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Battle for PA: Bitter Voters, Republican Converts and Huge Turnouts for Both Campaigns •
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Candidates Hitting Hard in Final Push
By Thomas Fitzgerald and Tom Infield
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Monday 21 April 2008
State College, Pa. - Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama raced across
Pennsylvania yesterday, sweet-talking voters even as they threw elbows, scrambling
for any advantage two days before the state's Democratic primary.
In some of the most pointed attacks of the campaign, the rivals unleashed TV
ads accusing each other of being enthralled to the special interests they say
they oppose.
At a rally in Johnstown, Clinton jumped on a comment that Obama made earlier
in Reading that Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain would be better than
President Bush.
"We need a nominee that will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain,"
Clinton told a crowd of about 1,500 in the gym of Greater Johnstown Senior High
School. She said McCain would continue Bush's "disastrous" fiscal
and Iraq policies.
Though Obama did say McCain would be an improvement over the president, he
also said that either Democrat would be better than McCain and predicted that
Democrats would unite "because we cannot afford another George Bush, and
that's what McCain offers."
He told a crowd of 2,600 at Reading High School that it faced a choice between
the status quo and a new era of politics.
"What you have to ask yourself," he said, "is, who has the chance
to actually, really change things in a fundamental way, so that 10 years from
now, or 20 years from now, you can look back and say, 'Boy, we really moved
in a new direction,'" Obama said.
Last night in Scranton, he said he "admires" Clinton but added: "Her
basic message comes down to this: We can't really change our politics....
We might as well elect somebody who has been in politics a long time and knows
how to play the Washington game."
Earlier, in Bethlehem, Clinton accused Obama of being "so negative"
in his campaign tactics and of echoing Republicans in his televised take-down
of her universal health-care proposal.
"He has sent out mailers, he has run ads, misrepresenting what I have
proposed," Clinton said. "I really regret that because the last thing
we need is to have somebody spending as much money as he has downgrading universal
health care. We need to achieve universal health care - not create political
opposition to universal health care. That's what the Republicans do."
In one of the rare policy differences between them, Clinton proposes that everyone
be required to buy insurance coverage, while Obama would require it for only
children. His ad says that Clinton would coerce people to buy something they
cannot afford; she says that only universal coverage would spread enough risk
around to lower costs.
On television screens across the state, viewers are witnessing dueling 30-second
campaign commercials.
The Clinton camp released a spot accusing Obama of taking campaign cash from
federal lobbyists for 10 years despite "boasts" that he does not,
which has been one of his central campaign themes.
In a response ad, the Illinois senator shot back: "Barack Obama doesn't
take money from special-interest PACs or Washington lobbyists. Not one dime.
But federal records show Clinton's raised millions from PACs and lobbyists;
more than any candidate, in either party." It called her spot an "eleventh-hour
smear" funded by lobbyists.
Obama will have spent more than $9 million on television before the polls open
tomorrow, to Clinton's $3 million. The intensifying bickering reflects the stakes
of the primary. To many, Clinton needs an impressive victory to keep her campaign
going in the face of the seeming impossibility of overcoming a delegate deficit.
Overall, Obama has 1,646 delegates to 1,508 for Clinton in the Associated Press
count, with 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination.
An AP survey released yesterday found that 300 superdelegates had not declared
a preference, and most said they would be guided by their judgment of which
candidate would win in November, rather than primary votes.
After a whistle-stop trip aboard an Amtrak train on Saturday, Obama returned
yesterday to a bus tour that began in Harrisburg, moved to Reading, and ended
in Scranton.
Clinton used bus and plane to visit Abington, Bethlehem, Johnstown and State
College yesterday.
The subtext of yesterday's flurry of charges and countercharges was last Wednesday's
debate, in which Obama faced questions about his former pastor's inflammatory
sermons, his friendship with a 1960s radical, the fact that he rarely wears
a flag pin, and recent comments about small-town Pennsylvanians.
On the way from Harrisburg to Reading, Obama stopped at the Heidelberg Family
Restaurant, where he fielded a question from Republican voter Margaret Miller,
66, of Newmanstown.
"May I ask you a question?" she said. "I'm going to ask you
why you didn't salute the flag."
"That isn't true," he said, explaining that an "e-mail that's
being sent around" featuring a photo from an event hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin
(D., Iowa) last summer in Iowa is inaccurate when it claims he was disrespecting
the Stars and Stripes.
"What happened was, we were singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and the
flag wasn't in front of me, the flag was behind me," he said, adding that
he was looking at the singer and that he always honors the flag.
