PA Small Town and Rural Leaders Reject Clinton and McCain Attacks

PA Small Town and Rural Leaders Reject Clinton and McCain Attacks

In open letter to fellow Pennsylvania voters, community leaders and elected officials reject broken politics of the past, affirm that Obama will fight for Pennsylvanians

PHILADELPHIA, PA�”Twenty-one elected officials and community leaders from small towns and rural areas throughout Pennsylvania today released an open letter asking fellow Pennsylvanians to set aside Senators Clinton and McCain’s recent attempts at political point-scoring and consider who will fight for them as President.

“A few days ago, Sen. Obama made some comments that his opponents are now using to make him appear as if he is something he is not. Instead of speaking to us honestly about how they intend to solve the problems we are facing, they are playing the same old Washington games that accomplish nothing,” the letter reads. “…The politicians who are now saying that we shouldn’t be frustrated are the ones who are out of touch.”

Citing a broken Washington politics that has allowed special interests and Washington lobbyists to crowd out the voice of working Americans, the authors praise Obama’s commitment to fighting for every day people and rejection the same old political games.

“Unlike his opponents who have been part of the Washington establishment for decades, Barack Obama understands the struggles we are going through,” the letter concludes. “We welcomed him with open arms as he made his way through small towns and rural areas on his recent bus tour across the state. And we will work day and night from now until the primary on his behalf not only because he has heard our frustrations, but because he speaks to our hope that Washington can actually work for people like us.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Fellow Pennsylvanian,

We live in small towns and rural areas throughout Pennsylvania and we support Barack Obama for President.

A few days ago, Sen. Obama made some comments that his opponents are now using to make him appear as if he is something he is not. Instead of speaking to us honestly about how they intend to solve the problems we are facing, they are playing the same old Washington games that accomplish nothing.

What Sen. Obama said is that over the last 25-30 years, working class people in places like Pennsylvania have been falling behind, and that politicians in Washington haven’t been looking out for them. He also said that, as a result, many people have become frustrated, angry and even bitter about all the broken promises.

He was right.

The politicians who are now saying that we shouldn’t be frustrated are the ones who are out of touch.

People in the towns and communities we live in have seen their jobs shipped overseas. We’ve seen our pensions disappear. We’ve seen our health care costs skyrocket. We’ve seen everything from the cost of gasoline to a gallon of milk go through the roof.

As our families have struggled to make ends meet and our communities fought to stay intact, how has Washington responded? By giving tax breaks to the wealthy, rewarding corporations who ship jobs overseas, and turning the levers of power over to the lobbyists and special interests.

It’s easy to feel a little frustrated when you see these Washington politicians continue to ignore you. But it’s not the only emotion we feel. When someone comes along who is untainted by the system in Washington , who doesn’t take money from federal lobbyists or special interests and who promises that things can be different, we feel something else�”hope.

That’s why we’re supporting Barack Obama. Others have come along and promised change, but failed to deliver. Sen. Obama is different than the rest. He doesn’t take money from the special interests, and he speaks honestly about the issues we are facing.

In addition to supporting his plans for jobs, health care and education, we believe that he can deliver on his promises to ensure economic opportunity for family farmers, to provide support for rural economic development, to promote renewable energy in rural America, to protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting, and to preserve open land for hunting and fishing.

Unlike his opponents who have been part of the Washington establishment for decades, Barack Obama understands the struggles we are going through. We welcomed him with open arms as he made his way through small towns and rural areas on his recent bus tour across the state. And we will work day and night from now until the primary on his behalf not only because he has heard our frustrations, but because he speaks to our hope that Washington can actually work for people like us.

Sincerely,

Ted Alter, State College

Westmoreland County Commissioner Tom Bayla, Greensburg

Mayor John Brenner, York

Lloyd Casey, West Chester �” President, Pennsylvania Forestry Association

Mayor John Fetterman, Braddock

Mayor Rick Gray, Lancaster

Scott Harrison, Warriors Mark

State Representative Bryan Lentz, Swarthmore

State Senator Sean Logan, Monroeville

Carl Majji, Claysville �” Corporal , U.S. Army

Mayor Thomas McMahon, Reading

State Senator Bob Mellow �” Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Leader

U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy, Doylestown �” U.S. Congressman (PA-08)

Perry County Commissioner Steve Naylor, New Bloomfield

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien, Dunmore

Fran Rodriquez, Lancaster

State Representative Josh Shapiro, Abington �” Deputy Speaker, Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Major General Walter Stewart, Berks County �” Former Commander, 28^th 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard

