If you haven’t already heard the news, I’ll be leaving my own little online empire here to help takeover the Buckeye State Blog. There are still a few things I need to get worked out before I really get started there, but as of now I consider BSB my primary concern.
The Ohio Democratic Party, lacking a definite candidate to support, is launching a new radio ad attacking John McCain’s economic positions.
This ad is mainly targeted right here in Southeastern Ohio. It will be ran on country and Christian radio stations to target people outside the typical Democratic base.
One of the main points of the ad focuses on McCain’s claim that the way to avoid foreclosure is “working a second job, skipping a vacation”. I find two things really interesting about this.
You can find the script of the ad and associated documentation here. The ad itself is embedded below.
The DNC is also going after McCain with a television ad.
The Center for Progressive Leadership is looking to hire people in Ohio for this years New Leaders Fellowship Program. More details after the break.
Applications are due by May1st.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing’s “Manufacture This” blog is pointing out that Pittsburgh television station KDKA has posted full, uncut video of both candidates speeches at Monday’s candidates forum.
Watch the videos:
As you probably know, on Monday I had the opportunity to attend a forum put together by the Alliance for American Manufacturing that featured both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. During the event I managed to record audio of the candidates speeches. This is nothing fancy, just a small digital voice recorder sat on a table at the back of the room. It is understandable for the most part, and actually turned out much better than I expected it would.
I don’t have the Hillary speech sliced and diced yet, but it should be up this weekend.
Congressman Zack Space’s re-election chances are looking pretty good. I know we’ve heard this story before, but Space is really good at fundraising. His campaign has pulled in $360,088, giving them almost a million dollars on hand.
“I’m extraordinarily thankful for the support I’ve received. Our effort to listen and respond to the needs of the people of 18th’s Congressional District continues to resonate.
“We have a long way to go in what is going to be a very tough race, but having nearly one million in the bank puts our campaign in a good position.”
– Rep. Zack Space
I haven’t heard anything about the Republican’s finances, but that pretty much says it all right there.
Yesterday I took place in what will surely be one of the most memorable events of my life. I saw both Democratic presidential candidates speak on the same day about a topic I find extremely important, trade and manufacturing. This all took place at the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s candidates forum in Pittsburgh, PA.
Both candidates spoke for about 45 minutes to an hour, including a short question & answer session. Obama spoke in the morning, with Clinton’s speech ending the days events around noon. A panel on trade filled the time between the two speeches. It was mentioned that John McCain was invited to attend, but declined. This was met with a round of laughter. McCain did manage to find time in his schedule to visit Pittsburgh today however, where he discussed other parts of the economy in front of a friendly audience.
Obama seemed to be the crowd favorite, receiving multiple standing ovations. He did take a few shots at Clinton and respond to claims of “elitism”, but he mostly stuck to the topic at hand.
Clinton’s speech started out on a bad note. She made an allegation that Obama had spent most of his speech attacking her was met with grumbles from the crowd and even some people shouting “no”. Clinton soon recovered though, when she moved on to policy issues. During the Q&A session she deflected a somewhat loaded question over her husbands support of NAFTA by saying that “As smart as my husband is, he does make mistakes”, cutting through tension and providing an opening for a more serious answer about renegotiating NAFTA.
I think both Obama and Clinton demonstrated that they both understand the plight of the American worker. Policy-wise, the aren’t all that different. They both promised to do a better job at enforcing our trade agreements in their current form and to work to renegotiate them to give American workers a level playing field.
It was said at one point that this event was organized in only 11 days, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell it by looking around. Things ran quickly and efficiently. I, the worlds biggest complainer, was greatly impressed.
I’m sure they’re be several other posts related to the forum posted over the next couple days as I review my recordings of the forum. You’ll be able to find all past and future posts on this topic here.
I highly doubt this works, but it’s worth a try. I can’t see the viewer right so let me know if the updates aren’t showing up.
Well I made it, I’m in. I think I’m sitting in the traveling press pool area but it’s the only place with tables and outlets.
If your reading this post, I’ve successfully managed to wake up at 4 A.M. and head out for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. If things have worked out as planned, I’ll be picking up press credentials and attending a closed door forum on economic issues put on by several labor unions. Now here’s the exciting part: both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be speaking there. John McCain was also invited, but declined to attend.
