one another.”
But he said he is partial to Obama and his performance in the debate. “I think he is uniquely poised to bring the change we need,” said Cordray.
Obama has the style of leadership needed to solve the nation’s problems, he said.
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland supports Clinton and said he was particularly impressed with her strong defense of her universal health care plan and that she spoke very specifically about what she would do as president.
“We are ahead in Ohio. I think her performance tonight will keep her ahead in Ohio,” said Strickland.
He said his strong friendship with Clinton will help Ohio if she is president because he will be able to simply pick up the phone and call her.
10:36 p.m.
How could 90 minutes have passed so quickly? The debate drew to a surprisingly civil close considering how close the race is and how high the stakes are for the candidates.
10:34 p.m.
The moderator asked each to answer what is the fundamental question the other candidate should answer for voters as to whether they would be a worthy nominee.
“She would be worthy as a nominee,” Obama said. “I think I would be better, otherwise I wouldn’t be running,” said Obama, continuing the two candidates tendency to mix a little positive with a little not so positive about their opponent.
Clinton did the same.
“There isn’t any doubt that, you know, both of us feel strongly about our country, that we bring enormous energy and commitment to this race and would bring that to the general election and to the White House” said Clinton.
“Its been an honor to campaign. I still intend to do everything I can to win, but it has been an honor because it has been a campaign that is history making.”
10:29 p.m.
Sen. Clinton had her chance to show her stuff on foreign policy with thoughtful remarks on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would really relinquish power when a new hand-picked successor becomes president.
“This is a clever but transparent way for Putin to hold onto power,” Clinton said. “It’s imperative that we begin to have a more realistic and effective strategy toward Russia.”
When asked if she knew who would replace Putin she then had trouble pronouncing the guy’s name.
“Yes,” said Clinton, stumbling over the name Medvedev. “Whatever,” she said with a laugh.
10:10 p.m.
Lest people think Obama believes he can wish the country to good fortune, he came right out and said it: “I am absolutely clear that hope is not enough.”
But the only way to make change is to mobilize the American people, he said.
“If the American people are activated, that is how change is going to happen,” Obama said.
And lest they think he asked for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s recent endorsement. Obama said, “It is not support I sought.”
“I can’t say to somebody that he can’t say that he thinks I’m a good guy. I’ve been very clear in my denunciations of him and his past comments.”
10 p.m.
They returned from a commercial break with NBC mistakenly playing a Clinton speech when they meant to play an Obama one.
Everyone had a laugh and Obama went right into saying special interests dominate Washington, with the implication that longtime Washington insiders like Clinton can’t be as effective as him because of it.
He said he hears the stories of regular Americans and “you realize nobody has been listening to them.”
“I’m not interested in talk, I’m not interested in speeches,” said Obama, contending that he would not be running if he didn’t intend to make positive political changes.
Clinton placed blame on the White House and members of Congress who went along with laws that hurt regular people.
“I know it takes a fighter. It takes somebody who will go toe to toe with the special interests,” Clinton said. “The special interests are not going to give up without a fight.”
9:47 p.m.
There’s a lot of gesturing going on here. There might be a pretty good YouTube mash up video of the two candidates using their hands to make their points, without of course pointing their fingers directly. Because that would be rude.
And everyone’s being pretty polite right now.
Even if they are comparing each other to Republicans.
9:40
It took 35 minutes but Obama just took his shot at Clinton’s vote authorizing the Iraq war, arguing that that is what her level of “experience” got the country.
“On the critical issues that actually matter, I believe my judgment has been sound,” said Obama.
Clinton was asked if she was implying the country would be “taking a chance” if they elected Obama and made him commander-in-chief.
She hit back, managing to combine her frequent criticism that he’s all speech no substance with a reminder that Obama had voted to fund the war once he was in the Senate.
“Many people made speeches against the war then,” said Clinton, referring to Obama’s remarks in his 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
“I was one of the most vocal opponents of the war,” said Obama, saying that his votes for funding came after the U.S. was already in a war that it should not have ever begun.
“Sen. Clinton often says she is ready on day on,” Obama. “But, in fact, she was ready to give in to George Bush on day one on this critical issue.”
9:30 p.m.
Obama not only accused Clinton of supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, he even implied she was not initially for strong labor or environmental standards in those trade pacts.
“I think Sen. Clinton has shifted positions on this and believes we should have strong labor standards and environmental standards,” Obama said.
Clinton didn’t bite, as Tim Russert pulled out several published quotes from Clinton saying positive things about NAFTA in the past.
He asked, “Will you as president say, we are out of NAFTA in 6 months?”
“No. I will say we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it,” Clinton said.
She said she’s been consistent in what she has said. Clinton contends NAFTA has been successful in some parts of the country and not successful in others, including Ohio.
Russert quoted published reports calling Obama “consistently ambivalent” on NAFTA.
Obama said he strongly opposed NAFTA but he did believe that trade deals could be beneficial to the United States. But like Clinton, he said, the United States should threaten to opt out of the deals unless stronger standards are put in place.
“What I want to be is an advocate on behalf of workers,” Obama said.
9:20 p.m.
Clinton once again likens Obama to the Republicans, as she did in Cincinnati, this time when contrasting her health care plan with his.
Obama defended his plan - mentioning that former Pres. Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor says positive things about his plan.
“We still don’t know how Sen. Clinton intends to enforce a mandate,” Obama said.
The moderator tried to move on but Clinton insisted on explaining her plan for a mandate, saying not making it mandatory would be as if Franklin Roosevelt had said “let’s make Social Security voluntary.”
Obama then took his turn forcing the debate to stay on health care, and said the experts Clinton cites say there is no difference between their plans.
Already they’re interrupting each other.
“Well a 16-minute discussion on health care is certainly a start,” said moderator Brian Williams, turning the discussion to NAFTA.
Hillary then complained that she always gets the first question and implied that last weekend’s Saturday Night Life skit implying that the media favor Obama was accurate and perhaps someone should get him “a pillow.”
9:07 p.m.
The debate opened and went straight to the point, with moderator Brian Williams playing clips of Clinton shaking hands with Obama at the previous debate in Austin and then saying “shame on you” to Obama during her visit to Cincinnati on Saturday. Clinton said Obama was putting out false and misleading information and she then began talking about her plan to achieve quality, affordable health care. Williams jumped then to the Drudge Report photograph of Obama in traditional African garb, including a turban, during his visit to Africa. He asked if it came from her campaign. “So far as I know it did not,” said Clinton, saying she did not condone that sort of behavior in her campaign.
8:45 p.m.
The big moment is nearly here and the candidates just walked in the door on this snowy Tuesday night in Cleveland.
In 15 minutes Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama will face off before the crowd of nearly 1,600 at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center in a debate that’s become a make-or-break for Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.
Clinton’s one-time double-digit lead over Obama in Ohio trickled to four points in a poll released this week.
“If she loses Ohio or even if it’s close in Ohio and she loses Texas, it’s over. There’s no coming back for her,” said Christopher Duncan, chairman of the political science department at the University of Dayton. “She’ll have lost from east to west, from north to south.”
Sen. Barack Obama isn’t expected to be done with the Democratic debate at Cleveland State University until sometime after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, but with the Ohio primary campaign in its final week, he won’t be stopping for the night just yet.
After the debate with Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama will go to a Cleveland area company and meet with workers who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. The union endorsed him on Wednesday.
Former President Bill Clinton will have a rally for his wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on Thursday, Feb. 28. The event will be at Stebbins High School, 1900 Harshman Road in Riverside. The event is free and open to the public.
This from the Associated Press:
CINCINNATI (AP) — Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a “hack, Chicago-style” politician.
Hussein is Obama’s middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee’s appearance. “Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you’re going to have in your pocket is change,” Cunningham said as the audience laughed.
The time will come, Cunningham added, when the liberal-leaning media will “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama” and tell the truth about his relationship with indicted fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko and how Obama got “sweetheart deals” in Chicago. McCain wasn’t on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech. McCain spoke to a couple hundred people at Memorial Hall in downtown Cincinnati.
“I apologize for it,” McCain told reporters, addressing the issue before they had a chance to ask the Arizona senator about Cunningham’s comments. “I did not know about these remarks, but I take responsibility for them. I repudiate them,” he said. “My entire campaign I have treated Senator Obama and Senator (Hillary Rodham) Clinton with respect. I will continue to do that throughout this campaign.”
McCain called both Democrats “honorable Americans” and said, “I want to dissociate myself with any disparaging remarks that may have been said about them.” Asked whether the use of Obama’s middle name — the same as former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — is proper, McCain said: “No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate.”
McCain said he didn’t know who decided to allow Cunningham to speak but said he was sure it was in coordination with his campaign. He said he didn’t hear the comments and has never met Cunningham, but “I will certainly make sure that nothing like that happens again.”
Responding to McCain’s apology, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, “It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues.”
Last fall, McCain faced criticism for initially not repudiating a voter in South Carolina who called Clinton a “bitch.” McCain chuckled in response to the voter’s question, but didn’t embrace the epithet. A few minutes later, he said he respected Clinton, a New York senator and colleague.
Aside from using Obama’s middle name, Cunningham also mocked the Illinois senator’s foreign policy statements about his willingness to meet with the leaders of rogue nations. He said he envisions a future in which “the great prophet from Chicago takes the stand and the world leaders who want to kill us will simply be singing Kumbaya together around the table with Barack Obama.”
At one point, Cunningham compared Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Madeleine Albright, whom he said “looks like death warmed over.” He also commented on the difference between former Ohio Rep. Rob Portman, whose wife is named Jane, and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress. “Jane’s the main difference. But that’s a different story,” Cunningham said. As Cunningham finished, Portman, who is mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, took the microphone to introduce McCain.
“Willie, you’re out of control again. So, what else is new? But we love him,” Portman said. “But I’ve got to tell you, Bill Cunningham lending his voice to this campaign is extremely important. He did it in 2000, he did it in 2004. It was crucial to victory then and it’s even more important this year with his bigger radio audience. So, Bill Cunningham, thank you for lending your voice.”
Speaking to reporters later alongside McCain, Portman said: “I was backstage so I didn’t hear everything he said. Bill Cunningham is a radio talk show host who is often controversial so it does not surprise me that he was controversial.” He added: “That’s, I guess, how he makes his living.”
Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern briefed reporters gathered in Cleveland for the Democratic presidential debate on the Democrats’ plan to win Ohio in this year’s presidential election.
“This is no longer a ‘red’ state,” Refern, a state representative from Catawba Island, said Tuesday, Feb. 26. “It never was.”
Redfern said Ohio is a “moderate” state. Democrats will run an 88-county operation and not focus solely on Democratic strongholds, he said.
John Hagner, targeting director for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the Democrats even will go after votes in exurban Republican strongholds such as Butler and Warren counties.
While the Democratic candidate for president won’t carry those counties, Democrats can pick up votes by targeting individuals on issues such as stem cell research and the economy, Hagner said.
Doug Kelly, executive director for the Ohio Democratic Party, said a goal is to “not let them (Republicans) off the canvas” after big GOP losses in 2006.
Kelly also said Democrats expect a turnout as large as 2 million in their March 4 presidential primary, far higher than the 1.28 million turnout in 2004.
“There’s very little precedent” for a primary like this year’s with Ohio playing a key role in determining the party’s nominee, said Kelly.
Kevin DeWine, deputy director of the Ohio Republican Party, disagreed with Redfern.
“We have consistently heard from the Democrats a mantra that includes more spending, higher taxes and more government control over people’ lives. Ohioans will reject those ideas, like they have in years past,” DeWine said in an e-mail
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House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, will have back surgery Friday morning at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md., his office announced Tuesday.
His recovery will prevent him from attending the 17th Annual Farm Forum in his district on Saturday, March 1, but he is expected to resume his full schedule next week. The farm forum will go on as planned, but without Boehner in attendance.
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Greg Oden, star of Ohio State’s 2006-2007 Big Ten championship and national runnerup basketball team, has endorsed Barack Obama for president, Obama’s campaign announced today, Feb. 26.
Oden now is on the roster of the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA.
Oden, a first-time voter and number one pick in last year’s NBA draft, released this statement through the Obama campaign:
“Like a lot of young people, I’ve been drawn to Sen. Obama’s campaign and the potential he has for our country. Obama gives Americans, especially young voters like me, a sense of hope in politics. He makes us feel like we can come together for the good of our country. Topics like education, and health care are very important to me and I agree with Senator Obama’s views on these issues.”
The campaign said that Oden would work with the campaign to reach out to young voters in Ohio and in other states still waiting to have primaries, including Indiana where he was a high school basketball star.
Incidentally, Obama has been known to play some pickup basketball games.
“Greg Oden meant a lot to the state of Ohio, and we’re proud to have his endorsement,” Obama Ohio Director Paul Tewes said.
Local Hillary Clinton supporters are having a debate watch party tonight, Feb. 26, at 8:30 at Pepito’s, 3618 Wilmington Pike in Kettering.
U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who dropped his own bid for the White House last month after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses, today, Feb. 26 endorsed Barack Obama for president.
Dodd’s endorsement came at a news conference at a Cleveland hotel as Obama and Hillary Clinton prepared for tonight’s Democratic debate in the snow-covered city.
Clinton was to hold a town meeting at noon in Lorain, west of Cleveland, before the 9 p.m. debate at Cleveland State University.
Now it’s Hillary Clinton’s turn to be fact-checked.
FactCheck.org, the truth-seeking Web site, previously found a Barack Obama mailer to Ohio voters misleading in its criticism of Clinton’s position on NAFTA.
Clinton put our her own mailer criticizing Obama on NAFTA and guess what?
FactCheck.org says the Clinton mailer “gives less than the whole truth.”
Maybe Clinton and Obama can sort it all out when they debate on Tuesday, Feb. 26 in Cleveland as their campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination heats up.
Here’s the new FactCheck.org analysis:
Clinton Edits ‘The Truth’ February 25, 2008 A Clinton mailer quotes Obama’s praise for free trade, but it omits his criticisms. Summary Hillary Clinton, stung by an Obama mailer that painted her as a supporter of the North American Free Trade agreement, is responding in kind with a barrage of postcards saying, “Ohio needs to know the truth about Obama’s position on Protecting American Workers and NAFTA.” But the mailer gives less than the whole truth.
It quotes two news reports of Obama praising NAFTA, but it fails to mention that both are from the same event and leaves out his calls for “fair trade” and increased enforcement - and his criticism of trade agreements negotiated “on behalf of multinational companies instead of workers and communities.” Analysis The Clinton campaign said its new mailer to Ohio voters is meant to counter an earlier Obama mailing that quotes Clinton as praising NAFTA. “In a campaign when you are attacked unfairly it is incumbent on you to set the record straight, and that’s what we’re doing in the mail,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told reporters on a conference call Feb. 25.
Retaliation in Kind
We found the Obama mailer to be misleading in our Feb. 24 article. Here we judge that Clinton is retaliating in kind, with a somewhat misleading mailer of her own.
The mailer says, “Ohio needs to know the truth,” and adds, “It’s all on the Record.” But it quotes the record selectively to misrepresent Obama’s position.
The quotes come from two news accounts, one from The Associated Press and another from the Herald & Review of Decatur, Ill. What’s not said is that they are both reporting on the same 2004 campaign event in Shirley, Ill., when Obama was running against Republican nominee Alan Keyes for the U.S. Senate. And both are quoted selectively, omitting Obama’s criticisms of NAFTA.
The mailer quotes The AP account as saying, “Obama said the United States should continue to work with the World Trade Organization and pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.” That’s accurate as far as it goes, but what’s left out is that Obama also said the U.S. needs to be more aggressive in protecting American interests and the interests of “workers and communities.” Here’s the pertinent section, in full:
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FacebookAssociated Press, Sept. 8, 2004: [Obama] said the United States should continue to work with the World Trade Organization and pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the country must be more aggressive about protecting American interests.
"We don't want to set off trade wars. What we want to make sure of is that our farmers are treated fairly," Obama said. "The problem in a lot of our trade agreements is that the administration tends to negotiate on behalf of multinational companies instead of workers and communities."
