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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 22
Monday, September 22, 2008
Eye on Ohio: “Need Education” ad for Obama
THE AD: “Need Education,” a 30-second TV ad
PRODUCER: Barack Obama campaign
WHERE TO SEE IT: National cable and in key battleground states.
SCRIPT:
LILLY LEDBETTER: I worked at this plant for 20 years before I learned the truth. I’d been paid 40 percent less than men doing the same work. John McCain opposed a law to give women equal pay for equal work. And he dismissed the wage gap saying women just need education and training. I had the same skills as the men at my plant. My family needed that money. On the economy, it’s John McCain who needs an education.
BARACK OBAMA: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.
VIDEO: Opens with archival shots of the Goodyear plant and Lilly Ledbetter. Cuts to shots of Lilly Ledbetter addressing the camera. Cuts then to a brown screen saying “John McCain opposed a law to give women equal pay for equal work, then saying “John McCain dismissed the wage gap…saying women just need ‘education and training.’” Cuts back to Lilly Ledbetter speaking to the camera, then ends on a shot of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
ANALYSIS: Sen. Barack Obama has made the push for women voters even before he beat Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary earlier this year. This ad makes the argument that if elected, he’d be better than McCain for women, particularly on the issue of pay equality. Obama included a line in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination calling for equal pay between men and women. He’s also held private calls with women leaders and had women surrogates hold press conferences on his behalf.
This ad uses Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama woman who fought at the Supreme Court level for pay equality, to make the case that he’d work for equal pay.
She cites an April 23, 2008 Associated Press story by Libby Quaid reporting that McCain opposed a Senate bill seeking equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits. McCain skipped a vote on the issue to campaign in New Orleans. Senate Republicans ultimately killed the measure, which both Clinton and Obama backed.
In that same story, however, McCain is quoted as saying, “I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems … This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.”
That bill was named for Ledbetter.
According to the National Organization for Women, in 2005, women’s median annual earnings were only 77 cents for every $1 earned by men. The gap is even more stark for women of color.
But an analysis of Obama’s own U.S. Senate office by Scripps Howard News Service columnist Deroy Murdock finds the Illinois senator falls short: While Obama’s average male employee earns an average of $54,397, Murdock found, his average female employee earned $45,152 on average. Murdock surmises that this is in part because of the under-representation of women in Obama’s highest compensated ranks. Among Obama’s five best-paid staff, only one was a woman.
McCain, meanwhile, paid his male staffers an average of $53,936. His female staffers averaged $55,878. Of McCain’s top-five best paid staffers, three were women.
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TweetMcCain heads for Columbus after debate
Republican presidential candidate John McCain will have back-to-back appearances in Columbus after his debate with Democrat Barack Obama on Friday, Sept. 26.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, McCain will speak to the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation’s “Save Our Heritage” rally at the Aladdin Shrine Temple, McCain’s campaign said on Monday, Sept. 22. McCain will spend the night in Columbus.
Then on Sunday, Sept. 28, McCain will be appear on the ABC TV news show, “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” The show will be broadcast from the Great Southern Theatre in downtown Columbus.
Stephanopoulos is expected to ask McCain questions gathered from a cross section of central Ohio voters who are undecided about their choice for president.
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Tweet“Ohio Women for McCain-Palin” kick off efforts
Two Ohio political pioneers led the charge as “Ohio Women for McCain-Palin” formally rolled out their plans and hopes on Monday, Sept. 22
Jo Ann Davidson, the first woman speaker of the Ohio House and now Republican National Committee co-chairman, joined Betty Montgomery, the first woman elected as Ohio attorney general, in urging more than 50 women to get behind the Republican McCain-Palin ticket in the presidential election. State Rep. Diana Fessler, R-New Carlisle, was in the group.
“We have brought together two people who are mavericks, who are reformers…,” Davidson said in the Women’s Gallery at the Statehouse in Columbus.
There were Democrats in the Republican-dominated crowd, some still smarting from the mistreatment they said Hillary Clinton got in the Democratic presidential primary.
“We as women have to put country before party,” said Marilu Sochor from Powell, a Democrat for McCain-Palin.
A Dayton Daily News/Ohio Newspaper poll released on Sunday, Sept. 21, showed the Democratic Obama-Biden ticket leading McCain-Palin, 48-43 percent among women likely voters. That wasn’t as much of a lead as McCain-Palin had among men, 54-35 percent.
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TweetStrickland in New York to raise political bucks
Gov. Ted Strickland never takes off his governor’s hat but sometimes he pops on a political lid as well.
On Monday, Sept. 22, and Tuesday, Sept. 23, Strickland will be in New York City raising money for the Strickland for Governor committee - he faces re-election in2008 - and the Ohio Democratic Party, said Allison Kolodziej, who’s working out of the Ohio Democratic Party as a spokeswoman for the governor.
Strickland is expected back in Ohio on Wednesday, Sept. 24, Kolodziej said.
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TweetBiden heads to Cincinnati
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden will campaign in Cincinnati on Wednesday, Sept. 24, the Obama-McCain campaign announced on Monday, Sept. 22.
Public attendance to the event is by invitation. Details are to be announced later. Biden, a U.S. senator from Delaware, was in Ohio last week for a campaign bus trip.
His visit comes as Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama prepare for Friday’s first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
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TweetManufacturers say Yes to payday lending reforms
The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association endorsed a Yes vote on Issue 5, a ballot issue that, if adopted, will keep the state’s new pay day lending reform law.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s office is reviewing petitions now to see if the pay day lending industry has 241,365 valid voter signatures or if they need to collect more in order to make the Nov. 4 ballot.
The manufacturers said they want the reform law to stay in place to protect workers from unscrupulous lenders.
“Congress already has capped the interest rates that payday lenders can charge military families,” said Ohio Manufacturers Association President Eric Burkland. “Ohio manufacturers want those same benefits extended to all Ohio families.”
A Yes vote on Issue 5 keeps the 28 percent rate cap in place. A No vote allows lenders to continue charging 391 percent annual interest.
Those supporting a Yes vote include: Gov. Ted Strickland, Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, the Ohio Roundtable, Ohio Farm Bureau, Habitat for Humanity, AARP Ohio, Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks, Center for Responsible Lending and others.
Those supporting a No vote include: Ohio Grocers Association and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
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