State Representative Dan Surra, St. Marys

State Representative Thomas Tangretti, Greensburg

Lackawanna County Commissioner Michael Washo, Scranton

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19480144&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=418218&rfi=6

E. do REGO,founder and chief administrator

Filed under: Barack Obama, Clinton

Obama Throws Gutter Ball, Clinton Plays Pals

Obama Throws Gutter Ball, Clinton Plays Pals: Margaret Carlson

Commentary by Margaret Carlson

April 3 (Bloomberg) — For his first time running a $200 million corporation, Barack Obama has done a good job. No small vendors left behind in Iowa or New Hampshire with their bills unpaid, no newspaper stories about staff members screaming at one another, no having to lend the campaign cash to keep going.

Yet he’s made two big mistakes, and they are doozies.

First, he didn’t see how regular folks who saw the videos of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright wouldn’t be able to get them out of their heads.

The clips are an unfair representation of 30 years of giving three sermons every Sunday, and Obama said he wasn’t in the pews when Wright delivered them. Still, he hasn’t said what remarks he was present for. And even if they were only a faint echo of what we’ve heard, why would Obama want his daughters to hear them or think those not conversant with black liberation theology wouldn’t be shocked?

His second big mistake is bowling with others in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He ignored the risk every politician faces when trying to be one of the people if they’re not, a risk that doubles if you pursue the official state sport when you’ve never worn a league shirt with your name above the pocket.

A savvy aide would have had Obama devote as much preparation to avoiding a 7-10 split as preparing for debates. Presidents know that if you aren’t sure you can get the first pitch from the mound across home plate, better to toss it (like a girl) from the bleachers.

No Joke, Sir

By now, as many people who will ever watch a candidate forum have likely seen Obama’s 37 score in a game that started with a gutter ball. He joked that an 8-year-old was giving him tips, but the reality is he didn’t even know how low a score it was. He should be grateful this wasn’t deer-hunting season.

It’s easy to see why Obama tried to roll a few frames. Voters hunger for authenticity, or so polls say, so candidates and their consultants do their best to simulate it. This boils down to looking, acting, or sounding like the locals, eating homemade specialties, even if it’s funnel cake and smoked meat products, or wearing a Teamsters or Yankees cap for the first time.

What’s amazing this campaign isn’t that Obama, who lifted himself up by his bootstraps but resembles George Clooney with a Harvard Law degree more than Clint Eastwood, is having a hard time passing himself off as ordinary folk. It’s how easily Hillary Clinton is doing it.

Clinton, the antiwar Wellesley commencement speaker, Yale superstar, and darling of elite professionals who may have inspired the popular “Die, Yuppie Scum” posters, has come to epitomize the scrappy underdog.

A Bad Day

A bad day for her, we learned from her memory of landing in Bosnia, is being met with flowers and poetry on the tarmac after in-flight entertainment consisting of a live performance by Sheryl Crow.

What constitutes a good day for someone who hasn’t waited in a line since 1992? Traveling with David Letterman and being greeted by a 21-gun salute? To her staff who never questioned her improbable tale of derring-do, a fine turn of events would consist of an evasive landing, dodging sniper fire from the press.

Clinton’s lost her college-educated, professional base but made up for it by successfully wooing working-class whites. She couldn’t change her hairstyle or job description in Washington without comment. I’m mystified that she’s changed personas for the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, since I grew up in that swath of the Keystone State between Pittsburgh and the eastern seaboard that remains happily stuck in the 1950s, when men were men and the steel mills thrived.

Raising Eyebrows

When I return there — which is often because my brother, of whom I’m guardian, lives in the house where we grew up — I raise eyebrows for driving a foreign car and having gone to law school without signing on with the FBI.

Still, I can pass because I got through the 1960s and ’70s without ever thinking of the policeman down the street as a pig or not trusting anyone over 30. My parents were beloved. My father worked for the Naval depot, golfed on the public course, and played cards at the Knights of Columbus hall.

My mother ran us — I had two brothers — and was the first one there when something went wrong, with a casserole, a pan of brownies and an open wallet. She wished she weren’t so plump, but everyone else was and it wouldn’t have entered her mind to jump around to an exercise video in a town that still lacks for spas. There were rocky marriages but most stayed together.

`Rocky’ Grabs Them

In many places, the daughters and sons of such families look back and think their parents were hopelessly hokey, if not chumps. But not in Harrisburg, the town that Starbucks forgot until recently. Like upstate New York where the blue-haired ladies also had to cope with disappearing jobs and hound dog husbands, central Pennsylvania is Clinton country.