The Decatur newspaper reported on the same event the following day. The Clinton mailer quotes this part of the article: “Obama said the United States benefits enormously from exports under the WTO and NAFTA.” But here’s what it left out:
Herald & Review, Sept. 9, 2004: [Obama] said, at the same time, there must be recognition that the global economy has shifted, and that the United States is no longer the dominant economy.
"We have competition in world trade," Obama said. "When China devalues its currency 40 percent, we need to bring a complaint before the WTO just as other nations complain about us. If we are to be competitive over the long term, we need free trade but also fair trade."
We agree with Clinton that any voter “needs to know the truth.” We just think it should be the whole truth.
-by Brooks Jackson Sources Christopher Wills. “Senate candidates speak on farm, trade issues.” The Associated Press, 8 Sept. 2004.
Ron Ingram. “Obama, Keyes court farmers - U.S. Senate candidates face-off - on agriculture issues near Shirley,” Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.) 9 Sept. 2004. Related Articles Obama Mailings ‘False’? Clinton says Democrats should be “outraged.” You be the judge. Clinton-Obama Pillow Fight The Democratic front-runners meet in a civil and mostly error-free debate. They’ve Got You Covered? Obama and Clinton ads both claim all Americans would be covered by their health plans. Clinton’s would come close. Monday Night Quibbles No statements made of whole cloth, but some factual embroidery by Clinton and Obama.
Hillary Clinton has struck back on NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement - an issue that has prompted some of the harshest exchanges to date between her and Barack Obama.
She has started making robo-calls to Ohio voters criticizing NAFTA and defending her record. Her campaign also is sending out mailers to voters explaining her position on NAFTA and pointing out what her campaign considers Obama’s inconsistencies on the touchy subject.
Last Saturday in Cincinnati Clinton called mailers that the Obama campaign sent out on Clinton’s NAFTA position “false and discredited.”
The Obama campaign responded to the Clinton calls and mailings with statements from some of Obama’s labor supporters, including Bruce Raynor, general president of UNITE.
“This idea that Barack Obama’s position on NAFTA isn’t clear is nonsense. It’s been clear. It’s also clear that the Clinton Administration was not only the architect of the NAFTA agreement, but the Clinton Administration shoved it down the throat of Democrats in Congress and passed it,” Raynor said.
Here’s the script of the Clinton call:
“Senator Obama has sent out attack mailers that distort my record on NAFTA, but I believe Ohio deserves the truth.
“NAFTA has hurt Ohio families and I have a plan to fix it. My opponent does not. I will call a timeout on any new trade deals and make sure the ones we have are protecting American workers. I’ll eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and invest in creating good jobs right here in Ohio.
“Ohio needs solutions, not distortions. With your support on March 4th, we can jump start the economy and get Ohio back to work.”
Hours after two polls released Monday show Sen. Hillary Clinton with at least an eight-point lead in Ohio, a third firm put Sen. Barack Obama within four points of catching up with Clinton in the state.
Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh, N.C.-based polling firm that does automated phone surveys, surveyed 600 likely Democratic Ohio primary voters and 430 likely Ohio Republican primary voters on Feb. 23 and Feb. 24. They gave Clinton a 50 percent lead to Obama’s 46 percent lead. They attribute Obama’s strong showing to the “virtual certainty” that Sen. John McCain will be nominated on the Republican side, and said his strong showing means more independents and Republicans will be voting Democratic on March 4.
“Hillary Clinton is in big trouble,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. “The race is trending heavily toward Obama and time is on his side with another eight days before the voting.”
On the Republican side, the poll found McCain leads former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 55 percent to 30 percent.
Three Democrats, David Esrati, Jane Mitakides and Charles Sanders are running in The March 4 primary for the chance to take on U.S. Rep. Mike Turner in the November election for Congress.
Esrati has posted several political ads on his Web site, esrati.com. Mitakides launched her first TV ad this week. Sanders has an ad on his Web site.
Here’s a sampling.
Read more about the candidates at
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/02/16/ddn021708congress3.html
Also check out their Web sites
http://www.charleswsanders.org/index.php
Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory on Monday endorsed Democrat Barack Obama at a campaign rally with 13,000 supporters at University of Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena.
Mallory, a former state senator, said he sees parallels between Obama’s quest for the presidency and his own campaign for mayor when people told him he didn’t have enough experience.
Mallory is a super delegate — a party luminary whose support at the Democratic National Convention is worthy of one delegate vote. The Democratic nominee will need 2,025 delegate votes to take the nomination, and the race for delegates is tight, with Obama holding a slight lead. Superdelegates are not required under party rules to back whomever voters back in primaries and caucuses, but can throw their support behind whomever they want.
Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman endorsed Obama in October.
Two polls released Monday morning show Sen. Hillary Clinton holding a solid but tight lead in the state of Ohio.
The University of Cincinnati’s Ohio poll gave Clinton an eight-point lead in the state, finding that she has the support of 47 percent of Ohio Democratic primary likely voters compared to Sen. Barack Obama’s 39 percent. The poll was conducted Feb. 21 to Feb. 24.
Voters in the Democratic poll said the economy is their top issue in the race: 41 percent listed the economy and jobs as their top issue compared to 25 percent who said health care and health insurance was their top priority in the race. Iraq came in third, and was listed as the top priority of 16 percent of those polled.
Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain led former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 55 to 20 percent among likely Ohio Republican primary voters. Republicans, too, ranked the economy as their top priority - 30 percent of Republican voters listed it as their number one issue, compared to 16 percent who considered homeland security and national defense their top issue.
The Ohio Poll - the first University of Cincinnati poll looking at voters this year - was one of two that came out today. The second, released by Quinnipiac University, shows Obama gaining on Clinton in the race for Ohio.
That poll found that Clinton holds an 11-point lead over Obama in the state, leading Obama 51 to 40 percent among Ohio likely primary voters.
Compare this to the 21-point lead Clinton held in a Feb. 14 poll of likely Ohio primary voters. At that time, Clinton led 55 to 34 percent.
Obama is increasing his lead among college-educated voters, the poll found. He led among them 58 to 33 percent, compared to a 46 to 41 percent Clinton lead with those voters Feb. 14.
But Clinton still does better among women, older voters, whites and voters without a college education.
“Sen. Clinton’s lead remains substantial, but the trend line should be worrisome for her in a state that even her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has said she must win,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “A week is an awful long time in politics to be playing defense, but one thing going in her favor is that she is viewed more favorably than is he by Ohio likely Democratic primary voters.”
He said it was unsurprising that Obama has made “inroads,” and said Clinton has to keep her strong support from core backers to win March 4.
Another interesting finding: if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is the front-running Republican presidential nominee picked Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, as his vice president, only 9 percent of registered voters, including 11 percent of independents, say they would be more likely to vote for McCain.
But 18 percent of all voters, with 18 percent of independents, say it would make them less likely to vote for the Republican ticket. Overall, 70 percent say it would make no difference.
Were McCain to pick former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, as his veep nominee, it would also have “no real effect,” the poll found. Five percent, including 6 percent of independents, would be more likely to vote for McCain; 12 percent, including 11 percent of independents, say it would make them less likely, and 76 percent say it would have no effect.
Former President Bill Clinton will be in Dayton on Thursday, Feb. 28 to campaign for his wife Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced.
Details of the visit will be forthcoming.
Expect to see a new pro-Barack Obama television ad starting Tuesday, Feb. 26. This one is from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and it’s airing in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.
The ad’s got the Clinton camp a little miffed. In a 45-minute long conference call with reporters Sunday afternoon, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson urged Obama to get the union to back off of their ad buy, saying Obama, in Iowa, was heavily critical of then-contender John Edwards when unions began running ads for Edwards in the state. They say that Obama didn’t hesitate before bashing outside groups from getting involved in the Iowa campaign, but has been a bit too quiet when outside groups get involved on his behalf.
“This brings into question his own consistency,” said Robby Mook, the Ohio political director for Clinton.
For their part, the Clinton camp says they have no problem with unions and outside groups weighing in - provided the ads themselves are accurate.
Last week, a 527 group called American Leadership Project began running ads in Ohio praising Clinton. So-called 527 groups, which operate under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service code, are required to advocate issues and not directly support candidates. Obama’s campaign criticized the group, comparing it to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the Republican-leaning group that criticized former Sen. John Kerry in 2004 by questioning his efforts in the Vietnam War. Obama’s camp suggested that the American Leadership Project might be violating FEC rules required to report political spending.
Wolfson said he knew nothing about the American Leadership Project and could not comment on those ads.
The Clinton camp isn’t the first to bash Obama for attacking independent groups while also accepting the support of others. The RNC earlier this month sent out a sheet detailing Obama quotes criticizing such outside involvement. “You can’t say yesterday, you don’t believe in ‘em, and today, you’re having three-quarters of a million dollars being spent for you,” they quoted Obama as saying in a Dec. 22 piece in the Chicago Tribune. “You can’t just talk the talk.” That RNC release also quoted Obama as saying, “I don’t just talk the talk; I walk the walk,” in a Jan. 25 story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Obama campaign late Sunday said they did not know about the union’s ad buy. Under the law, outside organizations aren’t allowed to coordinate with campaigns.
UPDATE: This from Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor: “While Senator Clinton has benefited from more than $5 million in spending from outside groups and said nothing, Senator Obama has long said that he would prefer those who want to support his him do it directly through the campaign.”
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Gov. Ted Strickland, Ohio’s most high-profile Hillary Clinton backer, isn’t the only statewide officeholder hitting the campaign trail for Ohio’s March 4 Democratic presidential primary.
State Treasurer Richard Cordray warmed up the crowd today, Feb. 24 before Cordray’s candidate, Barack Obama, spoke at the University of Toledo.
Cordray said he has twins who are nine years old and that he expects the next president to serve for eight years. He wants Obama to be that president.
“He will be their president as they grow into adulthood,” Cordray told the crowd.
Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is holding a rally in Mason on Tuesday, Feb. 26. The event is at 4:30 p.m. at the Great Wolf Lodge at 2501 Great Wolf Drive. Earlier Tuesday, Huckabee will have a rally in Columbus at the Hyatt Regency at 350 North High Street at 1 p.m.
The John McCain campaign is opening its Dayton headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 2:30pm. Forme U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine will be at the opening events. Supporters will be able to pick up literature, yard signs and other items at the office. The McCain headquarters will be in downtown Dayton at 120 W. First Street. For more information, email rpierce@mccain08hq.com. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have already opened local offices. Obama’s is in downtown Dayton, Hillary Clinton’s is in Kettering. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee has not opened a local office.
Sen. Barack Obama began the second day of his campaign bus trip around Ohio today, Feb. 24 by touring the National Gypsum plant in Lorain and talking with about 100 workers about his plans to get the economy moving. He was to hold a rally in Toledo later.
Obama is scheduled to be in Fairborn for a rally Tuesday, Feb. 25 after making earlier appearances that day in Cincinnati.
In Lorain he also answered questions about consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s plans to run for president as an independent and criticism from conservative bloggers and others challenging Obama’s patriotism.
He said that he would make a $60 billion investment in infrastructure over 10 years to build roads and bridges and put people to work. His economic plan also calls for closing tax loopholes that he said reward companies that move jobs overseas and instead giving tax breaks to companies that create jobs in America.
Obama also said his plan provides money to pay for the projects by closing the tax loopholes and ending the war in Iraq. The nation can’t keep running up its global credit card, he said.
“We cannot build our future on a credit card issued by the bank of China,” he said.
He said he would try to reopen trade agreements such as NAFTA to include better protection for the environment and workers.
Also, he continued to defend mailers his campaign sent out criticizing Sen. Hillary Clinton’s positions on NAFTA and universal health care. Clinton has denounced them as misleading, but Obama said they accurately reflect what she’s said.
Meanwhile, the Web site, FactCheck.org realized a report finding the NAFTA mailing “misleading” and that said the health care mailing strained the facts but was not exactly false. For more, see:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamamailingsfalse.html
As for Nader’s campaign, Obama said he was more interested right now in winning the Democratic nomination. He recalled that in 2000 Nader said there was no difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
“I think people realize Ralph did not know what he was talking about,” said Obama.
On his patriotism, Obama said “I owe everything I am to this country.”
He said some of the criticism seems to have come from an occasion when he was singing the National Anthem at an event but didn’t have his hand over his heart. He said the same omission could apply to “about three-fourths of the people” who have been to a football or baseball game.
Clinton ad talks about her personal experience
THE AD: “Resolve,” 60 seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: Began airing airing Saturday, Feb. 23, on Ohio television stations.
SCRIPT:
Hillary Clinton: I was honored to be asked to speak at the opening of the Intrepid Center at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio. And I remember sitting up there and watching them come in. Those who could walk were walking, those who had lost limbs were trying with great courage to get themselves in without the help of others.
You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country. And I resolved, at a very young age, that I’d been blessed, and that I was called by my faith and by my upbringing to do what I could to give others the same opportunities and blessings that I took for granted. That’s what gets me up in the morning, that’s what motivates me in this campaign.
Hillary Clinton: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message.
VIDEO:
The ad is straight footage of last Thursday’s debate between Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, albeit edited down for time. The ad features Clinton’s response to the question, “Describe the moment in your life when you were tested the most?” The video alters between between close-ups of Clinton and wide audience shots.
ANALYSIS:
The Clinton campaign is extraordinarily proud of Clinton’s closing statements in that last debate, and they want to remind voters of them in the final two weeks before Ohioans vote March 4, in part as an attempt to show her as a public servant with a passion for the people she serves. “It demonstrates to the people of America the depth of her caring,” said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Clinton supporter, on a conference call about the ad Saturday. This ad edits out a few of her original comments - both she and Republican front-runner John McCain were at the opening of the Intrepid Center - and also cuts out her final comments about how no matter how the campaign turns out, she and Obama will be fine.
The Washington Post Saturday compared those comments to similar remarks by former Democratic candidate John Edwards. The footage also edits out her statement that she was “honored” to be running in the same field as Obama and the handshake between the two.
Critics of her comments have indicated her handshake may have appeared conciliatory, and, according to a Washington Post story Saturday, Clinton said she had not meant to signal surrender by shaking his hand.
Jessica Wehrman is a reporter at The Dayton Daily News.
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Clinton ad talks about leveling the playing field for everyone
THE AD: “Level,” a 30-second ad.
WHERE TO SEE IT: Began airing Saturday, Feb. 23 on Ohio stations.
SCRIPT:
Announcer: She’s fighting for America’s middle class.
Hillary Clinton: It’s time to level the playing field against the special interests.
Announcer: She’ll end $55 billion dollars in giveaways to corporate special interests and invest it in middle class tax cuts and creating new jobs.
She’ll get tough on unfair trade deals and end tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.
Hillary Clinton: Standing up for people who weren’t getting a fair shake, that’s been the purpose of my life. And it will be the purpose of my presidency.
Hillary Clinton: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message.
VIDEO:
As the narrator and Clinton are heard, the spot intersperses shots of Clinton meeting with different workers and families, a straight-on shot of her speaking and video of her addressing an enthusiastic crowd. Clinton’s lines are an excerpt from one of her speeches.
ANALYSIS:
The economy is the top issue in many states now. But in many parts of Ohio, concerns over the economy are inextricably tied specifically to anger over foreign trade deals such as NAFTA that blue-collar workers are convinced have resulted in the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs. NAFTA was a top priority of President Clinton.
But Hillary Clinton has gone from an apparent supporter of NAFTA, talking about it favorably in her 2003 autobiography, for instance, to calling for a “timeout” on new trade deals. With Clinton under attack in Ohio by rival Barack Obama on the topic of NAFTA, this ad is an attempt to reinforce her standing among blue-collar Democrats.
Where would Clinton find the $55 billion? She said in an economic proposal earlier this month that the sources include: $7.5 billion from eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies; $20 billion from “phasing out” what many Democrats argue are too large Medicare managed care payments to HMOs and having Medicare negotiate lower prescription drug prices; and $15 billion from ending a variety of tax breaks to companies that send jobs overseas.
The ad’s ending is part of Clinton’s bid to better connect with ordinary Americans.