I’m not exactly sure how exactly I’ll cover the event, as my laptop is still down with a crashed hard drive (I’ve been too disgusted to fix it). I’ve got a creative solution that may allow me to restore limited functionality to it. Regardless of how that works out I’ll be trying to post updates to the OVP Twitter page (this is not my personal account, I don’t want to bombard people with unwanted messages. Follow OVP for these messages) and some iPhone photo’s to the OVP Flickr page. I’ve also added Twitter and Flickr badges to the sidebar to display some of the most recent updates.
Update: I’ve arrived at the convention center 90 minutes early.
The laughs never end over at the Ohio Republican Party’s “State of the Union” blog. They have a post up right now titled “Obama insults small town Americans” In the post they criticize Barack Obama for the following quote.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
You know what? That’s pretty damning stuff. But hold up, a little later I found a Politico article with the quote in context.
“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
You know what? I reluctantly have to agree with him. I come from small town America, actually I live in a county that doesn’t even have a town. Our largest population center is classified as a village. I believe he makes a valid point, as much as I hate to admit it.
Nice try ORP, but I’m not buying it. You’ve flunked the integrity test and that’s why your candidates are getting the boot.
The House minority leader’s ironically named “Freedom Project” has some pretty strong words up against Democrats for fighting against
American workers, farmers, and business owners are currently being denied fair access to the growing South American market. Republicans want to “eliminate dozens of high tariffs” that “restrict the flow of U.S. goods and services” into Colombia. But in an unprecedented move, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats have unilaterally voted to keep those tariffs in place, harming America’s economy at a time when families are already struggling with the rising costs of fuel and food.
And before you argue that Boehner doesn’t know about the post, note that right now Boehner’s official Twitter account is highlighting the post with the following short message:
johnboehner House Democrats endanger American jobs, vote to keep tariffs on American goods in place: http://twurl.nl/se0ijl
Yes, you read that right. Boehner is accusing Democrats of costing America jobs.
I’m a little perplexed by Boehner’s accusation and I imagine many other Southeastern Ohioans might also be a little be confused by them. Therefore I’m asking Boehner to come down here to the Ohio Valley and explain himself.
I’m dead serious.
If he’s going to make these accusations with any credibility at all he needs to come down here and see the state the economy is in. He can take as long as he wants, but when he’s done I demand he hold a public townhall to explain how exactly we benefit from free trade.
So what do you say Mr. Boehner, do you have it in you to face the downsides of your actions or will you cower behind more partisan rhetoric?
Congressman Charlie Wilson had some pretty strong words to say in reaction to the testimony being given by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
“The message from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker is that there’s no end in sight for the war in Iraq. That’s not good enough. The troops have done their job and done it well. But, there’s been almost no political progress in Iraq and we just keep pouring our troops and money into it.
“Bear in mind, Iraq is running a budget surplus while our economy is suffering. We’re spending $339 million a day in Iraq and the government in Iraq isn’t even helping itself. It’s difficult to spend that and not have success. With $339 million we could put more than 2,000 agents on our borders for a year. We could vaccinate 317,000 children. We could provide more than 2.5 million Americans access to medical and dental care at community health centers.
“The American people want a new direction in Iraq, not 100 more years of war. We need a plan for withdrawal.”
– Rep. Charlie Wilson
Wilson has voted for a troop pullout before, but his anti-war feelings seem to have strenghtened since last year.
The Times Leader is reporting that the Belmont County Democratic Party has elected Ed Good to takeover as chairman. The previous chairman, Jim Tekely, resigned after holding the job 17 year.
BELMONT COUNTY Democratic Central Committee members elected Ed Good to take over as the county’s party chairman during their re-organizational meeting Tuesday at Undo’s in St. Clairsville, replacing Jim Tekely who chose to step away from the job after 17 years.
Good, a Mead Township trustee, faced opposition from Charles Wiley of Shadyside, who currently is on that village’s board of trustees of public affairs.
Prior to the vote, each of the nominees were given time to speak to the committee.
Good said he is a lifelong Democrat, an active union member and volunteer who wants to move the party forward.
“We have to have a plan. We have to have a vision,” Good said. “I have that plan. I have goals. No matter what I have, I cannot do it alone. It needs to be our vision and some thing that we can do.”
He also said he wants better communication and to build on the party’s strengths. He also said it’s time the county party had it’s own Web site.
Notice that last bit? He wants to finally get the Belmont County Democratic Party online. Of course building a website and keeping one up to date are two different things.
The Ohio Democratic Party is looking for three more Clinton delegates to go to the national convention in Denver this summer, and one of those delegates needs to be a woman from right here in the 6th district.
For more details see the full release after the break.
