Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > October > 09
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Obama chows down and chats up with voters in Georgetown
GEORGETOWN - On his first stop in Ohio’s Appalachian region during a two-day campaign swing, Democrat Barack Obama chowed down and chatted it up with customers at the Fireside Restaurant in Georgetown in Brown County.
“Oh, my God,” waitress Heather Shepherd said on Thursday, Oct. 9, after meeting him. “I am awe struck. It was just awesome.”
Accompanied by Gov. Ted Strickland, who had pushed for the Appalachian campaign stops, Obama ordered a “Big O” cheeseburger sandwich and coconut cream pie.
Mayor Dale Cahall, whose son Nathan is Centerville economic development administrator, said he thinks Obama can carry the county even though President Bush won the county with more than 60 percent of the vote in 2004.
“;I just think he’s more in touch,” said Cahall, who was accompanied by his wife Barbara.
Strickland has encouraged Obama to campaign in person in Appalachia to court moderate and conservative Democrats.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment |
Obama promises “rescue plan for Main Street” to Cincinnati crowd
CINCINNATI-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a cheering Cincinnati crowd on Thursday, Oct. 9, that if elected president he would look out for Main Street as well as Wall Street.
Obama told the estimated 15,000 people gathered in Ault Park in the Hyde Park neighborhood that the $700 billion financial bailout passed by Congress was necessary but that it wasn’t enough.
“What we need to do now is pass a rescue plan for Main Street,” said Obama.
As he did at an earlier stop in Dayton, Obama blasted Republican John McCain’s leadership as “erratic” and unfit for uncertain economic times. As president, Obama promised to be a “steady” hand.
He said McCain’s proposal to order the Treasury Secretary to buy up bad mortgages at their full face value rather than reduced values would cost taxpayers money and benefit the greedy bankers and lenders who caused the financial crisis in the first place.
Tucker Bounds, McCain campaign spokesman, said in a prepared statement that McCain’s plan wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything and accused Obama of putting politics above the nation’s critical needs.
Despite the seriousness of the financial crisis, there was almost a festive air in the park under a sunny, blue sky as the crowd repeatedly chanted “O-Ba-Ma.”
Edna Falconi came to the rally from Hamilton in Republican leaning Butler County where she’s been working as a volunteer for Obama.
“I’m worried about my Social Security,” said Falconi, 60, a retired accounting clerk. Falconi said she fears Obama would invest Social Security in the stock market.
James Neal Jr. and his wife Gloria also came from Hamilton and brought along their two sons, James and Justin.
“This is just history,” said Gloria Neal. “I had to come.”
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment |
Those glasses! That hair!
The “Palin Power” t-shirt that will be sold at tonight’s Wilmington appearance by Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin is the creation of Amy Gantt, wife of Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Greg Gantt.
Mrs. Gantt’s Lulabell Designs has sold a couple hundred of the shirts for $15 a piece, said Mr. Gantt.
He said he gave one of the shirts to Meghan McCain, daughter of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, during her visit here on Saturday. Her website includes a photograph of a guy named Josh holding the “Palin Power” t-shirt.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment |
Eye on Ohio: Obama ‘Coin’ ad
By Jessica Wehrman Dayton Daily News
THE AD: “Coin,” 30 seconds.
PRODUCER: The Obama-Biden campaign
WHERE TO SEE IT: Key states across the country.
SCRIPT: Barack Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.
Announcer: On health care, there are two sides. Barack Obama would require insurance companies to cover routine treatments, like vaccines and mammograms. John McCain would deregulate the insurance giants … letting them bypass patient protections in your state. Obama would force insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. McCain would let them continue to do as they please. Isn’t your health care too important to be left to chance?
VIDEO: The image begins with a shot of Obama meeting with a couple. It then flips to a shot of a dime flipping through the air. The coin then shows an image of Obama with the words “cover routine treatments like mammograms.” Then the image in the coin becomes a black and white shot of McCain. Text on the screen reads: “McCain: Let Insurance Giants Bypass Patient Protections. The image shifts to one of Obama meeting with people, and the text on the screen reads: “Obama: Cover Pre-existing Conditions.” Then the image shifts again to McCain, this time with President Bush. The text is “McCain: Let Insurance Companies Deny Coverage.” The video concludes with a shot of the dime dropping.
ANALYSIS: The fight over deregulation has moved from banks to health care, with Barack Obama reviving an argument that McCain’s health care proposals would be akin to the now heavily-criticized deregulation of the banking industry.
Obama’s aim with this ad is to paint McCain as out-of-touch on an issue that is important for most Americans, and he paints McCain as letting insurance companies wreak havoc through deregulation while Obama would require insurance companies to do more.
McCain has argued for opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous competition and offering more choices by loosening state-based regulation. His plan would give families up to $5,000 in tax credits to buy insurance but would begin taxing the value of health benefits that people get through work.
Obama has criticized the approach as a “shell game” that gives and takes tax money.
Obama’s health care plan, meanwhile, would aim for universal coverage through a mixture of private and expanded public insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, he would require employers to offer “meaningful” coverage or contribute a percentage of payroll towards the costs of a public plan. Small businesses would be exempt. Obama would require all children to have health insurance.
Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Obama’s approach would force employers to have to find a way to offset added costs, including by raising prices, lowering wages or reducing future wage increases. He also criticized his plan as locking employers further into an employment based health insurance system at a time when “we should be moving in the opposite direction.”
But Obama supporter and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, in a conference call with reporters, argued McCain’s plan would “dismantle state-based regulation and tie the hands of those involved in consumer protection,” and suggested that deregulation of health care would lead to the same troubles that the deregulated banking industry now faces.