Jonathan Riskind is a reporter at The Columbus Dispatch.
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Former U.S. Rep. Tony Hall of Dayton thought that when he endorsed Hillary Clinton earlier this month that the campaign most likely would deploy him to Dayton-area locales.
But his first campaign stops for Clinton, it runs out, will be in northern regions: Specifically, Mansfield, Marion and Bowling Green.
He and Gov. Ted Strickland, a fellow Clinton supporter, will hit the trail Sunday, Feb. 24, to stump for her.
They’ll start at 8 a.m. at the Main Street Methodist Church in Mansfield. Then they’ll go to the Mansfield Family Restaurant to show their support at 11:30. After that, it’s on to the Perkins Restaurant in Marion at 12:30 p.m.
They’ll close out the day at the Bowling Green Community Center in Bowling Green, where they’ll appear at 4:45 p.m. at a rally with former President Clinton.
Former President Bill Clinton will be in Springfield Sunday, Feb. 24, to rally support for his wife, Hillary Clinton. The public event starts at 9 p.m. at the Springfield YMCA, 300 South Limestone St.
Barack Obama doesnt’ think there’s anything “false and misleading” about the mailers his campaign recently sent out criticizing Hillary Clinton’s positions on NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement - and universal health care.
Hours after Clinton lobbed those charges at Obama during a campaign stop in Cincinnati on Saturday, Feb 23, Obama retorted in a session with reporters in Columbus.
“We have been subject to a constant attack from the Clinton campaign except when we were down 20 points,” Obama said after events at the Ohio State University Medical Center.
“These (mailers) are accurate. Sen. Clinton, as part of the Clinton administration, supported NAFTA. In her book she called it one of the administration’s successes,” he said.
He said he wanted to point this out “in a state that has been devastated by trade” and where voters “are deeply concerned about the positions of the candidates on trade.”
Obama also said that Clinton has said her support for a mandate requiring that all Americans acquire health care coverage is a key difference between her plan and Obama’s which does not have a mandate.
She may not like how his campaign characterizes the mandate - that the government would force you to buy health care - , he said.
“The notion that we’re engaging in nefarious tactics, I think, is pretty hard to swallow,” said Obama.
Asked if he would consider conceding if he, instead of Clinton, had lost 10 or 11 straight nominating contests, he said:
“Look, I’m the challenger, I’m the upstart, I’m the insurgent. She’s the champ. She’s part of the Democratic network in Washington and if you’re the titleholder you don’t lose it on points, you’ve got to be knocked out.”
Daytonians will get their first live look at Barack Obama on Monday when he comes to the Nutter Center at Wright State University. Just a warning, Obama may be the first presidential candidate - at least since Ed Muskie - who’s making people cry and faint at his rallies. As you will see in the video, sometimes people get a little too excited at Obama rallies.
If you think you can handle the excitement, the doors open for the Obama rally at 4 p.m. at the Nutter Center, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway. The event starts at 6. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged. To RSVP, please visit www.barackobama.com.
Limited preferred viewing tickets are available for the event, and can be picked up at: Obama For America Office, 40 N Main St, Dayton. Tickets available Monday from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. For security reasons, no bags are allowed. Please limit personal belongings. No signs or banners permitted. Admission is on a first come, first served basis. Oh, and drink plenty of water … just in case you feel faint.
Barack Obama’s campaign responded on Saturday, Feb. 23 to charges Hillary Clinton made in Cincinnati earlier in the day that Obama was sending out misleading attacks on Clinton’s stance on NAFTA and her plan for universal health care.
Bill Burton, Obama’s press secretary, said:
“Everything in those mailers is completely accurate, unlike the discredited attacks from Hillary Clinton’s negative campaign that have been rejected in South Carolina, Wisconsin, and across America.
“We look forward to having a debate this Tuesday on the facts, and the facts are that Senator Clinton was a supporter of NAFTA and the China permanent trade treaties until this campaign began.”
Obama, campaigning in Columbus, did not mention NAFTA but criticized Clinton’s health care plan because it mandates that everyone acquire coverage.
“The main difference between us is that Senator Clinton includes a mandate, which means she’d have the government force you to buy health insurance, and she said she’d consider going after your wages if you don’t.
” I disagree with that approach. I believe that the reason Americans don’t have health care isn’t because no one’s forced them to buy it. It’s because no one’s made it affordable, and that’s why my plan does more to cut costs than any other that been offered in this race,” Obama said at a panel discussion at the Ohio State University Medical Center.
Obama and Clinton are scheduled to debate in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
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The Clinton campaign Saturday trotted out three new television ads to air statewide - one a 60-second ad using Sen. Hillary Clinton’s comments during the most recent debate in Texas, the second a 30-second ad aimed at arguing that Clinton would be the best candidate for Ohio’s struggling economy and the third a 30-second ad featuring former Sen. John Glenn extolling the strengths of Clinton.
The ads all began airing Saturday.
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Clinton supporter, said in a conference call Saturday that the 60-second ad, called “Resolve” shows voters the “Hillary Clinton I know” and the “Hillary Clinton America needs to know.”
He said he believes the ad demonstrates Clinton’s compassion and that “she cares more for others than herself.”
“It demonstrates to the people of America the depth of her caring,” he said, hours before he was scheduled to appear at Dayton’s Second Street Market to campaign for Clinton.
Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director, said the ad aims to show voters “why she is running for president.”
The second ad, Strickland said, emphasizes Glenn’s endorsement.
“No one in Ohio has greater respect among the populace of either political persuasion than Sen. John Glenn,” Strickland said. “I think it’s quite significant that the senator and his wife Annie would be speaking up and saying in this ad that they believe Sen. Clinton is a fighter for Ohio and the values Ohioans embrace.”
The third ad repeats some of the thrust of Sen. Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 U.S. Senate bid by proclaiming Clinton a fighter for America’s middle class.
“She’ll get tough on unfair trade deals and end tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas,” the ad intones.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 32 percent of Ohio voters polled considered the economy their top issue.
Strickland also sought to pooh-pooh a story that appeared in the Saturday, Feb. 23 edition of the Washington Post that reported that the Clinton campaign was disheartened and anticipating defeat.
“There is intense enthusiasm for her here,” he said. “I think I know Ohio very well…and I am very confident. And with every passing day I feel more encouraged that Ohio is going to be a strong supporter on March 4, and be a part of the effort, with Texas, to propel her forward to the nomination.”
Gov. Ted Strickland, a Hillary Clinton supporter, will be making two campaign stops in the region today, Feb. 23, the Clinton campaign announced today.
At 2:15 p.m., he’ll stump for Clinton at Second Street Market in Dayton, 600 E 2nd St.
At 4 p.m., he’ll greet students and supporters at Wittenberg University, appearing at the Post 95 Coffee Shop, Benham-Pence Student Center.
Sen. Hillary Clinton came out swinging against her rival Barack Obama on Saturday, accusing him of mailing out false material about her stance on NAFTA and her plan for universal health care.
“Let’s have a real campaign. Enough with the speeches and the big rallies and then using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove’s play book. This is wrong,” she told reporters after a rally with 1,500 supporters at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
“Shame on you Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio, let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.”
Obama and Clinton are scheduled to debate in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
During her 40-minute speech in Cincinnati, Clinton seemed reinvigorated compared to a somber town hall meeting she held the night before in Columbus.
On Saturday, Clinton drew parallels between George W. Bush and Obama as men whose campaign rhetoric has been about change without supplying details.
“There is no telling how much damage President Bush has done to our country. You know, people have talked a lot about change in this election. Well we have lived through some of the worst change that anybody can imagine in the last seven years,” she told the crowd. “Do you think people voting in 2000 knew what they were getting? I don’t. People thought they were getting a ‘compassionate conservative’ didn’t they. It turned out he was neither. And we have lived with the consequences of those mistakes year after year after year. You know when he ran for office, he promised change. He promised he would keep our country safe, he promised that he would tackle global warming. He never said anything about taking a balanced budget and a surplus and throwing it out the window, putting us in debt with a rising deficit. He didn’t say anything about the kind of change he would bring…He promised change as a compassionate conservative and the American people got shafted.”
Clinton stressed, again, her experience and readiness to be commander in chief.
“This is a dangerous world we live in. That is sometimes forgotten. It is sometimes over looked in the heat of this election but I know it’s true because I went to Ground Zero the day after 9/11. I know we have enemies who plotting against us as we speak. We need a president and commander in chief who has no illusions about what it will take to protect and defend the United States of America,” Clinton said.
She pledged to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home.
Newark, N.J. Mayor - and Barack Obama supporter - Cory Booker, will visit the Dayton area on Sunday and hold public events for Obama.
Booker will be at Omega Baptist Church, 1821 Emerson Ave., in Dayton at 10:45 a.m. He will have a community meet-and-greet at The Golden Nugget, 2932 South Dixie Drive, in Kettering at 1 p.m. Booker with end the day with a forum at Central State University’s New Educational Building, 1400 Brush Row Road, in Wilberforce at 4 p.m.
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According to the Associated Pres, Ralph Nader could be poised for another third party presidentia campaign.
Nader is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Nader launched his 2004 presidential run on the show.
Kevin Zeese, who was Nader’s spokesman during the 2004 presidential race, but is no longer working for him, said Friday that Nader has been actively talking to “lots of people on all sorts of levels” about the possibility of making another run.
Zeese said he could only guess what Nader might do, but added: “Obviously, I don’t think (“Meet the Press” host) Tim Russert would have him on for no reason.”
Last month, Nader began an exploratory presidential campaign and launched a Web site that promises to fight “corporate greed, corporate power, corporate control.”
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Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are within $10,000 of each other in fundraising in Ohio, with Clinton holding a slight advantage, according to an analysis of presidential fundraising compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Clinton, D-N.Y., has raised $933,999 so far, their analysis found. Obama, D-Ill., has garnered $923,999 from Ohioans.
Among Republicans, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, who have both dropped out of the race, continue to hold an advantage over Republican front-runner John McCain. Romney garnered $1.5 million from Ohioans during the course of his bid. Giuliani raised $687,316 from Ohioans.
McCain, meanwhile, has raised $417,190 from Ohio donors. Mike Huckabee, the only other Republican who has won a primary or caucus that is still in the race, has raised $164,201 - less than U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, a Republican who remains in the race but has yet to win a primary. Ohioans have given Paul $289,877.
In the Dayton-Springfield region, Romney and Paul both lead Obama among donors. Ohioans gave Romney $54,908 and Paul $34,670. Obama, meanwhile, has raised $33,700. Huckabee has garnered more from the region than Clinton or McCain: He has raised $20,700 from regional donors to Clinton’s $17,706 and McCain’s $17,525.
In the Hamilton-Middletown region, however, Clinton fared better: She raised $23,805 there, coming in second to Romney, who raised $28,900.
Ohio ranks 22nd in presidential fundraising. The state has given presidential candidates a little more than $6 million so far during this campaign - far less than big-bucks California, which has given presidential candidates $73 million so far.
Overall, Obama has $24 million on hand to Clinton’s $29 million. But he raised $36 million alone in January while Clinton raised a little less than $19 million. McCain, meanwhile, has $5 million on hand - less than Paul’s $6 million in the bank. McCain raised $12 million in January. Paul raised more than $4 million, and Huckabee raised about $4 million.
The analysis includes data up to the end of January, the most recent Federal Elections Commission data available.
Sonny Nardi, president of Teamsters’ Local 416 near Cleveland and one of 21 Ohio Democratic superdelegates announced his endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama.
The national Teamsters announced their endorsement of the Illinois senator earlier this week.
“The American Dream is getting out of reach for too many working families in Ohio , and we need a President who has stood up to special interests and fought for the middle class throughout their career,” Nardi said in a press release announcing his endorsement. “Barack Obama believes that unfair trade agreements like NAFTA were the wrong policies for American workers, and he has proposed the Patriot Employers Act which would end tax breaks for corporations that outsource American jobs and encourage corporations to create good-paying jobs here in Ohio.”
A superdelegate is a party luminary whose support at the Democratic National Convention is worthy of one delegate vote. The Democratic nominee will need 2,025 delegate votes to take the nomination, and the race for delegates is tight, with Obama holding a slight lead. Superdelegates are not required under party rules to back whomever voters back in primaries and caucuses, but can throw their support behind whomever they want.
Nardi is the fourth superdelegate to publicly pledge support to one of the two Democratic front-runners. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, have both backed Sen. Hillary Clinton, and former DNC chair David Wilhelm has backed Obama.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson today, Feb. 21 endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president, putting Jackson at odds with U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the Democrat who represents Cleveland in the U.S. House. Tubbs Jones backs Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.
Jackson’s endorsement means each candidate will have a high-profile local backer when they square off Tuesday, Feb. 26 in their debate in Cleveland.
Jackson announced his endorsement at a community gathering in Cleveland with Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, a press release said.
“As the Mayor of Cleveland I know first hand the struggles that working families face, and how desperately we need a new direction in Washington,” Jackson said in the press release. “Sen. Obama provides the real change Americans so urgently need, and has spent his life fighting for working families. He is committed to revitalizing the urban core of America, fighting poverty, bringing good-paying jobs back to Ohio, and lowering health care costs.”
“Mayor Jackson set a model for urban leaders across the country with his plan to restore our nation’s cities,” Obama said in the press release. “It’s time we turn the page on the division that has kept us from focusing on the issues that really matter, like ensuring our inner city schools receive the resources required to educate our children, that every American has access to quality, affordable health care, and that we make the economy work for working families.
Also announcing her endorsement of Obama this week was Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann’s wife Alyssa Lenhoff-Dann.
Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin still has not endorsed a candidate for president.
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An ABC News-Washington Post poll released on Thursday, Feb. 21, has Hillary Clinton’s lead over Barack Obama at 7 points. Clinton is at 50 percent, Obama at 43 percent. Clinton holds a 16-percentage point lead over Obama among Ohio Democrats from union households, who comprise one in four of the party’s likely voters. Obama has an 11-percentage point edge over Clinton when Democrats are asked who is more electable in November. Even some groups that normally back Clinton; including women and non-college graduates; are split over who has the best chance to capture the White House. She’s more trusted than Obama to oversee the economy. Clinton as usual is running strongly among seniors and loyal Democrats, while Obama does well with blacks, college graduates, higher earning people and the young. A third overall said they could still change their minds. The ABC News-Washington Post poll was conducted Feb. 16-20 and involved telephone interviews with 611 likely Democratic voters in Ohio. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will visit Huber Heights on Saturday, Feb. 23, her campaign said today. Clinton’s “Solutions for America” rally will be at noon at Wayne High School, 5400 Chambersburg Road. The event is open to the public Sen. Barack Obama visits on Monday and details are also not yet available. It will be Clinton’s second visit to Dayton and Obama’s first in their battle to win Ohio’s March 4 primary. Clinton will also visit Cincinnati on Saturday. Obama will visit Cincinnati on Monday.
Sen. Barack Obama will be in Dayton, Monday, Feb. 25, his campaign announced this morning.
Obama, D-Ill., will be in Dayton as part of a bus tour through the state that will kick off 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Akron at the John S. Knight Center at 77 E. Mill Street. The bus tour will also bring Obama to Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati.
He’ll be in Cincinnati and Dayton Monday, but the campaign did not release details of the visit. So you know the routine: We’ll give them to you as we get them…
The would-be “First Laddie,” to quote Gov. Ted Strickland, will campaign in Bowling Green and Lima on Feb. 24, the campaign announced tonight.
We’ll give you more details as we get them….
The Sen. Barack Obama campaign argued on Wednesday that Sen. Hillary Clinton is misleading voters with her “Night Shift” political advertisement, the latest salvo in the candidates campaign to win the Democratic nomination for president.
The ad, which is designed to reach out to working women, promotes Clinton’s family agenda” of universal health care, increased day care, and help with elder care. It shows Clinton working at a desk, in the light of a desk lamp, as a voice intones, “She understands. She’s worked the night shift, too.” Obama supporter State Rep. Tracy Heard, D-Columbus, said that is false and “insulting.”
“Now that has damaged her character and then people are wondering, ‘well, what else wasn’t absolutely accurate and how far will she go to get a vote?’”
