Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road, ‘cuz baby we were born to run

2 comments April 16th, 2008

Hillary may have Elton John’s endorsement, but The Boss has come out for Obama. Bruce Springsteen, who wrote “Born In the U.S.A.,” a song about a dying Midwestern industrial city, said “over here on E-Street we’re proud to support Obama for president.

Obama forces hope the New Jersey-bred Springsteen’s backing will help him win blue collar white male voters in Pennsylvania this Tuesday.

What Obama should have said about small town Pennyslvanians

14 comments April 12th, 2008

Barack Obama has this habit of confronting realities in ways that , while true, hit people in the solar plexus. His speech on race was one example.

And last Sunday in San Francisco, speaking to a relatively small group of, well, San Franciscans, Obama said he’s observed that people in small town Pennsylvania are frustrated and strained by the lack of jobs, which have been disappearing for 25 years. He said such people often “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” because they’ve lost their sense of well-being from an earlier time when a stable economy ensured peace of mind.

Well, Hillary Clinton pounced on that statement, and I hear that small town Pennsylvanians may be in a media-induced tither.

However, while Obama’s choice of words was clumsy, there is truth in what he said. The floor has been cut out of the economy in much of what once was middle class America. The uneasiness is palpable. People cling to those things that are more fundamental. For some, it’s their faith, for others its guns, for some, the only way to explain what went wrong is the influx of illegal immigrants — it’s their fault.

If I had written Obama’s speech, I would have said it this way:

“As I’ve crisscrossed Pennsylvania, and many other states, I’ve noticed something disturbing. Through no fault of their own, the people who make this country run are being put upon at every level. Their jobs have been sent offshore. And the replacement jobs? If you can find one it doesn’t pay the cost of gas to get to work. Their health insurance plan is cutting back on the care they get while raising the price of premiums they and their employers pay. They wonder what they did to get in this mess. The truth is, they did nothing wrong. They were sold out by their own government, which created the policies that reward companies to send jobs overseas and let foreign companies dump cheap products here, while we can’t export our goods to them..

This can make you bitter. And I’ve seen it on the campaign trail. People cling to the things that don’t change, chief among them, their faith in God, which historially has sustained people in times both good and bad. But sometimes cling to other things, such as guns to make them feel secure, or they try to explain what’s happening to them by blaming illegal immigrants. And this didn’t have to happen. This country had plenty of jobs and prosperity to go around, jobs that create economic well being among families, communities, states, and the nation. And that’s what we’ve got to rebuild — a stable economy built on jobs that you can raise a family on.”

Obama didn’t say that. But I think that’s what he meant.

No signs

Add comment January 3rd, 2008

Des Moines — It’s 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, caucus day in Iowa. It’s clear, with the temperature, I estimate, about 18. One thing I noticed was something I did not see — candidate signs. The only one I saw along I-80 from Davenport to Des Moines was for libertarian Repulblican Ron Paul. Hillary Clinton’s people are playing down Iowa’s importance, saying it’s just the beginning of the season, she doesn’t have to win here, and it’s a marathon, not a sprint to the Democratic nomination. ownplaying exepectations is smart, because if you win, you’ve done better than you told people you would, and if you don’t, you’re just meeting the low expectations you set for yourself. Make sense? In political land, it does.

Obama is staging a last minute round of rallies in the state, shouting, “Fired up? Ready to go?” to his crowds, who answer the questions with “Fired up! Ready to go.”

John Edwards is counting on his substantial network of friends and contacts around the state, dating from his strong, second place finish here in 2004.

Folks, it’s anybody’s guess which of these three candidates win the Democratic caucuses tonight. Back at you later.

chuck

Obama

Add comment January 2nd, 2008

Barack Obama benefits in Iowa because he’s the senator next door, here in Illinois, so Iowans, especially in the eastern portion of their state, know him well because there are shared Illinois/Iowa media markets in St. Louis, Quincy, the Quad Cities and Dubuque.

But Obama is counting on new caucus-goers to come out and stand in their man’s corner. That’s risky business. Ask Howard Dean. He was the front-runner going into Iowa’s 2004 caucuses, but his 3,000 student volunteers weren’t from Iowa and despite their door-to-door campaiging, they lacked the longtime relationships needed to bring people to the caucus. John Kerry had formed just that kind of relationship with Iowa’s Democratic party establishment, and he won the caucuses of ‘04.