Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Sunday, August 10, 2008

MC CAIN, OHIO, AND DHL PROBLEM

McCain’s DHL problem may cost him Ohio
Posted August 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm



One month ago today, John McCain hosted a town-hall event in Ohio, when Mary Houghtaling, who runs a hospice in Wilmington, choked up in describing the devastating job losses associated with DHL’s plans to close its domestic air hub in her town. McCain said he’d been “briefed” on the situation, which he described as “a terrible blow.”

Responding directly to Houghtaling, a McCain supporter, the presumptive Republican nominee added, “But I’ve gotta look you in the eye and give you straight talk. I don’t know if I can stop it or not, or if it will be stopped. So I have to tell you that. That’s some straight talk. In fact, some more straight talk? I doubt it.”

No one realized it at the time, but the exchange may have seriously undermined McCain’s chances of winning Ohio in November.

We learned this week that McCain helped push the DHL deal in the Senate, and it was McCain’s lobbyist-turned-campaign manager Rick Davis helped orchestrate the DHL deal in the first place. Workers in Ohio feared that the foreign merger would cost the community a lot of jobs, and that’s precisely what happened.

McCain made it happen, and now the Obama campaign is pouncing. This radio ad was unveiled yesterday.

“But there’s something John McCain’s not telling you,” the ad explains. “It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio,” the announcer says. “And that’s not all: McCain’s campaign manager was the top lobbyist for the DHL deal…helped push it through. His firm was paid $185,000 to lobby McCain and other Senators.”

Yes, this is largely an Ohio-centered issue, but as you may have noticed, Ohio’s pretty important in a presidential election.

More importantly, after a month of a McCain-attacks-Obama-responds dynamic, this is turning the tables.

more...

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16501.htm...

Obama's fabulous radio ad here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Shaw, that is a great story, I don't think many Republicans realize the ties Senator McCain has to big money, if only they knew then they would vote for Senator Obama because he is by far the lesser of two evils (if you have to put it like that).

Patrick M said...

Crian: I don't get how Republicans would get from not liking McCain to voting for Obama as the lesser of two evils. Take it from a non-McCain supporter. The view from the right is to either stay away, or cast a vote against Obama (which is a McCain vote by default, unfortunately).

Shaw: This story is coming out of the Cleveland Plain(ly Liberal) Dealer's blog. Being a resident of the great state of Ohio, I happen to know that Cleveland tends to bias a little liberal. Hell, they produced Dennis Kucinich. So I'm not sure most of the Buckeye state will give it that much credence. But it will be a state that will decide the race. I'll have a better feel as we get closer, though.

Come to think of it though, the Washington politics are what troubles me most about McCain.

Patrick M said...

On a side not, just heard Obama's DHL commercial, covering the topic of your post verbatim. I even feigned shock just for the fun of it.

Want to take credit for giving the campaign the idea?

I would.

Anonymous said...

locums fever experience caveat nuts krksz rectify fpco gsit egan hallnew
lolikneri havaqatsu