"I had to ask," Miller said.
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Battle for PA: Bitter Voters, Republican Converts and Huge Turnouts
for Both Campaigns
By Steven Rosenfeld
AlterNet
Monday 21 April 2008
For a state that hasn't had a competitive
presidential primary in decades, there is enormous voter interest in the Dem
candidates.
As Pennsylvania's Primary ended its final weekend of campaigning, Sen. Barack
Obama (D-IL) refined his message of change by saying he was the only candidate
who would end Washington's way of doing business, while Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D-NY) emphasized that she was better prepared to implement a Democratic agenda
as president.
The contrasting leadership styles played out against backdrop of intense public
interest in an increasingly blue state that has not seen a competitive presidential
primary in decades. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Sunday that there
are 325,000 newly registered Democratic voters across the state - a figure
equal to Pittsburgh's population - with 15 percent telling pollsters they are
undecided.
Both candidates brought thousands of people to each of their many events.
On Friday, Obama held his biggest rally yet in any state, drawing 35,000 people
in Philadelphia. Still, local political activists predicted Tuesday's vote would
be close in Pennsylvania's biggest city, an Obama stronghold, as the both its
current mayor and governor - a past mayor - are pushing longtime Democrats
to support Clinton.
Meanwhile, Clinton has also drawn crowds outside Philadelphia as she and supporters,
including former President Bill Clinton, have focused more in the western part
of the state, notably in the Pittsburgh-Scranton area, as the campaign is concluding.
She is expected to carry that region and the Lehigh Valley, northwest of Philadelphia.
Notably, it was not difficult to find Republicans at Obama and Clinton events.
However, although only a few said they changed their voter registration to Democrat,
a prerequisite to vote in the state's Democratic Primary.
The final campaigning also came as both campaigns spent heavily on media. Both
aired numerous television commercials, as well as making pre-recorded phone
calls to voters. While staffers at both campaigns accused each other of throwing
political mud, many voters said they were looking at who could be the best change
agent in Washington.
The Obama Train
On Saturday, Obama held a series of rallies at commuter railway stations heading
west from Philadelphia, starting in the suburbs and then crossing countryside
until arriving at the state capital, Harrisburg, for a finale on the Statehouse
steps. These suburban and outlying communities were considered swing voters,
newspapers said on Sunday.
At a few minutes before 2 PM, Obama and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) disembarked from
a chartered AMTRAK train to speak at the Paoli Rail station, a half-hour from
downtown Philadelphia. Obama stood to the left of the gritty, old station house
with rusting beams showing. Behind him, the rail line was old enough that the
copper electrical lines above the tracks had bronzed while the nearby steel
towers were rusty. Across the street were mom-and-pop stores, not national chains.
The crowd was mostly white.
Upfront, near the podium, was a broad-shouldered middle-aged man holding up
a poster that said, "Middle-aged white guys for Obama," a message
targeting pundits who have said that demographic was likely to pull the state
toward Clinton. Jim Fields of Malvern was ready to talk to the media.
"The reason I am for Obama," he said, "is he inspires people
and I am tired of settling for the lesser of two evils. I wouldn't have put
Hillary in that class if Barack had not come along; but it's also because of
Hillary's tactics."
I asked if he was referring to televised ads that were aggressive.
"I'd call them destructive," Fields said. "The only way that
she will get the nomination at this point is tearing down Barack, and the last
thing we need is four more years of Bush - which is what we'll get from McCain."
He then described why he made his sign.
"One of the reasons I brought this particular sign is I was tired of the
media claiming people like us (middle-aged white guys) are her core constituency,"
Fields said. "Who is she to say that about us? The arrogance she has shown
to people like us is demeaning."
Standing next to Fields were two Republicans, Keith York and Edward Krajewski.
"All my life I have been a Republican," York said. "I have never
voted Democrat in my life. It has gotten to the point where a lot of Republicans
have no idea of what is going on. They are just voting Republican because they
think Democrats are going to take away their guns or raise their taxes. In the
last election I voted for Bush because of that."
York said he was "sick and tired" of the billions being spent in
Iraq, and frustrated that he - a businessman - was trapped with his current
health care because his wife was ill.
"Here we are getting nowhere," he said. When asked what he thought
of Clinton, York replied, "Don't tell me you know how the little guy feels
when you made $109 million." That figure is the Clinton's earnings in their
recently released federal tax returns.
