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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 01
Monday, September 1, 2008
McCain and Obama can’t stay out of Ohio
Republican John McCain can’t stay out of Ohio. Neither can Democrat Barack Obama.
McCain on Monday, Sept. 1, was in Waterville, near Toledo, where he visited ISOH/IMPACT, a community based non-profit, tax-exempt, charitable organization. Their mandate is devoted to providing a better future for children and their families worldwide, according to the group’s Web site.
McCain is expected back in Ohio on Tuesday, Sept. 2, for a stop in Cleveland, according to this campaign. Details weren’t available.
Tuesday’s stop will make the sixth straight day that McCain or Obama or both of them have been in Ohio and it’s only early September, with two months to go in the presidential campaign.
McCain started things on Friday, Aug. 29, with his announcement of his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, at Wright State University. He arrived in Ohio the night before. The streak included Obama’s two-day bus trip with stops in the Youngstown area, Cleveland, Morrow County, Dublin, Lima and Toledo.
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Protesters hit streets of St. Paul
ST. PAUL, Minn. — More than 100,000 anti-war protesters took to the streets at the Republican convention … four years ago in New York.
But here in St. Paul, the promised 50,000 war protesters fizzled into a rag tag bunch of a few hundred who marched, danced and ran through downtown St. Paul between the Minnesota state capitol and the Xcel Energy Center.
The protesters, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Che Guevara,” “Ron Paul” and “Funk the War,” carried flags and danced to a blaring techno beat. St. Paul Police officers, wearing gas masks, helmets and flak jackets, stood by on foot, horseback and bicycles in the sweltering sun.
Officers formed human walls, closing off downtown streets in an attempt to keep protesters from swamping the Xcel Energy Center where thousands of delegates from across the country were gathering for the first day of an abbreviated convention.
Some protesters got a face full of pepper spray and their compatriots came to their aide, rinsing their eyes with a milky vinegar solution. The vinegar smell mixed with the aromas of horse manure and body odor.
One 24-year-old woman who said she was from Cleveland said she turned out to protest the military industrial complex and express joy in the face of oppression by dancing in the streets. Really.
Photos by Jeff Bruce
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Ohioans front and center
ST. PAUL — When Ohio’s delegates to the Republican National Convention stepped onto the floor of the Xcel Center Monday, they discovered they had the best seats in the house.
State delegations are arranged in sections around the floor of the arena, and Ohio’s spot is dead-center, directly in front of the lectern.
State party Chairman Bob Bennett suggested to delegates that this favored position might just have something to do with Jo Ann Davidson. Davidson, former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and Chair of the Committee on Arrangements — including furniture arrangements, evidently.
Ohioans enjoyed similar seating in Denver last week at the Democratic National Convention, such is the pull the state has as a critical swing state for both parties.
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Button, button, Fran’s got the buttons
ST. PAUL — These buttons aren’t for sale on card tables outside the convention center.
They aren’t available online.
You won’t find them at a John McCain rally.
But the “Buckeyes for McCain” buttons are a hot commodity among Ohio delegates.
Fran DeWine handmade the buttons for the 170-member delegation, sewing together buckeyes, ribbons and little golden cords to the McCain button on her 12 hour drive between Cedarville and Minneapolis.
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine told delegates on Monday, Sept. 1, that the buckeyes came from trees along their street in Greene County.
Reporting by Laura Bischoff; photo by Jeff Bruce
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DeWine: We can win Democrats’ votes
MINNEAPOLIS — Republicans have an opportunity to snag enough Ohio Democratic voters to win the presidential election, former Sen. Mike DeWine told state delegates Monday.
Saying he has traveled to 82 of Ohio’s 88 counties on behalf of the McCain campaign, DeWine said, “What I have found is we have a great opportunity to pick up Democrat votes.”
When talking to Democrats around the state, he said, the issues that resonate are energy, national security, taxes and judicial selection.
“The vast majority of Ohioans are on our side on these issues,” DeWine said.
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Countdown to the next gaffe
MINNEAPOLIS — Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett told delegates at their morning breakfast Monday that they can anticipate a kinder, gentler convention.
“All week, we’re going to take on a less partisan tone,” he said.
Maybe among Buckeyes, but not at the national level. Not if the Republican National Convention’s web site is any indicator.
Log on to www.rnc.or and at the top of the page is a countdown with the words:
“Time since Biden’s Last Gaffe: 01 Days, 19 Hours, 24 Min, 10 Sec.”
No, wait, it’s 11 seconds, 12 seconds…
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Ralph Nader coming to Cincinnati, Columbus
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez are bringing their presidential campaign to Ohio next week.
On Sept. 8 at 1 p.m., Nader and Gonzalez will speak at Drexel Theater East, 2254 E. Main St. in Columbus. Contribution: $10/$5 students
Later that day, they will speak at a rally in Cincinnati at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Hall, 1229 Elm St. Contribution: $10/$5 student.