You look around my little Harrisburg suburb and her “Rocky” doggedness has grabbed the sympathy of people so unlike her yet drawn by what looks like a hard-luck story. It’s a place where it’s not such a leap from “he can’t bowl” to “How could he possibly know what I’m going through?”

Already, her strategists are telling superdelegates not to vote for Obama if he can’t win big states like Pennsylvania. That’s code for he can’t win white working-class votes.

Obama doesn’t have to overcome Clinton’s lead, though he does need to go back to the days when he won the white vote by substantial margins in Wisconsin, Virginia and Maryland. He has to do better than the equivalent of a 37 score at Pleasant Valley Lanes, in Altoona.

(Margaret Carlson, author of “Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House” and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Margaret Carlson in Washington at mcarlson3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 3, 2008 00:03 EDT

E. do REGO,founder and chief administrator

Filed under: Barack Obama, Clinton

Clinton Irked by Richardson Endorsement

Clinton Irked by Richardson Endorsement

By LAURA KURTZMAN
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 3, 2008; 1:22 AM

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Former President Clinton is still smarting over New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Barack Obama.

During a private meeting with California Democrats this past weekend, Clinton grew red-faced as he talked about how he expected Richardson, who was a member of Clinton’s Cabinet, to back Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidential nomination or at least stay neutral, according to several people who attended.

Instead, Richardson endorsed Obama late last month, calling him a “once-in-a-lifetime leader.”

“He sort of gets a little redder and redder and redder, but he wasn’t off the deep end as I had seen him in the past,” said Inola Henry, an uncommitted superdelegate. “It was sort of like, ‘Gee, I’m a martyr.’ He seemed more hurt than anything.”

Clinton used his appearance at the state Democratic Party convention in San Jose to lobby California’s 21 uncommitted superdelegates to support his wife.

After posing for a group photograph with the former president, superdelegate Rachel Binah told Clinton she was disappointed that one of his allies, strategist James Carville, had compared Richardson to Judas after he endorsed Obama.

Clinton, according to several people present, distanced himself from Carville’s remarks. But he went on to say that he had not expected Richardson to endorse the Illinois senator, especially since the New Mexico governor had invited Clinton to Santa Fe to watch the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

“He did say he certainly had been led to believe that he was going to get the endorsement,” Henry said Wednesday. She was one of about 15 superdelegates _ some uncommitted, others backing Clinton _ who attended Sunday’s meeting with Clinton before he addressed the convention.

Aleita Huguenin, another superdelegate, remembered Clinton saying, “We thought he’d let us know if he did an endorsement.” But Huguenin said the comments about Richardson were “a minor blip in the whole meeting.”

According superdelegate Chris Stampolis, Clinton said only that Richardson had promised not to endorse Obama, saying, “‘He told me to my face five times he would not do that.’”

Binah did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but she previously told The Associated Press she supports Clinton. Other superdelegates interviewed by the AP said it was Binah’s statement that prompted Clinton’s comments about Richardson’s decision.

Pahl Shipley, a spokesman for Richardson, said his boss never promised to endorse Hillary Clinton.

“He never told the president or anybody else, for that matter,” Shipley said. “The governor respectfully disagrees with the president.”

Richardson, the nation’s only Hispanic governor, endorsed Obama on March 21, shortly after the Illinois senator gave a speech about race. It was a blow to the Clintons because of their long association with Richardson, who served as Clinton’s energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations.

Clinton’s campaign declined to comment, except to say the former president was in California to promote his wife’s candidacy.

“President Clinton discussed the importance of this election with Democratic Party members and how after 46 primaries and caucuses, by virtually every measure, this election remains a very close race,” campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino said in a statement. “President Clinton is incredibly popular in the Golden State, and the convention was a great opportunity for him to speak directly with members of the California Democratic Party.”

Bob Mulholland, a spokesman for the state party who attended the private meeting, said Clinton expressed himself passionately but insisted the meeting was productive.

“I left the meeting feeling this was great,” Mulholland said. “The guy had time to talk to us about the campaign.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/02/AR2008040203188.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

E. do REGO,founder and chief administrator

Filed under: Barack Obama, Clinton

Clinton and NAFTA

Clinton and NAFTA

March 6: Newsweek’s Howard Fineman discusses the Clinton’s campaign possibly role in NAFTA-gate.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23510589#23510589

E. do REGO,founder and chief administrator

Filed under: Clinton, NAFTA