Isaac Baker, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said Obama’s supporters are engaging in “political games” and that the advertisement’s message is not misleading.
“Hillary Clinton knows that it takes hard work to get real results because she’s been doing it for 35 years,” Baker said. “The ad portrays Hillary Clinton’s deep commitment to working her heart out for the American people every day she’s in the White House.”
Heard spoke during a Wednesday conference call, which also featured workers Jackie Chapman, 56, of West Chester and Katie Gallagher, 20, of New Philadelphia. Chapman talked about how difficult it is to raise kids while holding a night job. Gallagher said it is a challenge to balance her college classes, work, homework and sorority sister duties.
“Working the night shift is not serving as a corporate lawyer,” said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. “It’s an actual term to describe folks who are working overnight as part of their job description.”
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Michelle Obama is coming back to Ohio Thursday.
She’ll host a “community gathering” at Cleveland State University’s University Center on Thursday. Doors open at the event at 11:30.
According to the campaign, the event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but they do encourage an RSVP. Seating is limited and admission is on a first come, first-served basis. To RSVP, visit www.barackobama.com.
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The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers are hosting a series of events across the state to back Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the campaign announced today.
Events are planned in Rossford, near Toledo, Cleveland and Piketon, near Chillicothe.
Obama last week secured the endorsement of the SEIU, the Service Employees International Union. Clinton has received the endorsements of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers.
The two Democratic presidential contenders have set up shop in the Miami Valley - one in Dayton, the other in Kettering.
The Dayton Barack Obama headquarters is having its ribbon cutting and open house on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 5:30 p.m. The office is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Obama headquarters is on the first floor of the Kettering Tower at Second and Jefferson streets in downtown Dayton.
The Hillary Clinton campaign opened its local office on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 3854 Wilmington Pike in Kettering. The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Terry McAuliffe, made a quick stop Tuesday night to officially open the office.
McAuliffe rallied a crowd of more than 100 Clinton supporters crammed into a former auto parts store. McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman (2001-05) and super-fundraiser, spoke to the crowd for slightly less than an hour. “This race is tight. Ohio is key,” McAuliffe said.
Clinton ad talks about standing up for workers who are sometimes overlooked
THE AD: “Night shift,” 30-seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: It began airing Tuesday, Feb. 19, on Ohio television stations.
SCRIPT:
Announcer: “You pour coffee, fix hair, you work the night shift at the local hospital. You’re often overworked, underpaid, and sometimes overlooked. But not by everyone.
“One candidate has put forth an American family agenda to make things easier for everyone who works so hard.
“Universal health care. Increased day care. And help with elder health care. She understands. She’s worked the night shift, too.”
Clinton: “I’m Hillary Clinton, and I approved this message.”
VIDEO:
It opens with a young woman cleaning a restaurant table late at night, followed by a woman sweeping the floor of a hair salon and a third woman walking down the empty halls of a hospital. Then it dissolves to Clinton addressing a crowd, meeting with young children, talking to workers. It concludes with a black-and-white photo of Clinton, wearing glasses, seated at a desk illuminated by a small lamp, and reading — presumably at night.
ANALYSIS:
The commercial is an effort to connect with working women, particularly those in lower-paying jobs. It also reminds voters that Clinton is the only candidate to propose a health care plan that would extend health insurance to all 47 million Americans without coverage. In that sense, the commercial is accurate.
But it doesn’t mention some details that viewers may want to know, such as how much it will cost taxpayers. The Clinton campaign has estimated her plan would cost $110 billion annually. She proposes paying for her plan by not extending the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for those earning more than $250,000 a year.
But in showing the limits of soak-the-rich policies, that only raises $54 billion a year. To make up for the rest, Clinton is promising $56 billion in annual savings through vague measures such as updated record-keeping.
Nor does the commercial mention that Clinton would require every American to buy insurance.
As for increased day care, Clinton wants to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover an additional 13 million Americans. She would do so by requiring companies with 25 or more workers to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth of a child or illness of a relative.
Currently, the law only requires unpaid leave for companies with 50 or more workers. Such a mandate, however, would impose costs on small companies, which tend to generate many of the economy’s new jobs.
Jack Torry is a reporter at The Columbus Dispatch. E-mail: jtorry@dispatch.com.
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Republican John McCain was ready with an answer today, Feb. 19, when asked what he’ll tell Ohio voters about his plans to revive Ohio’s sagging economy.
“Reduce taxes. Reduce interest rates. Encourage …technologies and innovation…improve education,” McCain, an Arizona senator, said at a news conrference at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus that amounted to a kickoff for his campaign for the March 4 GOP primary.
He also emphasized replacing existing training programs for displaced workers with a program that actually works to prepare them for new jobs. He said community colleges should play a big role in such programs.
“We can’t leave people behind,” said McCain, accompanied by his wife Cindy and former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio.
He was in Ohio to await results from today’s presidential primary in Wisconsin. He said he was “guardedly optimistic” about the outcome. On Wednesday, Feb. 20, he is scheduled to visit Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs.
Although McCain has all but wrapped up the GOP presidential nomination, he said he respected former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s decision to keep campaigning.
He also said he would have to campaign hard in Ohio to be heard over the din of the heated campaign on the Democratic side between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
He lashed out at both Democrats for promising to set a date to get American troops out of Iraq. He said this would lead to “chaos.” He said the surge was working.
McCain acknowledged the challenge of uniting the Republicans for the general election.
“We have a lot of work to do with our base. We have to unite it and energize it,” McCain said.
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Add a new poll to the list of polls showing Hillary Clinton leading in Ohio: EMILY’s List, a women’s advocacy group, Tuesday released a poll giving Clinton a 14-point lead over Barack Obama among likely women voters in the Democratic primary in Ohio.
Fifty-one percent of those polled support Senator Clinton compared to 37 percent who support Senator Obama, with 11 percent undecided.
Clinton’s campaign is banking on strong support from women and from the middle-class to boost it over the top in Ohio March 4. Rasmussen and Quinnipiac polls last week also showed Clinton leading Obama in the state.
Among Clinton voters, 69 percent say they are very certain that they will vote for Clinton, according to the EMILY’s List poll. Among Obama voters, 59 percent say they are very certain that they will vote for Obama.
EMILY’s LIST WOMEN VOTE!, a nationwide voter mobilization and education project, released the poll to kick off its voter mobilization program. It plans to reach out to 150,000 women voters in Ohio by phone and mail in the days before the state’s March 4 primary.
When Sen. Barack Obama jumped on stage before 6,800 screaming supporters at Youngstown State University, he had a little help from Robynn Foraker.
Foraker is a make-up artist who has dabbed powder on the shiny foreheads of John Edwards, Jennifer Brunner, J. Kenneth Blackwell and now Obama.
“He has phenomenal skin. Everybody in the TV world needs make up but I’ll tell you what, he didn’t need much at all,” Foraker said.
She also noted that while some clients and their staff members can be brusque, Obama and his people were pleasant.
“Everyone was really professional. That says a lot. On camera, everyone comes off great but (how they behave) behind the scenes — that’s the real key,” Foraker said.
Kansas Gov. and Cincinnati native Kathleen Sebelius will stump for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in Cincinnati Wednesday, the campaign just announced.
Sebelius is in her second term as Kansas Governor. She’ll appear at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Laborer’s Local 265 Hall, 3547 Montgomery Road in Cincinnati.
Sebelius is the daughter of former Ohio Governor John J. Gilligan.
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Actor Kal Penn will be the star of a Students for Barack Obama College Tour on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Penn currently stars in the Fox medical show, “House” and got lots of attention for his role in the movie “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.”
The tour will stop at Oberlin College, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron and Ohio State University.
So far Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois have been waging their campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in Ohio’s big cities.
That will change next week, at least for Clinton, the New York senator. She’ll campaign in southern Ohio, the state’s Appalachian region, her campaign announced Monday, Feb. 18. That’s the region that her top Ohio backer - Gov. Ted Strickland -comes from. He’s from Duck Run in Scioto County.
“We wanted to make clear to the people of southern Ohio that their voice will be heard by Sen. Clinton in this campaign and that no part of Ohio will be ignored in her efforts to talk to voters across the state,” Isaac Baker, campaign spokesman, said.
She will discuss economic development in an area hard hit by unemloyment and other economic problems, the campaign said.
Details of the trip will be announced later.
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Obama ad touches on his past and about strengthening communities
The ad: “Choices,” 60-second television commercial.
Where to see it: It began airing Monday in Ohio.
SCRIPT:
(Obama speaking) “It is that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work.”
Announcer: “After college, Barack Obama signed on as a community organizer for local churches, working to lift an area torn apart by plant closings.”
Jerry Kellman (Calumet Community Religious Conference, 1980-85): “Those mills began to close. People lost their jobs for starters. The neighborhoods were devastated.”
David Kindler (former community organizer): “The fact that Barack chose to try and effect social change, you know, how do you understand that motivation? The pay stinks, the hours are bad.”
Announcer: “Three years later, Barack went to Harvard Law, then returned to the community to lead a voter registration drive and defend civil rights.”
Professor Laurence Tribe (Harvard University Law School): “It was inspiring, absolutely inspiring, to see someone as brilliant as Barack Obama, as successful, someone who could’ve written his ticket on Wall Street, take all of the talent and all of the learning and decide to devote it to the community and to making people’s lives better.”
VIDEO:
Blends old photos of Obama with Kellman, Kindler and Tribe speaking so highly of him. Shows photographs of rusty, old industrial plants with an ominous sign saying, “Keep Out.” As Tribe talks, the commercial shows a New York Times article from 1990 heralding Obama as the first black elected to head Harvard Law’s Review. The commercial concludes with footage of Obama mingling with voters.
ANALYSIS:
This minute-long commercial is a reasonably accurate biography of Obama, and it strongly makes the case that he chose public service and community organizing over making a fortune as a Wall Street lawyer.
The commercial, however, leaves out the fact that Obama and his wife have earned enough money from his two books to have bought a $1.6 million house in Chicago.
The commercial also delivers a veiled hint that Obama chose low-paying public service while his opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, did not.
In fact, upon graduation from Yale Law School, Clinton became a staff lawyer for the Children’s Defense Fund. She also served as a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee staff that built a case for impeachment in 1974 against President Richard Nixon. Only after moving to Arkansas with her husband did Clinton work for a private law firm.
Jack Torry is a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch. E-mail address: jtorry@dispatch.com.
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Obama ad discusses ending the war and saving the environment
THE AD: “Join,” 30 seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: It began airing in Ohio on Monday.
SCRIPT:
“I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message. We want an end to this war, and we want diplomacy and peace. Not only can we save the environment, we can create jobs and opportunity. We’re tired of fear; we’re tired of division. We want something new. We want to turn the page. The world as it is is not the world as it has to be.”
VIDEO:
The crowd shots in this ad are exclusively of young people. Text quickly flashes across the screen, proclaiming, “We can end a war,” “We can save the planet,” “We can change the world,” “Change begins with you.” A young, vigorous Obama is among supporters who are visibly ga-ga in their gazes and expressions.
ANALYSIS:
Billed as “Join,” the ad is classic feel-good campaigning. The not-so-subtle message is that Obama is the future, and his opponents represent the past. This has been a recurring theme in the 46-year-old’s campaign.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and husband Bill have tamped down the criticism about whether Obama has really been consistently and vigorously anti-war, after the former president’s jabs at his wife’s opponent seemed to backfire. (Mr. Clinton said it was a “fairy tale” for Obama to be seen as having been prescient about how the war could go badly.)
Obama has attacked Clinton for voting for authorization to go to war, though she has criticized him for once saying he was unsure how he would have voted on the question and noting that he has voted for funding for the war.
Last fall, Clinton told NBC’s Tim Russert that she wanted all the troops out by 2013. On the same show, Obama said it would be “irresponsible” to project when the troops could come home, but that he would “drastically reduce” the U.S. mission to “protecting our embassy, protecting our civilians and making sure that we’re carrying out counterterrorism activities there.”
In short, both candidates say this country needs to get out of Iraq quickly, which, of course, leaves much to the imagination about what that precisely means.
Regarding saving the planet, Obama recently gave a major speech at a GM plant in Wisconsin (which has its primary today, Feb. 19) calling for a decade-long investment of $150 billion to create 5 million so-called “green-collar” jobs that would be focused on improving the environment.
As for Obama’s call to change the world, this is another iteration of his focus on promoting hope, which has become a trademark of his speeches. Sen. Clinton continues to emphasize her experience.
Ellen Belcher is editorial page editor of the Dayton Daily News. E-mail: ebelcher@daytondailynews.com/ Telephone: (937) 225-2286.
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Obama ad talks about taking care of middle-class workers
THE AD:
“Need,” 30-second television commercial.
WHERE TO SEE IT:
It began airing in Ohio on Monday.
SCRIPT:
“I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message.
“This administration has further divided Wall Street from Main Street. You’ve got CEOs who are making more in 10 minutes than ordinary workers are making in a year. The bedrock, the foundation, of our economy is our workers. And the middle class have been treading water or worse.
“My plan says, ‘Let’s return some balance to our tax code. Close these corporate loopholes the lobbyists put in. And let’s make sure that tax breaks are given to people who really need it.”
VIDEO:
The commercial opens with a black-and-white still photo of Obama with voters, switches to color footage of him speaking at a voter forum, then shows him speaking briefly to the camera. It cuts to video of him meeting voters, and a black-and-white photo with a group featuring a man wearing a “Jobs! Worth fighting for” T-shirt.
Obama speaks to the camera for two seconds before full-screen text says: “The Obama Plan,” adding “Close corporate tax loopholes,” “$1,000 tax cut per working family,” “No taxes on seniors making under $50,000.”
ANALYSIS:
Broadcast in earlier primary states, the commercial continues Obama’s effort to chip away at Hillary Clinton’s strength among working-class voters and women by focusing on pocketbook issues.
CEOs who make more in 10 minutes than an average worker in a year are the exception, but they do exist. The gap between CEO and worker pay has been rising for 40 years. The ratio, 24-to-1 in 1965, surged in the 1990s and declined from a peak in 2000.
In 2006, average annual CEO compensation was 262 times the average full-time worker’s salary of $42,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That means the average CEO earned more in one work day than the average worker in a year.
Interestingly, some of the highest-earning Americans are hedge-fund managers. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions, Obama has received $504,484 from hedge fund employees in the 2008 election cycle — slightly less than Clinton, but more than five times the contributions to Republican front-runner John McCain.
Obama’s “$1,000 tax cut per working family” would be a refundable income-tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per family, offsetting payroll tax on the first $8,100 of earnings.
Thomas Feran is a reporter at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. E-mail: tferan@plaind.com.
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Presumptive Republican front-runner John McCain scored another Ohioan on his ever-growing list of endorsements Monday when U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Columbus, gave him the thumbs-up, calling him a “true fiscal conservative.”
McCain last week got the endorsement of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester at a press conference that included other members of the House Republican leadership.
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Sen. John McCain will be at Young’s Jersey Dairy at noon Wednesday, Feb. 20, for what his campaign called a short meet and greet event.
Young’s, 6880 Springfield-Xenia Road, Yellow Springs, has hosted presidential candidates and their surrogates in the past. Who doesn’t love ice cream?
Details of the appearance were being worked out Monday night.
Republican McCain also will be in Ohio the night before, attending a party in Columbus to celebrate the Wisconsin primary. That event will be at the Hayes Grand Ballroom in The Columbus Renaissance Hotel, 50 North 3rd St. That event begins at 7:30 p.m.
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Obama ad addresses American job loss
THE AD: “Enough,” 30-seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: It began airing in Ohio on Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, though it has been used in other states as well. Watch it now.
Obama ad addresses American job loss
THE AD: “Enough,” 30-seconds.
WHERE TO SEE IT: It began airing in Ohio on Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, though it has been used in other states as well. Watch it now.
SCRIPT: “I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message.
“Ordinary people all across the country are struggling from paycheck to paycheck. If the plant moves to China, and you’ve been working there for 20, 30 years, and suddenly you have the rug pulled out from under you, and you don’t have health care, and you don’t have a pension, you’re on your own.