York said he did not change his party registration in time to vote in the Democratic
primary, although he was videotaping Obama's speech. However, his friend, Edward
Krajewski, said he did register as a Democrat.
"I am from Pennsylvania. I am a typical white male. I am bitter,"
Krajewski said, referring to remarks made by Obama at a recent California fundraiser
to characterize some Pennsylvania voters that has drawn much criticism. When
asked if he was being serious, he said, "Yeah, I am. I am bitter about
the economy, and the war in Iraq has a lot to do with our economy, with taking
half a trillion dollars, when Bush said it would be 80 billion and we'd get
out."
"I am a vet," he continued, noting he was in the Special Forces in
Vietnam. "Why are we paying Halliburton $100 an hour to peel potatoes in
K.P.?"
Krejewski said he, his wife and most of his family registered as Democrats
before the primary. "We are ready for a change and we believe in Obama,"
he said.
Obama's Remarks
When Obama arrived to speak, he emphasized the choice between him and Clinton
was about leadership style - and who would be more effective in bringing change.
"The American people also understand that it is not just enough to change
the party in the White House, we will have to understand how politics is done.
We have to change how Washington works," he said. "We have got to
reduce the influence of lobbyists. We have to reduce the special interests who
are dominating the agenda. And that is a very real difference that I have with
Sen. Clinton."
"We will be unified in November," he continued, "but right now
there is a choice to be made. Because Sen. Clinton's essential argument in this
campaign is that you can't change how the game is played in Washington. Her
basic argument is that the slash and burn, say-anything do-anything special
interest politics is how it works. And so she has taken more money from PACs
(political action committees) and lobbyists than any other candidate, Democrat
or Republican, combined.
"She also believes that the nature of politics is you say what the people
want to hear. So maybe you say something about trade when you are campaigning
with your husband - eight, ten or twelve years ago - but you say something
different now that you are campaigning in Ohio or Pennsylvania. Maybe you say
one thing about the war when it looks like the war is popular, maybe you say
something different when the war gets to be unpopular. That's how business is
done in Washington. That's become typical."
Obama then turned to the recent political attacks by the Clinton campaign.
"The idea of running negative campaigns," he continued. "Her
staff called it the kitchen sink strategy. 'We gonna throw whatever we want
at Barack.' Whether it's true, whether it's false, whether it's exaggerated,
whether it's relevant, because, according to Sen. Clinton, that's what the Republicans
will do to Barack anyway, so I may as well do it too.
"So, what's happened is Sen. Clinton has internalized a lot of the strategies,
the tactics, that have made Washington such a miserable place. Where all we
do is bicker, and all we do is fight. And meanwhile the oil companies, the gas
companies, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the HMOs, they decide
how this country is gonna run.
"And what I have said in this campaign is I don't want to play the game
better in Washington, I want to put an end to the game plan. I don't want to
become like those we have been fighting for the last 20 years. I want to convince
independents and some disillusioned Republicans to join us in coalition for
change."
Hillary Rallies
On Sunday, the Clinton campaign began its day with a rally in Bethlehem, the
former steel-making city in eastern Pennsylvania that lost thousands of jobs
and one-fifth of its tax base when its steel mills were shuttered a decade ago.
The rally was held at a high school gymnasium surrounded by homes originally
built by Bethlehem Steel for its managers during its heyday as the nation's
second-largest steel producer.
Two hours before the scheduled start, hundreds of people were already lined
up on a cool, damp spring morning. Perhaps half were women who appeared to be
in their middle years or older, although there was no shortage of men and younger
people. The mood was upbeat but serious. As people waited to pass through security,
it was clear almost everybody there already had made up their minds to support
Clinton.
"The point is simple for me," said Bernie Toseland, a researcher
for an air products firm and resident of nearby Allentown. "She has been
into health care for many years and health care is important. And poor people
are getting lost and she has been making an effort for them when it wasn't fashionable."
When asked if he considered Obama, he said yes but Clinton was a better choice.
"I guess I don't know if Obama can deliver," Toseland said. "He
is an unknown .... The system stinks, but it is the system. It is a fairy tale
to think that it will disappear. I'd rather have someone who says they can work
within the system and not be corrupted by it - and she hasn't been."
Toseland's pragmatism was typical among Clinton backers. When it came to making
inevitable compromises, he said Clinton would not forget her constituents.
"In a country that is divided 50-50, the question is whom do you trust
to make a compromise who will not sell out too much," Toseland said. "When
you write to your senator, you say I want you to vote for one part of a bill;
not another part you don't agree with. Politics is strange bedfellows. It is
a question of who you want to be in bed with - it's a personal decision."