For more information, go to votenader.org
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Palin’s daughter pregnant
ST. PAUL — It turns out that Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, is pregnant after all.
The blogosphere has been filled with rumors that the Alaska governor had faked her last pregnancy to cover for her daughter.
To quash those rumors, the McCain campaign today announced that Bristol is five months pregnant, will keep the baby and will mary the father.
“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,” Sarah and Todd Palin said in a statement released today. “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”
Bistol is the oldest of the Palin’s three daughters and is a high school senior. She was named after Bristol Bay, the family’s favorite place for fishing. The couple also has two sons, an 18-year-old and the most recent, Trig, 4-months-old.
CNN reported that the McCain campaign was aware of her pregnancy. “Senator McCain knew this and felt in no way did it disqualify her from being vice president,” a campaign spokesperson said. “Families have difficulties sometimes, and lucky for her she has a supportive family.”
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Protestors gather for march on convention
ST. PAUL — Protestors from more than 100 organizations are expected to gather at the state Capitol here for an anti-war march through the city to the Xcel Center, site of the Republican National Convention.
Hurricane Gustav has robbed the demonstrators of the audience they were hoping to reach — President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who abandoned plans to speak at the convention opening.
Indeed, all of Monday’s speakers have been canceled as the GOP will slim opening day activities to business necessities and abandon the usual speeches and rallying of the troops.
Whether the convention will resume its schedule has yet to be determined as convention organizers and the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, John McCain, evaluate the damage Gustav is wreaking on the Gulf Coast.
Part of that calculation is the public relations damage that might be incurred if images of partying delegates is paired by the media with images of the flood-ravaged coast. It was three years ago this week that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and the Bush administration’s sluggish response to that natural disaster has not been forgotten.
Protest organizers say they are expecting about 50,000 people to convene at the Capitol for two hours of speeches followed by a march through downtown, scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. EDT.
Police have arrested six people associated with the RNC Welcoming Committee, which police have identified as an anarchist group involved with the planned demonstration. Police said they confiscated weapons and buckets of urine that, presumably, could be thrown on police, during raids here and in Minneapolis.
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Pawlenty: Democrats have the free stuff advantage
Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, once on the short-list of likely Republican vice-presidential candidates, summed up the disadvantage Republicans face Monday, Sept. 1, at a breakfast with the Ohio Republican delegation.
“We’re running against opponents who are creating the illusion that they’re giving away free stuff,” he said, to laughter. “And it’s hard to run against opponents who say they’re giving away free stuff.”
Republicans, he said, talk about thrift, personal responsibility, discipline in the financial markets.
“The other side says, ‘you’ve got worries and anxieties? We’ll just give you some free stuff,’” he said. “But you know it’s not free.”
McCain, he said, is “someone who can break through that.”
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Ohio Republicans draw Rove, Romney to delegation breakfasts
Among the joys of being a swing state: You get big-name speakers come visit you.
Ohio Republicans found this out Monday, Sept. 1, when Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty spoke to their delegation breakfast.
Former White House advisor Karl Rove and former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney are scheduled to speak Thursday morning to the delegation. And conservative talk show host Sean Hannity is scheduled to talk to the group on Wednesday.
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How McCain pulled off his Palin surprise
That much-written about flight from Anchorage into Middletown airport last Friday actually carried members of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s family and not Republican vice-presidential pick Palin herself, former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and his wife Fran said Sunday, Aug. 31.
Palin flew into Ohio hours earlier from Arizona, they said, and met with a speechwriter to work out the details of the Nutter Center announcement. The speechwriter was kept in the dark until meeting her, and barred from using his BlackBerry or cell phone afterwards.
Speculation about Palin began Friday after news media including this paper and the Middletown Journal reported that a charter flight flew into Middletown from Alaska.
Ohio delegates Sunday said they were thrilled with McCain’s pick. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who hosted a paddleboat cruise on the Mississippi River, called her a “breath of fresh air,” and got the crowd on the riverboat pumped up by expressing his excitement about her. “And how about Sarah - whoo!” he said, to cheers in the crowd.
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Ohio delegates raise $21,000 rolling on the river
Fran DeWine, a Cedarville Republican delegate and wife of former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, said she managed to raise some $21,000 for those affected by Hurricane Gustav at a paddleboat cruise along the Mississsippi River for Ohio Republican delegates Sunday, Sept. 1.
The DeWines themselves pledged $1,000 of their own money up front, and raised more than $10,000 from delegates. Their dollars were matched by the event’s sponsors, which included First Energy, the American Chemistry Council, Abbott and Forest City Enterprises. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who hosted the paddleboat cruise, also planned on making a contribution.
Republicans also planned for a modified schedule Monday, meeting from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., rather than well into the night. The modified schedule was aimed at accommodating some of the party business that must be done to nominate Sen. John McCain.
A planned reception in honor of State Auditor Mary Taylor was bumped up to 6 to 8 p.m. Monday.
Officials said they planned on modifying the rest of the week’s schedule according to what happened after the storm hit land