“We’ve got to stop giving tax breaks to companies that are moving overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that are investing in the United States of America. Enough is enough.”
VIDEO: The spot opens with Obama in a suit, and then flashes to a restaurant where he’s talking to a diverse crowd that looks on approvingly. A tieless Obama has his shirt sleeves rolled up and is gesturing emphatically. The day’s menu appears on a chalkboard in the background. A color drawing of the Statue of Liberty, with Lady Liberty holding an American flag, is displayed prominently.
ANALYSIS: This ad plays to voters’ feelings of insecurity about the economy, and it’s a convenient scene-setter for Obama’s touting of the Patriot Employer Act. That legislation would provide economic incentives for companies to keep their headquarters and employers in this country.
With John Edwards out of the race, and as he comes to a state that has been buffeted by job losses, Obama is ratcheting up his rhetoric about how he’d be the president who’d look out for workers.
To that end, Obama has been attacking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on foreign investment and free trade, knowing that President Bill Clinton fought furiously to get the North American Free Trade Act passed.
That fact still infuriates Ohio’s labor unions, and the free-trade debate was front-and-center in U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s successful campaign in 2006 to unseat Sen. Mike DeWine.
For her part, Sen. Clinton is calling for a “time out” on new agreements and a reconsideration of trade deals every five years, a move Obama characterizes as a change in her tune.
Ohio’s experience with expanded foreign trade has been far from all negative. Though the state has lost more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs in the last two decades, business groups say an equal number of Ohio manufacturing jobs are dependent on the state’s $38 billion worth of exports.
Meanwhile, more than 200,000 Ohioans work for foreign-owned companies, and that’s not counting farmers who export their crops.
Though Obama comes to Ohio after an eight-state winning streak since Super Tuesday, the polls show him trailing Clinton in Ohio. Most pundits say those interviews are too dated to mean much, but they’re the reason that Obama’s ads are aimed squarely at uneasy workers.
Ellen Belcher is editorial page editor at the Dayton Daily News. E-mail address: ebelcher@daytondailynews.com. Telephone: (937) 225-2286.
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U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said at a press conference in Niles that he probably should have given credit to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick for words Obama used in a speech delivered over the weekend in Wisconsin.
The New York Times on Monday reported striking similarities between Obama’s speech and words used by Patrick in 2006.
Patrick and Obama are friends and share the same political adviser, David Axelrod. Obama said the two share ideas all the time.
Obama said his opponent Hillary Clinton has used his words in the past, including “fired up and ready to go.”
Obama, who is known for his inspirational speeches, said, “I really don’t think this is too big of a deal.”
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Sen. Hillary Clinton is sending in her presidential campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, to help open Clinton’s Dayton campaign office on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
The public is invited to the opening at 3854 Wilmington Pike, Dayton.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6 p.m.
McAuliffe is also a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic nomination for president. That puts Cordray at odds with Gov. Ted Strickland, who’s endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
“I believe in Sen. Obama’s inspirational message and his efforts to create a politics that will bring people together,” Cordray said in a prepared statement released Sunday, Feb. 17.
Republican frontrunner John McCain is throwing his Wisconsin primary night party in … Ohio.
The public event will be at the Hayes Grand Ballroom in The Columbus Renaissance Hotel, 50 North 3rd Street in Columbus. The event starts at 7:30 p.m.
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On Fox News Sunday, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland continued his push for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But, of course host Chris Wallace had to ask Strickland the question he’s answered a hundred times. “Do you think you’re qualified to be vice president?”
“Well, I don’t want to be vice president. And the fact that I’m the governor of a big state. I’ve served in the Congress for 12 years,” Strickland said. “But I have no intention of being vice president even if I were asked.”
Of course, no newsman can simply take “no” for an answer. “Do you want to make a Shermanesque statement that you will not take the vice presidential nomination?” Wallace asked. “I will make a Shermanesque statement. I love being the governor of Ohio. It’s a great state. It’s the heart of the country. And we will bring a great victory to Senator Clinton on March the 4th and we will lead the way in November to electing a Democrat to the presidency,” Strickland responded.
Not yet convinced, Wallace had to ask a third time. “You will not accept the nomination for vice president?” “No, sir, I will not. I think it’s presumptuous of me to even contemplate the possibility of that,” Strickland said.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, who was also part of the segment, must have felt bad he wasn’t asked that question. Instead the Obama supporter said “Ted Strickland would be a very good vice president.”
Of course, the next time Strickland is talking to reporters on the campaign trail, he’ll probably be asked the same question again. Maybe he should wear a shirt that just says “I said NO!”
Ted Kennedy was in Youngstown campaigning for Barack Obama on Saturday. Here’s a video from Sen. Kennedy’s event. Obama will be in Youngstown on Monday — his first stop in Ohio during the primary season.
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Since John McCain has all but sewn up the Republican nomination for president, Ohio Republicans have been pretty quiet as the Democratic campaign heats up for the state’s March 4 primary.
Ted Kennedy, however, can get the GOP juices going.
Kennedy was scheduled to be in the state today, Feb. 16, to campaign for Barack Obama and that prompted Kevin DeWine, Ohio deputy Republican chairman, to dust off the dreaded “l” - for liberal - word to do some Obama bashing.
“Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are ideological soul mates,” DeWine, a state representative from Fairborn, said in a press release. “Their liberal agenda would mean huge tax increases and more government control over the lives of Ohioans.”
Kennedy’s endorsement, said DeWine, helps enhance Obama’s reputation as the most liberal member of the Senate.
Kennedy was scheduled to campaign in Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.
Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,
is making his first Ohio appearance during the primary season in Youngstown on Monday.
The event at 2 p.m. at Youngstown State University will be free and open to the public.
The region’s own Rep. Jim Jordan served as the spokesman for all House Republicans when he delivered the House Republican Conference radio address Friday.
And his subject was a doozy: He addressed the intelligence-gathering legislation set to expire Saturday night. The House adjourned Thursday without bringing up the bill, much to the dismay of the House Republicans in the minority.
“Make no mistake: this essential law will expire because House Democrat leaders decided to put partisan priorities over the public interest,” Jordan said in his address. “And when that moment comes in a matter of hours from now, our intelligence community will be at a disadvantage - and your security will be at greater risk.”
Jordan said the law “gives our intelligence community the tools they need to track the movements of foreign terrorists in an era when al Qaeda can transmit its marching orders anywhere in the world in an instant. It allows intelligence agents to detect and disrupt terror plots before they can be carried out and kill untold numbers of innocent Americans.”
The Senate this week passed an extension of the law.
“By failing to act, House Democrats have done our nation a terrible disservice this week. The times we live in demand vigilance - not indifference- from Washington,” he said.
You can hear the full address at http://gop.gov, by clicking on multimedia, then on the link to “weekly radio address.”
Michelle Obama opened her speech at Ohio State University on Friday with a gaffe: “We’re gonna win Iowa,” she told the crowd.
Oops.
She quickly recovered with a chuckle: “Ohio. We’re gonna win Ohio like we won Iowa, is my point.”
Listen to the audio:
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Michelle Obama told more than 500 supporters at Ohio State University that her husband, Democrat Barack Obama, has the character, values and experience that America needs in the White House.
“The only person in this race who has the chance of getting us where we need to be is Barack Obama. Barack gets it,” she said.
She said with his academic credentials, Barack Obama could have gone to Wall Street to make a ton of money but opted instead to be a community organizer in tough Chicago neighborhoods, a constitutional lawyer in a small firm and later a state lawmaker who worked on ethics reform, children’s health care and tax breaks for low-income families. She trumpeted his experience living abroad, saying he understands other cultures.
“Imagine a president of the United States who understands global poverty because he lived in it. Imagine a president of the United States who understands how this nation affects small villages in places like Africa, not because he’s received a policy briefing but because he has a grandmother who lives in one of those little villages,” Mrs. Obama said. “See that’s what we get with Barack Obama.”
While his opponent, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, touts her experience, Mrs. Obama said, “We have the evidence right here, right now, of what kind of leader he will be, what kind of choices he will make - not just when you’re watching him but what will he do when you’re not.”
Mrs. Obama, 44, an Ivy League educated lawyer and mother of two daughters, recounted her “regular folk” upbringing in working class south side Chicago. The daughter of a blue-collar worker and a stay-at-home mom, Mrs. Obama gave credit to her parents and solid public schools for her opportunities and successes as an adult.
She also recounted her husband’s fight from underdog to lead dog in the presidential campaign, saying he overcame naysayers and pundits. But she warned there is more work to be done to secure his victory.
“Barack will be the underdog until he is sitting in the Oval Office,” she said.
Mrs. Obama told a story about meeting a 10-year-old girl at a rally in South Carolina.
“I need to tell you something,” the girl told Mrs. Obama.
“Okay,” Mrs. Obama replied.
“Do you realize that after your husband becomes the next president of the United States it will be historical?” the girl informed her.
“Yeah,” Mrs. Obama told her. “But what does that mean to you?”
“It means I can imagine anything for myself,” the girl said, breaking down in tears.
Mrs. Obama told the crowd Friday that the girl understands what’s at stake and needs hopes and dreams. “Hope and inspiration matter because you don’t get anywhere without it.”
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A Clinton backer from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers today ridiculed Obama’s endorsement from one of the most powerful labor groups in the nation today, saying the union was endorsing Obama “out of sheer opportunism.”
Rick Sloan, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which has endorsed Clinton, was speaking about Obama receiving the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union, including Ohio’s District 1199, which endorsed Obama formally Friday. He made his comments during a conference call with Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a fellow Clinton backer.
The SEIU, Sloan said, “was looking and saying, ‘wow, we’ve got to jump on the bandwagon’” and in doing so were ignoring Clinton’s history of supporting working families.
SEIU District 1199 alone represents 35,000 social service, ehalth care and public sector workers in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.
Dave Regan, president of SEIU District 1199, meanwhile, issued a statement calling Obama “a unique candidate, igniting increased energy into the electorate.”
“Sen. Obama has the experience and the vision we need in our next president,” he said.
Also at issue: an Obama campaign mailer to Ohio voters that criticized Clinton’s position on the North American Free Trade Agreement.
During the conference call with Sloan and Fisher, both argued that the mailer misled voters about statements she made about the trade deal, which her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed into law.
The Obama mailer said he opposes NAFTA, and quotes New York Newsday saying, “Clinton thinks NAFTA has been a boon to the economy.” The Clinton campaign responded by trotting out a Newsday article published Friday where the paper said Clinton didn’t say that. Instead, the paper said the line was used in a 2006 issues chart and the chart was not accurate.
“We do not have a direct quote indicating her campaign told us she thought it was good for the economy at that time,” the paper said. “Also, for that matter, Clinton’s campaign did not contact us to question the item after it appeared in print.”
The paper said Obama’s use of the citation “does strike us as misleading.”
“The quote marks make it look as if Hillary said “boon,” not us. It’s an example of the kind of slim reeds campaigns use to try to win an office. That said, we should have been clearer.”
Sloan, however, was harsher in his critique: the mailer, he said, “almost amounts to mail fraud.”
The Obama campaign responded by reiterating Obama’s distaste for NAFTA, and trotted out a 2003 quote by Clinton where she called NAFTA a victory for her husband. They argued that Clinton - who has said that NAFTA needs to be revisited - has not been strong enough in her criticism of the trade deal.
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Sen. Barack Obama announced Thursday, Feb. 14 that he will begin airing his first radio ad throughout Ohio in his campaign against Sen. HIllary Clinton in the state’s March 4 presidential primary.
The ad -titled “Passed” - highlights his commitment to restoring economic fairness for working families, a press release says.
You can listen to “Passed” here:
Here’s the script:
Sen. Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.
Anchor: He passed up a career on Wall Street to work as an organizer, helping laid-off workers and lifting a community devastated by steel plant closings.
And Barack Obama’s commitment to economic fairness is just as strong today.
Sen. Obama: This administration has furthered divided Wall Street from Main Street. We’ve got CEO’s who are making more in 10 minutes than ordinary workers are making in a year.
Anchor: Maybe that’s why Barack Obama is the only candidate who has consistently opposed NAFTA and other unfair trade deals.
He’s the only one refusing contributions from special interest PACs and Washington lobbyists.
And Obama’s the only one with a plan to close corporate tax loopholes so we can cut taxes for middle class families and help companies creating jobs in America.
Sen. Obama: We’ve got to stop giving tax breaks to companies that are moving overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that are investing in the United States of America. Enough is enough.
The Service Employees International Union District 1199 (SEIU District 1199) is planning to back Sen. Barack Obama for president, giving Obama some needed “feet on the ground” in Ohio in his campaign against Sen. Hillary Clinton in Ohio’s March 4 primary.
The local previously had backed former Sen. John Edwards for the Democratic nomination for president. The local represents 35,000 social service, health care and public sector members in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The local plans a conference call for today, Feb. 15 to discuss the endorsement.
A House steering committee Thursday picked Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., for a vacancy on the House Appropriations Committee. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, had been one of about a half-dozen candidates for the spot.
“Jo Bonner was chosen because he symbolizes the changing perspective in the House Republican ranks on the role of earmarks, and the emerging consensus among Republicans on the need to fundamentally change Washington ’s broken spending process,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester.
Two Ohio appropriators - Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, and Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Navarre - will retire at the end of this term. Turner is expected to seek a spot on the committee next year.
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The wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama will be at an event in Cincinnati on Friday, Feb. 15.
The “Stand for Change” rally with Michelle Obama will be at the Cincinnati Music Hall, 1241 Elm Street in Cincinnati.
The doors open at 5 and the event starts at 6:15 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but an RSVP is strongly encouraged. To RSVP, please visit www.barackobama.com. For security reasons, please limit personal belongings. No signs or banners permitted. Space is available on first come first served basis.
Michelle also has a stop planned Friday morning in Columbus. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., will also be in northern Ohio campaiging for Obama this weekend.
Attorney General Marc Dann is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to review a lower court decision that said no to exempting private clubs from the statewide indoor smoking ban.
Dann is representing the Ohio Department of Health, which wrote the smoking ban rules including a private club exemption. He said voters wanted clubs such as VFW and American Legion halls exempt from the ban.
“Clearly the voters sent a message: ban most smoking, but allow private clubs a choice,” Dann said in a press release on Thursday.
American Cancer Society spokeswoman Wendy Simpkins disagreed.
“We’re disappointed that the governor continues to flaunt the will of the people. Ohio voters were very clear: they wanted to protect all workers from secondhand smoke,” Simpkins said. “The courts have continuously upheld the law as voters passed it.”
Voters adopted the indoor smoking ban in November 2006 and at the same time defeated another proposal that would have allowed smoking in bars, bowling alleys and bingo halls.
After the state health department wrote rules that exempted private clubs, a restaurant and bar association sued. In May, the Franklin County Common Pleas Court ruled that the state had overstepped its authority with the rule. An appeals court upheld the ruling in December.
The Clinton barrage continues: Former President Bill Clinton will campaign for Hillary in Toledo, Canton, Steubenville, and Marietta, his campaign announced Thursday.
We’ll give you more details as we get them….
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will endorse John McCain for the Republican nomination for president today, Feb. 14 in Boston, Kevin Madden, Romney’s spokesman said.
Romney earlier suspended his campaign for president and the announcement is another indication that Republicans are coming together as Democrats continue to battle it out in Ohio and other states.
McCain has a commanding lead in delegates but still faces opposition for the Republican nomination from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
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A trio of union officials who support Barack Obama sent out a memo challenging Hillary Clinton’s record in Ohio - a response to Clinton’s visit to Ohio this week.
UNITE Here International Union General President Bruce Raynor, Transport Workers Union President James Little, General President United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters William P. Hite attacked the previous Clinton administration’s record on trade.
“Ohio voters will judge candidates based on whether they have been consistent in standing up to special interests, opposing tax breaks for corporations that shelter their profits offshore, and fighting against unfair trade deals that cost American workers thousands of jobs,” they wrote. “Today, Sen. Clinton will visit the Mahoning Valley and witness some of the devastation that NAFTA, PNTR and other unfair trade agreements have caused putting thousands of American workers out of jobs.”