Inside the Liberty High School gymnasium, several people said they wanted to
return to the prosperity they experienced during Bill Clinton's administration.
"With Clinton, everybody made money," said Michael Zullo of Bethlehem,
a retiree who worked for AT&T for 40 years. "Even if she goes in, her
husband is over there with her. She has experience .... I believe she can do
a better job than the other guy."
"I know nothing about the other guy," said Dominica Michti, who was
with Zullo, referring to Obama. "I know Hillary will do a good job and
her husband will be there."
Standing in the center of the crowd in a black Hillary tee-shirt adorned with
numerous campaign buttons was Stephanie Schmoyer , a Bethlehem resident who
was a contract employee for an insurance company. Schmoyer said she pays for
her health insurance, adding that many people in the area, like her, have had
to find work because many companies have moved overseas.
"I don't cling to my guns and my religion," Schmoyer said, referring
to Obama's recent remarks that many voters embrace traditions when the political
system leaves them behind. But unlike many at the Clinton rally, she said she
had seen Obama speak. Schmoyer attended his big rally in Philadelphia, but she
was not swayed.
"It's her experience," Schmoyer explained. "She is a woman.
She understands what it is to have a family, what it is to have pressures in
marriage. She understands that jobs need to be here, that we need affordable
health care."
Clinton's Remarks
Unlike Obama, who was visibly tired compared to 2008's earlier primaries, Clinton
was relaxed and gave no sign a loss on Tuesday could create tremendous pressure
to end her campaign. If anything, she exuded confidence she would be party's
eventual nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August - despite
Obama's 138-delegate lead, according to demconwatch.blogspot.com. Her mother,
Dorothy Rodman, sat behind Clinton on the podium.
"We are getting to the decision day," Clinton told the crowd, near
the start of a 35-minute speech. "Tuesday will be the day when each and
every one of you gets to decide who you want to be your next president."
Clinton then began the first of several comments about her primary opponent.
"This week we had a debate and it showed you the choice you have,"
she said. "And it's no wonder that my opponent has been so negative in
these last few days of the campaign, because I think you saw a big difference
between us. It's really a choice of leadership.
"I'm offering leadership you can count on. You know where I stand. You
know what I've done. You know what I will do," she said. "I am offering
my experience, my strength and my readiness for whatever comes our way. I am
ready in day one to be the commander in chief and I am ready to fix this economy."
Clinton cited many of the issues and solutions that she has in rallies throughout
the race. She spoke of unifying the country. She said she would work to erase
the federal debt and restore "pay as you go" budgeting. She talked
about easing pressures on middle-class families. She talked about paying for
universal health care by making tax rates for the wealthy the same as for the
middle class. She talked about ending the test-heavy 'No Child Left Behind'
program for public schools - prompting the loudest cheers - and making low-interest
government loans available for college students. She talked about creating and
selling new government bonds to raise money to invest in roads, bridges and
other infrastructure. She said government-spurred green energy initiatives could
create millions of jobs. She said oil and gas prices would come down as the
country lowered its demand. And she criticized Obama for supporting an energy
bill authored by Vice-President Dick Cheney.
"When Dick Cheney supported his energy bill, because that is what we thought
it was - his pro-oil company energy bill in 2005," she said, "with
billions more in tax subsidies for the oil companies, at a moment when the oil
price was going through the roof, I said, 'Wait a minute. I'm not voting for
that.' I voted no. My opponent voted yes. That's a big difference between the
two of us."
"I was raised by my family," she continued, "to say what I meant,
mean what I say, buy also that actions speak louder than words. And I still
believe that today."
And she contrasted her health care proposal with Obama, saying his criticism
of her plan was what she would have expected from the Republicans.
"Congress has a good (health) plan for itself and we are going to open
it up for all of you," she began. "Now this is one of the big difference
in this campaign between my opponent and myself. And he has consistently -
and he is doing it again in Pennsylvania - he has sent out mailers, he has
run ads, misrepresenting what I have proposed. We have called him on it. Editorials
have said it is misleading, but he has persisted at it.
"And I really regret that, because the last thing we need is to have somebody
spending as much money as he has downgrading universal health care. We need
to try to achieve universal health care. Not create political opposition to
universal health care - that's what the Republicans do. That's not what Democrats
do."
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Steven Rosenfeld is a senior fellow at Alternet.org and co-author
of "What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the
2004 Election," with Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman (The New Press,
2006).
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