McCain’s campaign, unsurprisingly, disagrees. They argue Obama’s plan is a big-government solution that would do little more than stretch an already-stretched federal budget and create a cumbersome new bureaucracy.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Eye on Ohio
Obama blasts McCain’s “erratic and uncertain leadership”
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a cheering Dayton crowd today, Oct. 9, that the nation can’t afford Republican John McCain’s “erratic and uncertain leadership” in uncertain times
Obama said that McCain’s plan to direct the Treasury Secretary to have the government buy up bad mortgages would hurt taxpayers and reward irresponsible lenders.
He said that the plan McCain announced Tuesday, Oct. 7, at the presidential debate in Nashville wasn’t really a new one. The problem is the way McCain would carry it out, Obama said.
“Senator McCain actually wants the government to pay the full face value of mortgages on the books,” he said at the rally at Fifth Third Field. The Obama campaign estimated the crowd at 8,500.
Using more than $300 billion like this would reward Wall Street greed and irresponsibility and wouldn’t change the behavior that caused the crisis, said Obama.
McCain at first proposed that the government buy the mortgages at marked down rates and then shifted positions, Obama said.
“Well, I don’t think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times,” said Obama. He promised to be a steady leader.
“… that’s why im running for President of the United States of America,” he said.
The McCain campaign lashed back.
“John McCain’s homeownership resurgence plan represents absolutely no new expense to the taxpayer, but simply refocuses priorities to more directly assist the homeowners who are hurting instead of greed on Wall Street,” Tucker Bounds, McCain-Palin campaign spokesman said in a prepared statement.
Bounds said it was the latest example of Obama “putting politics above the national interest.”
Despite his blasts at McCain, Obama struck an upbeat note with the crowd gathered under a sunny blue sky.
He said that despite uncertain times, Americans will pull together with courage and innovation to create new jobs in Dayton and across the country. Together, we cannot fail, he said. He asked his supporters to renew their efforts to win the election.
“…if you want an economy that rewards work, and that works for Main Street and Wall Street, if you want tax relief for the middle class and millions of new jobs, if you want health care you can afford and education that helps your kids compete, then I ask you to knock on some doors, make some calls, talk to your neighbors, and give me your vote on Nov 4th. And if you do, I promise you - we will win Ohio, we will win this election, and then you and I - together - will change this country and change this world. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America,” he said.
From Dayton, Obama headed out about 2 p.m. for Cincinnati and another rally before ending the day at a rally in Portsmouth in Scioto County in Ohio’s Appalachian region.
Obama fared poorly in Scioto County and the rest of Appalachia in the Ohio Democratic primary which Hillary Clinton won.
Clinton got more than 80 percent of the vote in Scioto County. Gov. Ted Strickland, who’s from Duck Run not far from Portsmouth, has said it’s important for Obama to make his appeal personally before the conservative and moderate Democrats in the region whose support will be critical in the general election. Strickland was with Obama in Dayton and is expected to be with him in Portsmouth.
On Friday Obama will campaign in Chillicothe in Ross County and Columbus before heading for Pennsylvania, another battleground state. Chillicothe also is in Appalahcia and Sen. Clinton won Ross County in the Democratic primary with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Permalink | Comments (190) | Post your comment |
McLin warms up crowd
Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, who recently announced her own re-election plans, warmed up the crowd on Thursday, Oct. 9, for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s rally at Fifth Third Field.
“Sen. Barack Obama has vision and plans that will help change the direction of our country,” McLin told the crowd, gathered on a sunny day, with not a cloud in the blue sky.
“He is committed to bringing those job opportunities back home again by ..a new approach to old problems,” she said.
She compared him to Dayton visionaries such as Charles Kettering and John Patterson.
McLin spoke about 11:05 a.m. with Obama expected about 11:20 a.m.
“Sen. Obams is the only candidate with an original plan, not one warmed over (for) eight years,” she said.
She told them to choose the candidate that was the most “innovative and original.”
The crowd chanted “yes, we can.”
Permalink | Comments (28) | Post your comment |
Forner Delphi worker to introduce Obama
Tony Curington, a former Delphi worker, will introduce Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at the rally today, Oct. 9, at Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Obama’s campaign announced.
Curington worked at Delphi from 1985-2006 and took a buyout after the company filed for bankruptcy, the campaign said.
After leaving Delphi, Curington became a consultant with Workforce Services Unlimited, a for-profit company largely funded through government grants that works to direct displaced workers into training programs, the campaign said.
In June of 2008, the plant that Curington worked at was closed down completely, and currently his primary responsibility at WSU is to work with the displaced workers of his old plant, the campaign said.
Obama has made creating renew jobs a top priority, a key state in Ohio which has lost nearly 200,000 jobs since Republican President Bush took office in January of 2001.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment |
Mich., Ohio rank 1-2 in campaign visits - so far
The Ohio State-Michigan football game still is more than a month away, but Michigan leads Ohio so far in one political battle - campaign visits by presidential candidates.
According to FairVote, Michigan (12.4 percent) and Ohio (10.3 percent) rank 1-2 so far in the percentage of visits the candidates have made to the states since Sept. 5, the day after the Republican National Convention.
That’s likely to change, however, with Republican John McCain’s recent decision to pull out of Michigan, where Democrat Barack Obama has a big lead. Here’s the rest of the most-visits Top Ten.
Pennsylvania—9.3%
Colorado—8.3%
Virginia—8.3%
Missouri—7.2%
Florida—6.2%
Wisconsin—6.2%
New York—5.2%
New Mexico—4.1%
Click here for an interactive look at the candidates visits to Ohio.
For a complete listing of the candidates visits to all 50 states, click here.
FairVote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that studies the impact of electoral rules and systems on turnout, representation and electoral competition.