They blamed NAFTA and PNTR for Ohio’s economic troubles, blaming NAFTA for the loss of 50,000 jobs in Ohio. They also provided a quote indicating that Clinton supported NAFTA up through 2006.
“Barack Obama believes NAFTA and PNTR were the wrong policies for America - and he has introduced legislation - the Patriot Employers Act - that would eliminate tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas and provide incentives for corporations to invest in their U.S. workforce,” they said.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., will be in Ohio Saturday, stumping for Sen. Barack Obama in Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.
We’ll give you more details as we get ‘em.
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Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York kicked of her campaign for Ohio’s March 4 Democratic presidential primary today, Feb. 14 with a speech at the Lordstown General Motors complex near Warren and Youngstown in northeastern Ohio.
Here’s a prepared text of her speech, dealing with the economy, health care and her primary opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Below the speech is a reaction from Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton to some of the issues Clinton raised.
Clinton’s speech
I am so pleased to be with all of you. As some of you may know, I grew up in the Midwest, so being here today sure feels good.
This state has always held a special place at the heart of our nation. Ohio was one of our first frontiers - and has always led us to new ones. You gave us the airplane that first graced the skies and the astronauts who explored the heavens - including my friend and hero, Senator John Glenn. The steel from these mills armed America through two World Wars, put cars in our garages, and built our cities rushing skyward.
For so many years, this state has defined our values, expanded our horizons, and kept the American Dream alive. But at the beginning of this new century - here in Youngstown and across this state - the American Dream is being tested.
Some jobs have left, others pay less, so you just work harder. Health care, energy and college costs are up - so you stretch your budget further.
Maybe you’re a working mom or dad raising your kids - and also a working son or daughter caring for your parents - and you feel overwhelmed. Maybe your kids grew up, had to leave the state to find work, and took the grandkids with them.
Some days, it probably feels like the perfect storm. You fill up your tank, and that’ss two twenties from your wallet. You pick up a gallon of milk and a few other things - and there goes another. You try to fill your child’s prescription, and they tell you, Sorry, that’s no longer covered. After a while, you feel like a human ATM - with all the money going the wrong way.
That’s why I’m here in Youngstown - because that’s what this election is about: It’s about you. It’s about your lives, your dreams, your future. I know that here at GM, you’ve had serious losses. But we can’t ever give up on our manufacturers and manufacturing jobs. No one should ever have to leave their family to earn a living.
In the end, it comes down to just one question: When the bright lights are off and the speeches are over, who can you count on to listen to you, to stand up for you, to deliver solutions for you?
For the past seven years, we’ve seen this President’s answer. He delivers perks for the special interests on a silver platter - one that was probably made in China. With President Bush, every day is Valentine’s Day for the special interests. They’ve grabbed tax breaks at every turn, exploited every loophole, and turned federal departments into their revolving doors.
And while you pinched pennies to stay within your budget, the President has blown the bank on tax breaks for his friends and no-bid contracts for his cronies - borrowing hundreds of billions from China to pay for it. He’s essentially signed a subprime mortgage on America’s economy. So when people ask me, Why can’t we get tough on China, I ask them, ;When was the last time you got tough on your banker?
China’s steel comes here - our jobs go there. We play by the rules - they manipulate their currency. And we get tainted fish, lead-laced toys, and poisoned pet food in return.
For seven long years, we’ve had a government of, by, and for the special interests - and we’ve had enough. It’s time to get real about our future. It’s time to level the playing field against the special interests and deliver 21st century solutions to rebuild the middle class. It’s time we made the solutions business America’s business.
Today, I’m announcing an agenda to reign in the special interests and save the American people at least $55 billion a year. Money that can go back into your pockets. Money we can use to create new jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, make college affordable and so much more.
We’ll take on the oil companies and harness their record profits to create millions of clean energy jobs - high-wage jobs you can raise a family on. I’ll end their special tax breaks and give them a choice: invest some of your profits in alternative energy, or we’ll do it for you. People have been paying through the roof at the pump, and it’s time the companies paid their fair share.
We’ll take on the credit card companies so that you and your families aren’t drowning in debt. Here in Ohio, payday lenders are actually taking Social Security checks from our elderly. That’s outrageous. I’ve proposed real consumer protections against abusive interest rates - capping them at no more than 30% and working to get them far lower. And I’ll ban those hidden fees and sudden rate hikes, because credit card companies shouldn’t be able to bait and switch you and your family.
We’ll take on the insurance companies and tell them they can no longer discriminate against the sickest people who need care the most. They spend more than $50 billion a year trying to figure out how not to cover people. Well, I’m going to save them a fortune and a whole lot of time, because here’s the new policy: No more discrimination period. So even if you have a pre-existing condition, you can get the health insurance you need - no questions asked. And I’ll go after drug companies and insurance companies that are overcharging consumers and the government - it’s time to end their profiteering at our expense.
We’ll take on Wall Street and tell them: you’re going to finally pay your fair share in taxes. Because it’s outrageous that a teacher making $50,000 pays a higher tax rate than some Wall Street investment managers making $50 million. And I’ll create a bi-partisan Corporate Waste Commission to review all those corporate subsidies - and propose a comprehensive way to end them. We can save billions of dollars a year and put it to work for you.
We’ll take on the student loan companies and tell them no more ripping off our sons and daughters. I’m proposing a Student Borrower Bill of Rights - no more deceptive advertising and outrageous fees. And we’ll end the inefficient subsidies for private student loan companies. Because we should be making it easier for our kids to go to college - not harder.
We’ll send a loud, clear message to all those companies shipping our jobs overseas. If you’re trying to take jobs away from Ohio, no more loopholes and no more tax rewards. I think we’ve had enough of this Administration using our tax dollars to encourage companies to outsource our jobs.
And let’s support the people who work those jobs. Let’s raise the minimum wage. Let’s support our unions by standing up for the right to organize and appointing people to the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board who are actually pro-labor.
I’m proud of what our unions do to serve this country every day. I commend the Building Trade Unions for their Helmets to Hardhats; program that places our veterans in all kinds of jobs - here in Ohio and across the country. That is truly patriotism in action.
I am proud to have the support of more than a dozen unions representing six million working families nationwide: sheet metal workers, sanitation workers, stage hands, mechanics, bus drivers, farm workers, letter carriers, painters, teachers, nurses, childcare workers, law enforcement officers, bricklayers and so many more. I’m proud to be labor’s candidate.
When my opponent puts out a mail piece with all sorts of false claims about my position on NAFTA, working men and women know the truth. You know I’ve been working to help create good jobs in New York and across America. That I have plans to create five million new, green collar jobs. And that my opponent doesn’t have much experience creating jobs at all.
And you know that I’ll crack down on unfair trade with countries like China. I’ve already proposed legislation to assess trade agreements every five years to see if they’re meeting their goals or if they need adjustments. And when I’m President, we will take a timeout from new agreements in order to create a new approach: One that is genuinely pro-American, pro-worker, pro-environment — and vigorously enforced.
I think it’s time for a President who works as hard for you as you work for America. A President who knows what manufacturing means to America.
Let’s be honest about something. When President Bush and Vice President Cheney say the economy is booming even though 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost; when they propose to cut the Manufacturing Extension Partnership; when they cut assistance to small manufacturers; when Senator McCain tells you business as usual on trade is just fine and tells neighboring Michigan workers that we can’t bring new manufacturing jobs back to the United States - they are sending you a clear message: They do not believe America needs a strong manufacturing base.
They think America doesn’t need to make anything anymore. They think those of us who remember how our manufacturers helped defend our freedoms in the great wars are just quaint and nostalgic. They think it would be just fine if every plane, every piece of machinery, every computer, every car were made somewhere else.
Well let me be clear: I believe manufacturing matters. I believe we should be restoring the Manufacturing Extension Partnership - not cutting it. I believe a strong America needs a strong American manufacturing base - and I intend to fight for one as President.
Some may call this the rust belt,; but that’s not what I see. I see some of the hardest workers in the world. I see great universities and strong communities. I see a 21st century manufacturing belt. An innovation belt. An opportunity belt.
I see a middle class comeback that starts right here, right now - in places like this.
Now, over the years, you’ve heard plenty of promises from plenty of people in plenty of speeches. And some of those speeches were probably pretty good. But speeches don’ put food on the table. Speeches don’t fill up your tank, or fill your prescription, or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night.
That’s the difference between me and my Democratic opponent. My opponent gives speeches, I offer solutions. It’s one thing to get people excited, I want to empower you to live your dreams so we can all go forward together.
There’s a lot of talk in this campaign about what kind of change we’ll bring. Well, change is going to happen whether we want it or not. The question is who will make progress.
My opponent says that he’ll take on the special interests. Well, he told people he stood up to the nuclear industry and passed a bill against them. But he actually let the nuclear industry water down his bill - the bill never actually passed. On top of that, the same company that watered down that bill lobbied for Dick Cheney’s energy bill. And my opponent voted for the energy bill, with its billions of dollars of breaks for the oil industry. I voted against it.
My opponent says he’ll stand up for workers. He often talks about the plight of Maytag workers in his home state. But the union at that plant supports me because when 1,600 jobs were being lost, they say he didn’t do a thing to help.
My opponent says to cut health care costs more aggressively than I do. But as an independent analysis from The Commonwealth Fund shows, the most effective way to lower costs is to truly cover everyone. His health care plan doesn’t. Mine does.
I was, however, glad to see that yesterday, my opponent adopted the goal of five million green collar jobs - months after I announced I would create five million green collar jobs. I was also glad to see that he modeled his $60 billion infrastructure bank on a bill I co-sponsored last summer to create a $60 billion infrastructure bank. Now, if only he would just copy my health care plan and provide coverage for every single American!
So there’s the difference between us - speeches versus solutions. Talk versus action.
In all seriousness, while some may think that words are change - I know that it takes work. You can’t just talk about the special interests - you have to take them on. I always have, and I always will.
If you want universal health care, you have to take on the insurance companies - that’s exactly what I did as First Lady. And when we weren’t successful, I kept on fighting until we got health care for six million children. I took on the drug companies to get vaccines for children - and today, childhood immunizations are at an all time high.
So I’ve stood my ground against the special interests. But I also know how to find common ground in the Senate, bringing together Democrats and Republicans to solve our toughest problems. I’m the co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Manufacturing Caucus, where we’ve worked to revitalize America’s manufacturing base. I created new partnerships to breathe economic life into struggling cities and towns in Upstate New York. We brought new investors, new capital, and funds for infrastructure and economic development.
That’s how I measure my life - not by applause or headlines - but by whether I’m helping people. I’m in this race because this nation gave me every opportunity, and I believe we can do the same for every family. That’s been the purpose of my life - standing up for people who weren’t getting a fair shake, people aspiring for a better future, people who need government on their side. And it will be the purpose of my presidency.
So yes, today the American Dream is being tested. But it’s been tested before. Tested by war and Depression. Communism and terrorism. Discrimination, division, and fear.
And that dream has always triumphed. It has grown stronger as each generation has made it their own and made it more real for more people.
It takes leadership and hard work. But we’ve never been short on either. So I hope you will join me in delivering the solutions we need for our nation’s economy and making sure our best days are yet to come. When the people of Ohio and America work hard and work together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.
Thank you and God bless you.
Reaction from Bill Burton, Obama campaign spokesman:
“Barack Obama doesn’t need any lectures on special interests from the candidate who’s taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any Republican running for President.
“Hillary Clinton should tell the people of Ohio the truth — she once bragged about helping to pass the nuclear bill she’s now criticizing Obama for, she came out with her plan for green jobs one month after Obama did, and she’s said she’d ‘go after’ people’s wages if they couldn’t afford health insurance under her plan.
Senator Clinton may have said that attacks and distortions are the ‘fun’ and ‘exciting’ part of the campaign, but they’re exactly what everyone else in America is tired of.”
Hillary Clinton has a commanding lead, especially among women, over Barack Obama in Ohio as Democrats get ready to make their choice in the state’s March 4 presidential primary.
A Quinnipiac University poll released today, Feb. 14, showed Clinton leading 55-34 percent among likely voters in the Democratic primary. She led Obama 45-19 in a poll released in December.
After a string of Obama victories, Ohio and Texas, which also has its primary March 4, have become must wins for Clinton.
While Ohio’s demographics and manufacturing-based economy play to Clinton’s strengths, Obama has not campaigned much in the state so far, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. In some other states, Obama has closed the gap with Clinton as he increased campaigning, said Brown.
A separate Quinnipiac Poll in Pennsylvania, showed Clinton leading Obama there among likely Democratic voters, 52-36 percent. Pennsyvlania holds its primary April 22 and also is important to Clinton’s efforts to rebound.
In general election matchups in Ohio, Republican John McCain was in virtual ties with both Clinton and Obama. He led Clinton, 44-43 percent and Obama, 42-40 percent. Both leads were within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percent.
In an open-ended question, the largest percent of Ohio voters -32 percent - picked the economy as “the single most important issue in your vote for president.”
In the Clinton-Obama matchup in Ohio, Clinton led among men, 52-42 percent and among women, 56-30 percent. Among white voters, she led 64-28 percent while Obama had a big edge among black voters, 64-17 percent..
Clinton had a slight lead among voters 18-44 years old, 46-42 percent. Among voters 45 and older, she had a big lead, 58-31 percent.
Voters without college degrees picked Clinton by a 58-32 percent margin, while those with college degrees gave her a slight boost, 46-41 percent.
Although Republican President Bush won’t be on the ballot, he could have an impact on the election, especially among independent voters who are crucial to victory.
Nineteen percent of independent voters - nearly one in five - agreed with the statement that: “I am so angry at President Bush that I will not vote for Republican John McCain for president in November.”
The Obama campaign released this statement about the poll:
“The Clinton campaign has declared that this is a must win state for Senator Clinton and she begins her campaign here as the default candidate since she has higher name recognition.
We believe Barack Obama is positioned to do well here because Ohio voters will make their judgment based on which candidate has been consistent in standing up to special interests and opposing unfair trade deals that cost American workers thousands of jobs — and which candidate can mobilize the American people and build the coalition of Democrats, independents, and Republicans to bring the change our country desperately needs.”
For full poll results, see:
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x2881.xml
Michelle Obama is coming to Columbus and Cincinnati on Friday to campaign for her husband, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Details will be announced later, the Obama campaign said.
Her visit will mark the Obama campaign’s first Ohio primary stop.
Obama will be campaigning in Ohio the same day that her husband’s rival in the March 4 Democratic presidential primary - Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York - also is stumping in the state. Clinton will be in Lyndhurst, a Cleveland suburb.
Buried in Gov. Ted Strickland’s 2007 campaign finance report is a $60 expenditure at Hooters in Santa Monica, Calif.
Ted Strickland, the mild-mannered ordained Methodist minister at Hooters?
“The governor just really likes their wings,” said Alex Goepfert, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.
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In case Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign doesn’t know, maize and blue are the colors of the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan is Ohio State’s biggest rival, especially in football.
That’s why it was strange to see a maize and blue - with some white thrown in - banner Wednesday in the background when Chelsea Clinton, Sen. Clinton’s daughter, spoke at Ohio State. The banner said “Hill Blazers Our Voice Our Future.”
Isaac Baker, Clinton campaign spokesman, said those are the colors of the Hillblazers Web site, part of the campaign’s outreach to young voters.
It’ll be interesting to see what colors Barack Obama flies if he visits Ohio State. Ohio State’s colors are scarlet and gray.
David Wilhelm, who ran Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign and later served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, endorsed Barack Obama - not Hillary Clinton - for president on Wednesday.
Wilhelm, who grew up in Athens, has returned to Ohio and is the founder of a venture capital fund that makes investments in businesses in the Appalachian part of Ohio. Obama has momentum, he’d the most electable Democrat in November and he has run the best campaign, said Wilhelm.
“We cannot outexperience John McCain but we can win on change. We should embrace the candidate who owns change, who owns optimism, who owns the future, who owns idealism, who knows that change is his competitive advantage and is prepared to drive that message with discipline and enthusiasm at every opportunity,” Wilhelm said.
