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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 09
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Obama on DHL hearing
Here’s Sen. Barack Obama’s take on the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the proposal to allow UPS to carry DHL’s domestic air freight:
“I commend the House Judiciary Committee for holding a hearing today on the implications of the proposed deal between DHL and UPS, which would allow UPS to assume DHL’s air transport services. I have called for a hearing on the same subject in the Senate.
“Several years ago, DHL purchased Airborne’s trucks and hired much of its personnel. However, DHL was unable to buy the entire company, which included air transport services, because of federal rules preventing foreign firms from owning domestic airlines. ABX was then established in Wilmington, Ohio, to take control of Airborne’s air transport operations, which DHL uses as its primary contractor for that service. Today, DHL wants to terminate that contract and instead contract with UPS, a primary competitor, for those services.
“This proposed deal creates two problems. First, as a matter of consumer policy, it threatens competition to allow two direct competitors to act as partners. Second, it would eliminate 8,000 jobs in Wilmington as well as other jobs that depend on DHL workers, and it would abandon the infrastructure they currently use. Because UPS will use its existing infrastructure and employees to handle DHL’s delivery needs, this deal is unlikely to create new jobs.
“While these companies are not proposing a merger, DHL and UPS intend to partner to have UPS provide a key component of the delivery service DHL sells. I have asked the Department of Justice to examine the proposed deal because I believe that it would be bad for consumers and competition, and may possibly violate antitrust laws. This deal would result in DHL becoming almost entirely dependent on its main competitor - UPS - to deliver packages for DHL, and therefore may very well cause serious harm to competition in the express package delivery market. The Justice Department should oppose any deal that would substantially reduce competition and consumer choice in this vital market.
“If the antitrust scrutiny concludes that the deal is legal and it moves forward, the federal government has a real responsibility to step in and help all of those that will be unemployed. Unfortunately, this situation would not qualify these workers for trade adjustment assistance since the jobs are not being shifted overseas; nor are they the result of a free trade agreement. Instead these jobs are being lost in the context of a global market and competition among multinational firms.
“If we know in advance that a deal like this will disrupt a community, then the government should have a strong rapid response strategy that combines federal and state resources and lets people know we will not abandon them. We have reached out to the Administration on this issue, and to its credit, the Administration has a team working on it.
“After everything the people of Ohio did to attract DHL’s business, DHL owes it to them to try to negotiate, in good faith, an alternative structure or a new contract to save these 8,000 jobs. Congress was responsive and open to DHL when high-priced Washington lobbyists represented its interests in purchasing Airborne years ago. Now, Congress owes it to the hardworking people of Ohio and American consumers the same level of access, deference, and responsiveness that DHL received.”
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Eye On Ohio: Obama’s ‘Same’ ad
By Anthony Shoemaker
The ad: “Same,” 30 seconds.
Producer: Barack Obama campaign.
Where to see it: It’s airing in battleground states, including Ohio. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: (Announcer) “They share the same out-of-touch attitude. The same failure to understand the economy. The same tax cuts for huge corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent.
“The same questionable ties to lobbyists. The same plan to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq when we should be rebuilding America.”
(John McCain): “I voted with the president over 90 percent of the time, higher than a lot of my even Republican colleagues.”
(Announcer): “We just can’t afford more of the same.”
(Obama): “I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message.”
Video: The ad starts out with happy music — it would play easily in a Disney movie — and then shows still images of McCain with President George W. Bush.
The first has Bush and McCain almost in an embrace with the words “THE SAME” over the photo. The second shows Bush waving with McCain behind him. This time the words “THE SAME” appear along with the phrase “failure to understand the economy.”
The third image shows McCain arriving at the White House. This time the words “THE SAME” appear along with “tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.”
In the fourth image, McCain and Bush are smiling while the words “THE SAME” are paired with the phrase “questionable ties to lobbyists.”
In the next image, McCain and Bush are side-by-side, “THE SAME” again covers the image. The type says “plan to spend ten billion a month in Iraq.”
The photos of the duo are followed by a video of McCain saying, “I voted with the president over 90 percent of the time.”