He said that Obama has the potential to be a “65 percent president…not a 51 percent president,” capable of putting together a big enough majority to make major changes in the country.
The Clinton campaign Wednesday formally claimed the endorsement of former U.S. Rep. Tony Hall of Dayton.
They announced it as part of a list of Ohio endorsements that they called their “Ohio Leadership Council. The list also included Montgomery County Commissioner Judy Dodge and former Montgomery County Democratic Party Chair Dennis Lieberman, as well as established Clinton backers Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, Gov. Ted Strickland and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn.
Hall said he decided to endorse Clinton months ago in part because the Clintons “have been friends of mine and have been very good to me over the years.”
“There are three qualities I like to see in my president: I like compassion, I like toughness and I like experience, and she has all three of those qualities,” he said.
He said he got to know Sen. Clinton well when she invited him to accompany her to Mother Teresa’s funeral when she was First Lady. The trip was 48 hours in the air and 12 to 15 hours on the ground.
“When you’re on a plane with each other for 48 hours, you get a lot of talking done,” he said.
He said he planned to campaign for Clinton in Ohio for three days before the March 4 primary. “I’ll go wherever they want me to go,” he said. “I suspect they’ll keep me around the Dayton area, but who knows.”
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It’s official: The debate is on.
Despite the Clinton campaign’s concerns about an MSNBC personality’s derogatory comments about Chelsea Clinton, the Clinton campaign on Wednesday agreed to participate in a Feb. 26 debate hosted by NBC-WKYC Channel 3 at Cleveland State University.
The Obama campaign has already agreed to participate in the Feb. 26 debate. Clinton had initially agreed to the Feb. 26 debate, but later suggested she might withdraw after MSNBC’s David Shuster said the Clinton campaign “pimped out” Chelsea by having her call celebrities and Democratic party superdelegates. Shuster was later suspended for the network for his remark.
But Wednesday, Clinton spokesman Isaac Baker said the campaign had decided to go forward as planned.
“We still have concerns about the behavior of members of the NBC team, but that should not stop Ohioans from getting an opportunity to see the candidates debate the issues,” Baker said.
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Samantha Yarnell was a Barack Obama supporter before she heard Chelsea Clinton speak Wednesday morning at Ohio State University.
Now Yarnell, 19, a sophomore, is undecided as to who she’ll vote for in Ohio’s March 4 Democratic presidential primary.
“I am up in the air,” she said.
Chelsea Clinton, 27, came to Ohio State to campaign for her mother Sen. Hillary Clinton in an attempt to woo away some of the youth vote that has been backing Obama. Chelsea Clinton is scheduled to speak at Sinclair Community College at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Dayton and before that was to appear at Ohio Wesleyan University.
“My mom is still standing for universal health care,” Chelsea Clinton said, noting that her mother’s health care plan includes a mandate that all Americans must get coverage while Obama’s doesn’t.
She also pushed her mom’s plans for making college education affordable, improving primary and secondary education and reforming immigration.
Before hearing Chelsea Clinton, Yarnell said that she wasn’t sure that Sen. Clinton’s experience in Washington was a good thing but afterwards said she now thinks the experience may be a positive. She’s not making any commitments, however.
“Now I really want Barack to come (to Ohio State),” she said.
House Minority Leader John Boehner Wednesday, flanked by other House Republican leaders, endorsed Sen. John McCain for President.
Boehner, R-West Chester, had vowed to remain neutral in the race because of his role as chairman of the Republican National Convention, but that changed when it became clear McCain would be the party’s nominee, according to a spokeswoman.
But Boehner stressed that his endorsement wasn’t just perfunctory, and his endorsement is hoped to regain back some of the conservative love that McCain has lost because of his stances on illegal immigration and campaign finance reform, among other issues.
“I think all of have known Sen. McCain has had positions that have differed with some in our party and clearly I’ve had some disagreements with Sen. McCain over the years, but I’ve got to tell you, I’ve watched this presidential race unfold and I’ve watched John McCain be a strong advocate for the principles I believe in,” Boehner said. “John McCain believes we need more fiscal responsibility here in Washington, that we need to eliminate wasteful spending. John McCain believes in the sanctity of human life, something that many of us believe in strongly.”
But Boehner said he really gained renewed respect for McCain because of his decision to support the troop surge in Iraq last year. McCain’s decision to forcefully support the decision to add troops to Iraq, he said, bought President Bush and General David Petraeus invaluable political time.
“John McCain stood up and helped provide leadership at a time when it was desperately needed,” he said.
Before the 10 a.m. press conference, McCain and Boehner met privately in Boehner’s office in the Capitol. After that, they went together to the Capitol Hill Club where they met with the Republican conference. When they walked in, they were met with a standing ovation.
McCain, meanwhile, said he’ll be in Ohio next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.
As reported below by Bill Hershey, Chelsea Clinton will be in Dayton Wednesday.
Here are details of Hillary Clinton’s visit Thursday and Friday: Thursday she’ll be in Youngstown in the morning and in Columbus in the afternoon for a “Solutions for America ” rally with former Senator John Glenn and Gov. Ted Strickland. That event will be at the French Field House next to Saint John Arena at the Ohio State University. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. The event is at 6.
On Friday, Hillary Clinton will be in Lyndhurst, Ohio, for a rally at Charles F. Brush High School scheduled for 5:30 pm. Doors open at 4 p.m.
Chelsea Clinton, meanwhile, will also attend rallies at 10:45 a.m. at Cleveland State University on Thursday, Feb. 14, and at the University of Akron at 1:15 p.m. later that day.
We’ll give you additional details as we get them….
The hotly contested Democratic presidential campaign comes to Dayton Wednesday with a 4 p.m. visit to Sinclair Community College by Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Sen. Hillary Clinton.
The “Our Voice, Our Future” event is open to the public but seating and space will be limited, said Gary Honnert, college spokesman. It will be in the library on the lower level of Building 7.
Visitors may park in the Student and Visitor Parking Garage on W. Fifth Street.
Sen. Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois are competing in Ohio’s March 4 Democratic primary.
Chelsea Clinton, 27, will come to Dayton after stops earlier Wednesday at Ohio State University in Columbus and Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware. She will campaign in Cleveland and Akron on Thursday.
Clinton ad tackles a money issue: the economy
THE AD:
“Falling through,” 30-second television commercial.
WHERE TO SEE IT:
Starting Tuesday on broadcast TV.
Continue reading for the ad’s script, a description and analysis from The Dispatch.
SCRIPT:
Clinton: “The Bush economy is like a trap door. Too many families are one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment, one medical diagnosis away from falling through and losing everything.
The oil companies, the predatory student loan companies, the insurance companies and the drug companies have had seven years of a president who stands up for them.
I intend to be a president who stands up for all of you. I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message.”
VIDEO:
Opens with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York holding a microphone and speaking.
Follows with a film of a working woman, a blue-collar worker, an elderly woman going over her mortgage, a woman in a hospital, an oil tanker, and children studying, before concluding with a smiling Clinton shaking hands with supporting voters.
The commercial flashes brief slogans promising to create millions of news jobs, freezing foreclosure and mortgage rates, ending tax giveaways to oil companies, investing in education, providing health care for every American, standing up to the insurance and drug companies and winning tax cuts for the middle class.
ANALYSIS:
The commercial, which has aired in other primary states, does not mention her chief opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
The ad is designed to take advantage of the sluggish economy; unemployment in Ohio has increased from 3.9 percent in 2000 to 6 percent today.
But some of the slogans are misleading.
For example, Clinton’s call for investing in education implies that education spending has been stagnant under President Bush.
In reality, federal spending for secondary and high school education has grown 41 percent since 2001.
In addition, state and local governments typically provide more than 90 percent of the money for primary and secondary education; the federal government accounts only for approximately 7 percent of education spending in Ohio.
The tax cuts for the middle class should come with a cautionary warning. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned on middle-class tax cuts in 1992, but in a now-you-have-it, now-you-don’t moment, he jettisoned the tax cut early in his presidency and proposed a broad-based energy tax that would have hit every working American. The Senate in 1993 killed the energy tax.
With the reference to oil companies, Clinton takes an indirect shot at Obama for voting for the final version of the $12.3 billion energy bill in 2005, which included tax breaks for energy companies.
But earlier that year, Clinton voted for the original $16 billion Senate version, which included some tax incentives to encourage oil production. The original Senate version, however, was more oriented toward conservation and renewable energy than the final measure.
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More debate madness, courtesy of WKYC in Cleveland.
Also: Alana Russo, a spokeswoman for MSNBC/NBC says that the Clinton camp has not formally withdrawn from the planned Feb. 26 debate.
“We’re hopeful the debate will go on as planned,” she said.
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With his wife Annie at his side, John Glenn, space hero and former U.S. senator, gave his support to Sen. HIllary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president on Tuesday.
“In my view Sen. Hillary Clinton is the best qualified to provide leadership for this future and it is my pleasure to endorse her candidacy and recommend her to the voters of Ohio,” Glenn said to cheers in a downtown Columbus hotel.
“I know her very well. I respect her. I trust her. I like her….She’s experienced … and I think she’s fully capable of being a great president starting on day one.”
Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher attended the event, an indication of the support Clinton has from Ohio’s Democratic establishment in her campaign against Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Glenn didn’t tell the adoring crowd that he got his political start as an outsider, against the wishes of the Ohio political establishment. In 1974, then Democratic Gov. John J. Gilligan and most other leading Democrats backed Howard Metzenbaum but Glenn defeated Metzenbaum in the U.S. Senate primary and went on to serve four Senate terms.
Obama ad tackles a thorny issue: health care
THE AD:
“Mother,” 30-second TV commercial.
WHERE TO SEE IT:
Starting Tuesday on broadcast TV.
Continue reading for the ad’s script, a description and analysis from The Plain Dealer.
SCRIPT:
Obama: My mother died of cancer at 53. In those last painful months, she was more worried about paying her medical bills than getting well.
I hear stories like hers every day.
For 20 years, Washington’s talked about health care reform and reformed nothing.
I’ve got a plan to cut costs and cover everyone. But, unless we stop the bickering and the lobbyist, we’ll be in the same place 20 years from now.
I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message because to fix health care, we have to fix Washington.”
VIDEO:
The color video opens with a young looking mother holding a happy, smiling child. Yes, it’s a shot of Barack with baby teeth and his mother.
With present day Obama as narrator, the candidate outlines a few snippets of his health care plan.
The scenes faded into several shots with Obama chatting alone with older adults.
Graphics labeled The Obama Plan say ‘Universal coverage for all Americans’ and ‘Saves typical family $2,500.’ Viewers are directed to his website BarackObama.com/healthcare for more details.
Another graphic tells viewers “Vote March 4 6:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.” — the polling hours in Ohio.
ANALYSIS:
Obama started his ads in Ohio on cable. In this first ad on free TV, Obama tackles a thorny issue.
Obama appears to be attempting to get in front of challenger Hillary Clinton by quickly presenting his health care plan to Ohio voters in the early days leading to the pivotal March primary for Democrats.
Hillary Clinton, while First Lady, began a bid for a type of national health insurance about 15 years ago, albeit unsuccessful.
Obama needs to look like he’s got his own plan.
But, Obama himself has conceded that his plan and the proposal from Clinton are very similar. At the January debate in Los Angeles, Obama said his plan is about 95% like Clinton’s.
For example, independent analysts have said Clinton’s proposal is estimated to save $2,200, according to factcheck.org., a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Key difference: His plan would not be universal because it does not mandate that everyone enrolls.
While the Obama website on health care offers good detail, is it unfair to expect some detail in these 30-second spots?
Because we don’t think so, let’s say this ad has a whiff of doubt.
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Sen. Hillary Clinton launched her first TV ad in Ohio today.
The 30-second ad, called “Falling Through,” aims to hit right at the heart of a problem that’s nailed Dayton and Cleveland, among other Ohio cities: the foreclosure crisis, as well as the larger economic troubles in the state.
Clinton would put a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and at least a five year freeze on interest rates for subprime mortgages.
Here’s a script:
“FALLING THROUGH” TV :30
Hillary Clinton: The Bush economy is like a trapdoor.
Too many families are one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment, one medical diagnosis away from falling through and losing everything.
The oil companies, the predatory student loan companies, the insurance companies and the drug companies, have had seven years of a president who stands up for them.
I intend to be a president who stands up for all of you.
I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message.
What do you think of her ad?
Democratic Party super delegates are a popular bunch these days, taking calls from the Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama campaigns as the two candidates battle for the party nomination.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is one of those guys. He said he’s not going to announce who he supports until Ohio voters have a chance to weigh in on March 4. But that doesn’t keep the candidates from trying.
Not long ago Brown was at home with his wife, Connie Schultz, when the phone rang. As Brown tells it, he picked up the phone and “the guy says, ‘Senator Brown, President Clinton would like to speak to you.” Next thing he knew Clinton was on the line saying, “Sherrod.”
Without thinking, Brown “stood up and said, ‘Mr. President.’”
At that, Brown’s wife looked at him and remarked, “He can’t see you.”
Gov. Ted Strickland must be serious about his proposal to ask voters to approve a $1.7 billion economic stimulus bond issue in November.
The governor has set up a PAC - political action committee - to raise money to support passage of the issue. Separately, Strickland has set up a nonprofit corporation to more generally support the bond issue and all other job creation efforts.
Attorney Don McTigue is handling the legal paperwork. McTigue said there’s no limit on contributions to either the PAC or nonprofit corporation.
Strickland has said that if the legislature doesn’t vote to put the issue on the ballot, he will launch a campaign to gather more than 400,000 signatures from registered voters to put the issue on the ballot that way.
The governor has said passage of the issue would create more than 80,000 jobs in areas such as renewable energy, infrastructure and biomedicine. House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, has said borrowing money is not the best path to job creation and that he favors a pay-as-you-go approach.
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Hillary Clinton, hoping to win delegate-rich Ohio on March 4, will be spending a ton of time in the Buckeye State starting this week.
Her campaign announced Monday that she’ll visit Ohio on Thursday and Friday. Chelsea Clinton will visit the state - specifically, Columbus - on Wednesday and Thursday.
Details on the trip are forthcoming.
John Glenn, the former astronaut and four-term U.S. senator, is expected to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president on Tuesday.
Glenn, 86, the first American to orbit the earth and a long-time friend of both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, is expected to announce his choice at a Columbus press conference, according to a source close to the Democrats.
Glenn’s expected endorsement comes as both HIllary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama begin focusing on Ohio’s March 4 primary in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Also, Clinton plans to campaign in Ohio Thursday and Friday and her daughter Chelsea Clinton is expected to campaign in the state on Wednesday and Thursday, said Isaac Baker, spokesman for the campaign.
Obama is expected in Ohio “soon,” a campaign spokesman said.
The latest on the Ohio Democratic presidential candidates’ debate: Hillary Clinton’s communications director Howard Wolfson today reiterated that campaign’s desire not to participate in any debate having anything to do with MSNBC.
That means, for those reading between the lines, no debate in Cleveland on Feb. 26 - a debate that Barack Obama’s campaign had agreed to. But NBC did not return calls Monday on whether or not Clinton has formally withdrawn from the debate.
The Clinton campaign is tweaked over a comment by an MSNBC personality suggesting that Chelsea Clinton, 27, had been “pimped out” by the campaign. Wolfson on Friday called the comments “beneath contempt.”
“I, at this point, can’t envision a scenario where we would continue to engage in debates on that network,” Wolfson said then.
Monday, pressed again on whether the debate was on or off, Wolfson called MSNBC personality David Shuster’s comments part of a “pattern of behavior,” though he did not name names. Shuster was suspended by the network for his comments.
“We had agreed to a CNN debate held in Ohio,” Wolfson said, referring to a debate invitation offered by CNN for Feb. 27. “We have agreed to a debate in Ohio.”
He said there’d been “no change in posture” since Clinton said she does not envision participating in a debate on that network.
“We hope there will be debates,” he said. “We are obviously eager for their to be debates.”
Ohio’s primary is scheduled for March 4.
We’ll update with comments from Obama’s camp as we get it.
Ohio and Texas will be the “firewall that makes it possible” for Sen. HIllary Clinton to win the Democratic presidential nomination and then the presidency, Gov. Ted Strickland said Monday.
Ohio and Texas hold their primaries March 4.
“I think it would be very difficult for her to proceed to eventual victory without winning Ohio. I’m not saying that that’s not possible but I think it would make it much more difficult,” Strickland said after voting absentee at the Franklin County Board of Elections in Columbus.
Meanwhile, Sen. Barack Obama unveiled his first TV ad for Ohio’s Democratic primary. It touts Obama’s health care plan which a campaign press release said “would cover all Ohioans and do more to cut costs than any other candidates’ plan.”
Strickland said “who I voted for is my right as an American citizen to keep secret but I will tell you I’m supporting Sen. Clinton for president so that may give you an idea of who I voted for.”
The governor cast his ballot as part of the Clinton campaign’s effort to promote early voting. In Ohio any voter can vote absentee up to 25 days before the March 4 primary.
The get-out-the-vote drive in the Ohio Democratic presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama already has started.
Democrat Hillary Clinton’s Ohio presidential campaign will kick off early voting efforts across the state Monday with events in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown and Akron.
In Ohio any voter can vote absentee up to 25 days before the March 4 primary.
In Dayton, Montgomery County Commissioner Judy Dodge and other Clinton supporters are scheduled to gather from noon until 12:30 p.m. at the Montgomery County Board of Elections, 451 W. Third St., the Clinton campaign said.
Gov. Ted Strickland will headline the Columbus event, also set for noon at the Franklin County Board of Elections.
Also, the Clinton campaign has opened its Ohio office in downtown Columbus in the same building where Strickland had his campaign headquarters for the 2006 governor’s race, Isaac Baker, Clinton campaign spokesman said.
An MSNBC anchor’s suggestion that the Clinton campaign had “pimped out” their 27-year old daughter has a previously agreed-upon Feb. 26 debate in Cleveland in question.
After MSNBC’s David Shuster suggested that the Clinton campaign “pimped out” Chelsea by having her call celebrities and Democratic party “superdelegates” to campaign for her mother, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson Friday criticized Shuster, caling his comment “beneath contempt.”
“I, at this point, can’t envision a scenario where we would continue to engage in debates on that network,” he added.
But the campaign hadn’t formally backed out of the previously agreed upon MSNBC/NBC debate scheduled for Cleveland State University as of late Friday. According to the Associated Press, Shuster, who apologized on the air for his comment, has been temporarily suspended from appearing on all NBC news broadcasts except to offer his apology.
Ohio’s primary is scheduled for March 4. CNN had previously invited both campaigns to participate in an Ohio debate scheduled for Feb. 27, but Sen. Barack Obama was reluctant to commit to that date. Instead, his campaign said they preferred the broad reach of an NBC debate, particularly since NBC affiliates throughout Ohio said they would air the Feb. 26 debate.
An Obama campaign staffer said Friday afternoon that as far as he knew, the Feb. 26 debate was still on.
Sen. George Voinovich said Friday that he is endorsing Sen. John McCain for President, despite expressing concern a month ago about his lack of management experience.
Voinovich, who had not yet endorsed a Republican candidate but had expressed admiration for former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s management experience, told McCain on the Senate floor Thursday that he would support him. The conversation occurred hours after Romney suspended his campaign.
On Jan. 8, Voinovich shied away from backing a candidate but expressed respect for Republican Mitt Romney’s management experience. “He has proven himself in the business sector,” he said. McCain, he said, had “very little experience in terms of management.”
The two have had an occasionally shaky relationship, disagreeing most recently on a plan to reduce carbon emissions that Voinovich feared would hurt Ohio’s economy.
But Voinovich put that aside Thursday when he approached McCain on the Senate floor to congratulate him on his success in the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primary. Voinovich said independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a McCain backer, told him he’d need Voinovich’s help in Ohio. Voinovich said he promised he’d help.
“We’ve had differences of opinion on some of these issues, but I want him to know he can count on me to do everything I could to help him carry the state,” Voinovich said.
He said he’ll likely call former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who is spearheading McCain’s Ohio campaign in the next week or two to see what he can do for McCain’s campaign.
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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott had an opportunity at last night’s school board meeting to talk to Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin and City Commissioner Nan Whaley about their Democratic presidential choices. Here’s what the two local Democrats had to say.
Mayor Rhine McLin said she is, so far, uncommitted. As a black woman, she said, she feels natural affinity for both Obama and Clinton.
“It’s really tough for me,” she said. “I know how it feels to break that glass ceiling. But I also like the idea of a candidate who transcends race, color, and gender and really energizes people.”
McLin said she wants to support the candidate who addresses issues she cares most about. She wants to hear more from them about where they stand and how they will govern.
“I want to believe if I support a woman that she is going to be president and not be a surrogate for her husband,” she said. “I want a president who understands urban issues in cities like Dayton — rust belt cities — and are serious about those issues. It’s about what they would do for my city’s residents to make their lives better.”
City Commissioner Nan Whaley said she also like both candidates but is solidly in Obama’s camp.
“I like Obama,” she said. “He gives me hope. I think it is a movement. People my age, and a little older or a little younger, need that in politics. Being a female and seeing Hillary in the race is really tough. But it’s not all about that.”
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Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton will debate in Ohio after all.
After backing away from a planned Feb. 27 CNN debate in Ohio Wednesday, Obama on Thursday agreed to a Feb. 26 debate at Cleveland State University hosted by NBC News and WKYC, the NBC affiliate in Cleveland.
NBC affiliates throughout Ohio, including the affiliate in Dayton, have agreed to air the debate, according to the Obama campaign.
Clinton’s campaign confirmed late Thursday that she, too, will participate in the Cleveland State University debate.
“We’re glad Sen. Obama has come along and decided to join us in the debate and we look forward to additional debates,” said Isaac Baker, a Clinton spokesman.
Clinton had agreed to participate in the CNN debate, and her supporters were sharply critical of Obama after he appeared initially reluctant to participate in an Ohio debate.
Even Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who has remained neutral in the race, urged both candidates to debate in Ohio so Ohio voters could hear them talk about economic issues important to the state.
The two candidates have already participated in 18 debates.
The NBC debate will be moderated by Brian Williams and Tim Russert and will be streamed live on MSNBC.com. It will air on Telemundo the same evening after it is translated into Spanish.
Between now and the Nov. 4 election, hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent by political parties, candidates and independent groups trying to sway Ohio voters in the presidential race, said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern predicted that at least $50 million will be spent on the Democratic side alone.
“It’s a good time to be a salesperson at a local TV station,” Redfern said.
Redfern and DeWine made the comments Thursday at a panel discussion with reporters sponsored by the Associated Press of Ohio.
When asked about vice presidential candidates, Redfern said he thinks the dream ticket for the Democrats would be Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton. DeWine didn’t commit to what would be his party’s dream combo.
When asked which congressional races in Ohio are truly competitive, Redfern said he thinks his party will capture two of four seats that are currently held by Republicans Ralph Regula, Jean Schmidt, Deborah Pryce and Steve Chabot.
DeWine retorted that he thinks his party will hold those seats and Republican Jim Trakas has a shot at upsetting U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich in a Democratic stronghold because Kucinich has been too busy running for president.
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Sen. Barack Obama may not participate in a planned Feb. 27 debate in Ohio, saying he’d prefer to spend the time up to Ohio’s March 4 primary talking to voters, not to Sen. Hillary Clinton.
“Sen. Obama has debated Sen. Clinton 18 times during this campaign - including four times in the last month,” said Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman. “There will be more debates before this race is over. Right now, Sen. Obama will focus his time in Ohio on meeting with and listening to the concerns of voters rather than talking again to Sen. Clinton.”
The campaign left open the possibility that Obama might later change his mind.
Earlier in the day, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson reiterated Clinton’s desire to hold a debate a week between the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primary and March 4, the day that delegate-rich states Ohio and Texas are set to vote. Wolfson credited part of Clinton’s success on Super Tuesday to her debate performance. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, an Obama supporter, said he did not think Obama’s decision would impact his performance in the state.
“What Ohio wants is for Barack to be here and he can be here and see the people of the state, people in Columbus, Dayton, Cleveland and Cincinnati, without being in a debate,” Coleman said.
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, a Clinton supporter, said she was disappointed by the announcement. “I would hope he would be willing to give the people of Ohio the opportunity to hear him go one on one with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,” she said. “The people of Ohio, in light of Ohio’s importance to this election, deserve that opportunity.”
If the Republican contest is still going, CNN is planning a GOP debate in Ohio on Feb. 28.
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Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign says she’s accepted an invitation to be in Ohio for a Feb. 27 presidential debate.
The campaign made the announcement in a press release saying Clinton also had agreed to three other post-Super Tuesday debates.
“This is an important opportunity for voters in the upcoming states to hear directly from Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama and make an informed decision about who is the best Democratic candidate for president of the United States,” Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle said in a press release.
CNN and the Ohio Democratic and Republican Parties are putting on back-to-back presidential debates in Ohio -Feb. 27 for the Democrats and Feb. 28 for the Republicans.
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, also has said that he expects U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to be in Ohio for the Republican debate. DeWine backs McCain.
Representatives of other campaigns have said they were focusing on Super Tuesday but more announcements about coming to Ohio are expected.
Either Cleveland or Columbus is expected to host both debates but a location has not been formally announced.
The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus doesn’t like some of Gov. Ted Strickland’s plans to balance the state budget.
The 17-member, all-Democratic group said in a press release that before closing two state psychiatric hospitals - including the Twin Valley Behavioral Health Care-Dayton Campus and a hospital in Cambridge - fellow Democrat Strickland should have dipped into the state’s $1 billion rainy day fund.
Also, Strickland should have used the rainy day fund instead of stopping hiring in the Education Department, the release said.
The group also came out against Strickland’s plan to expand the Ohio Lottery by putting electronic video Keno games in bars, racetracks and other locations.
“This kind of gambling is destructive to Ohio’s communities and does not address the structural difficulties that cause the present situation,” the release said.
“We have not been consulted on the effects of these cuts on African Americans in Ohio,” caucus President Tyrone Yates said in the release. “I hope the governor reaches out to us, so that we can work together to figure out how to do more with less.”
Strickland last week announced plans to close a $733 million hole in the current two-year budget and said he would not dip into the rainy day fund unless more savings were needed.
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State Rep. Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, is one of nine candidates being interviewed Wednesday by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio nominating council. The council will send four names to Gov. Ted Strickland to consider for the one position.
If Strahorn is appointed, he’ll be the second commissioner with Dayton ties. Former Dayton city manager Valerie Lemmie was appointed to the PUCO by Gov. Bob Taft.
The PUCO regulates electric, telephone and natural gas companies in Ohio and oversees hazardous-materials carriers and railroad crossings. A seat on the commission pays between $97,760 and $119,995 per year plus benefits, and commissioners have the power to review some business mergers, open the books of multimillion-dollar companies and make rules that affect every Ohioan.
State law requires a politically balanced PUCO. No more than three of the five commissioners can be from any one political party. Commissioner Don Mason, who is among the nine being interviewed, is a Republican seeking re-appointment.
With Mason, the PUCO currently has two Republicans, two independents and one Democrat.
Republican Tom Raga, a former state representative, is helping establish the Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which advocates for transparency in government and lower taxes. The group is particularly opposed to Ohio’s estate tax
“This tax doesn’t raise that much money. It’s essentially the export your wealthy citizens to Florida tax,” said Jack Boyle, state director for the Ohio chapter.
“A loved one’s death should never be a taxable event,” AFP’s literature says.
Now, that’s not to say that Raga is against all taxes. As a matter of fact, at the same time Raga is volunteering for AFP, he is advocating for a renewal of the property tax that supports Sinclair Community College, where he works full-time.
Former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell (in photo) has been called to testify this week before Congress.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich., and Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., sent a letter to Blackwell requesting his testimony at a hearing to address voter suppression efforts. The hearing will be held Friday at 9:30 a.m.
Here’s the text of the letter:
January 29, 2008
Mr. Kenneth Blackwell Family Research Council 801 G Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001 Dear Mr. Blackwell:
The Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is planning to hold an oversight hearing on “Voter Suppression” on Friday, February 8, 2008, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building. We are writing to invite you to testify at this hearing. The hearing will explore the current state of voting rights and the allocation of resources to end voter suppression and voter fraud.
There were a number of election irregularities in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential Election. Cumulatively, these irregularities, affected hundreds of thousand of voters. As we look forward to the 2008 Presidential Election, the Committee seeks to explore policies that should be implemented to avoid future voting problems and ensure that every American can exercise their right to vote.
Please contact Caroline Mays at (202) 225-2825 to inform the Committee of your availability. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr. Chairman Committee on the Judiciary
Jerrold Nadler Chairman Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
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The campaign to take “politics” out of the business of drawing state legislative and congressional districts goes on.
State Rep. Larry Wolpert, R-Hilliard, is taking up the cause this time.
Wolpert said he’ll introduce a resolution - which would have to be approved by the House and Senate - to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
The plan would create a seven-member redistricting commission to draw state legislative and congressional districts in the year after each census, emphasizing fairness. It would add competitiveness as a factor in drawing the districts, a concept not addressed in the Ohio Constitution now, Wolpert said in a press release.
The four Democratic and Republican legislative leaders in the Ohio House and Senate each would pick one member of the commission and the remaining three members would be picked by a unanimous vote of the first four.
The legislature now draws the congressional districts and the Apportionment Board draws the state legislative districts. The board includes: the governor, secretary of state, auditor and a legislator from each party.
If things stay the way they are now, Republicans, who control the legislature, would have the upper hand in drawing congressional districtcs after the 2010 census.
Democrats would have the upper hand in drawing legislative districts because they would hold three of the five seats on the Apportionment Board - governor, secretary of state and one legislator.
Brunner behind on fund-raising
If Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner held a party for her big campaign contributors — the ones who shelled $5,000 or more last year — the room would be filled with plumbers and pipefitters. That’s it.
The Ohio State Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters political action committee donated $5,000 to Brunner’s campaign last year. That was Brunner’s single biggest campaign contribution. No one else gave more than $2,500.
Last year, Brunner raised only $40,483 in fresh campaign money — the lowest amount among the five statewide elected officials, according to reports filed Thursday.
Sure, 2007 was a non-election year but Brunner, an elections lawyer and a Democrat, will have to ramp up fund-raising in a serious way. The Ohio Republican Party is sure to target her seat in the 2010 elections. The Secretary of State sits on the five-member Apportionment Board, which draws legislative district maps after the 2010 census. Whichever party controls the apportionment board gets to draw the maps to their advantage, ensuring favorable legislative districts for the following 10 years.
Kevin DeWine, the Fairborn Republican who’s deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, says he’s excited. So is Chris Redfern, state Democratic chairman.
CNN is cooperating with the Ohio Republican Party and Ohio Democratic Party to hold back-to-back presidential debates in Ohio on Feb. 27 (the Democrats) and Feb. 28 (the Republicans), just days before Ohio’s March 4 presidential primary, they said.
“I’m pretty excited that CNN wants to come in and work directly with both parties. I think it shows just how important Ohio is in the general election and how important Ohio will be in picking the nominees for both parties,” said DeWine, a state representative.
“It’s great to have them here in Ohio. It’s going to generate a great deal of interest,” said Redfern, a state representative from Catawba Island.
No final decision has been made on location but both debates will be held in the same city and Cleveland and Columbus are the most likely sites, said DeWine and Redfern. They’re best suited to handle the crowd of reporters, satellite trucks and everything else that comes with a debate, they said.
DeWine said CNN approached the Republicans last week after Ohio Republicans had approached Fox to talk about a debate. The debate will be in the evening, he said.
The announcement comes just before next Tuesday - “Super Tuesday” - with primaries and caucuses for both Republicans and Democrats in more than 20 states. With contested races on both sides, it’s more and more likely that the winners won’t be decided until the primary campaign gets to Ohio.
The Democratic race has become a two-person battle between Sen. Hilllary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are the clear frontrunners but former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas remain in the GOP race.
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