The final scene of the ad shows Obama and running mate Joe Biden — with their shirtsleeves rolled up — and the phrase “Obama/Biden, for the change we need.”
Analysis: The Obama campaign has picked its theme: that a McCain presidency would be more of the same. This ad continues to beat that drum and suggests that, in the wake of the Republican convention, the game plan hasn’t change.
Regarding McCain’s statement that he voted “90 percent of the time” with the president: According to Congressional Quarterly and FactCheck.org, that figure actually was 95 percent for 2007. McCain voted 90 percent of the time with the Republican Party that year. CQ says that in previous years, though, McCain voted less along party lines. In 2005, he sided with the president 77 percent of the time; that was his lowest.
CQ also shows that Obama voted with Bush 40 percent of the time in 2007.
Anthony Shoemaker is an editor at the Dayton Daily News. E-mail: ashoemaker@coxohio.com.
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Obama promises to double funding for “responsible charter schools”
As president, Democrat Barack Obama says he would “double the funding for responsible charter schools.”
The pledge came in excerpts from a speech Obama is scheduled to give today, Sept. 9, at Stebbins High School in Riverside.
Obama also takes aim at his Republican opponent John McCain and McCain’s record on education in nearly three decades in Washington.
“…in those three decades, he has not done one thing to truly improve the quality of public education in our country. Not one real proposal or law or initiative. Nothing.”
McCain and Sarah Palin, his vice presidential running mate, were to campaign in the Dayton area today, in front of The Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon.
Here are the excerpts from Obama’s speech:
For decades, they’ve been stuck in the same tired debates over education that have crippled our progress and left schools and parents to fend for themselves.
It’s been Democrat versus Republican, vouchers versus the status quo, more money versus more reform. There’s partisanship and there’s bickering, but there’s no understanding that both sides have good ideas that we’ll need to implement if we hope to make the changes our children need.
And we’ve fallen further and further behind as a result.
If we’re going to make a real and lasting difference for our future, we have to be willing to move beyond the old arguments of left and right and take meaningful, practical steps to build an education system worthy of our children and our future.
In the past few weeks, my opponent has taken to talking about the need for change and reform in Washington, where he has been part of the scene for about three decades.
And in those three decades, he has not done one thing to truly improve the quality of public education in our country. Not one real proposal or law or initiative. Nothing.
Instead, he marched with the ideologues in his party in opposing efforts to hire more teachers, and expand Head Start, and make college more affordable. You don’t reform our schools by opposing efforts to fully fund No Child Left Behind.
And you certainly don’t reform our education system by calling to close the Department of Education. That would just make it harder for us to give out financial aid, harder for us to keep track of how our schools are doing, and lead to widening inequality in who gets a college degree.
That is not my idea of reform. That is not my idea of change. That is not a plan to help your kids compete with those kids in China and India.
After three decades of indifference on education, do you really believe that John McCain is going to make a difference now?
Giving our parents real choices about where to send their kids to school also means showing the same kind of leadership at the national level that I did in Illinois when I passed a law to double the number of charter schools in Chicago.
That is why as President, I’ll double the funding for responsible charter schools. Now, I know you’ve had a tough time with for-profit charter schools here in Ohio. That is why I’ll work with Governor Strickland to hold for-profit charter schools accountable, and I’ll work with all our nation’s governors to hold all our charter schools accountable.
Charter schools that are successful will get the support they need to grow. And charters that aren’t will get shut down. And we’ll help ensure that more of our kids have access to quality afterschool and summer school and extended school days for students who need it - because if they can do that in China, we can do that right here in the United States of America.
And when our teachers succeed in making a real difference in our children’s lives, we should reward them for it by finding new ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them.
We can do this. From Prince George County in Maryland to Denver, Colorado, we’re seeing teachers and school boards coming together to design performance pay plans.
So yes, we must give teachers every tool they need to be successful. But we also need to give every child the assurance that they’ll have the teacher they need to be successful. That means setting a firm standard - teachers who are doing a poor job will get extra support, but if they still don’t improve, they’ll be replaced.
Because as good teachers are the first to tell you, if we’re going to attract the best teachers to the profession, we can’t settle for schools filled with poor teachers.
