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“I’m not perfect. But there is one thing I cannot deny – I’ve been fighting for ordinary people all my life. That’s why I got involved in politics; to help working people … ”

September 10, 2008

Obama goes to work

Candidate makes return visit to area; visits Schott Glass, then Avenue Diner.

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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DURYEA – Barack Obama on Friday returned to a region where he failed in the April primary to ask for a second chance.

The Democratic presidential candidate addressed a group of about 200 people, mostly employees of Schott North America, on a daylong visit to Luzerne County.

After the more than hourlong speech at the Duryea specialty-glass manufacturing plant, Obama answered a few questions and then stopped at a Wyoming diner before heading to New Jersey.

Obama, who lost the county by a 3-to-1 margin to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, is trying to convince locals that he should be the next president.

Pennsylvania is a battleground state and critical to a November victory, and Obama used some straight talk of his own to hit on issues that affect “ordinary” people.

Jobs, high gas prices, health care, Social Security, education, taxes and national security were some of the topics he hit on.

The day after the Republican Party closed its national convention, Obama said he watched in wonder as his opponent failed to address what he called the critical issues of the campaign.

Obama railed against John McCain and the Republican Party, which he said is “out of touch” with the American public and more focused on McCain’s biography instead of the failing economy.

“Hard-working Americans are working harder and harder just to get by,” Obama said. “Costs are skyrocketing, home foreclosures are increasing and jobs are being lost. At the Republican convention, you heard nothing about the middle class.”

“The most recent jobs report shows we have lost 80,000 more jobs across the country,” Obama said. “That brings us to 605,000 jobs lost this year. The unemployment rate is at 6.1 percent – the highest it’s been in five years.”

Obama said McCain and others talked a lot about McCain’s biography during the convention in Minneapolis.

“They talked about me a lot, in less than respectful terms, running me down,” Obama said. “What they didn’t talk about is you and what you’re seeing in your lives and what you’re going through, or what your friends or your neighbors are going through.”

In an e-mailed release from Alex Conant, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, the McCain campaign wasted little time responding to Obama’s criticisms.

“Apparently Barack Obama was not listening when John McCain and Sarah Palin offered their plans to keep taxes low and create new jobs,” Conant said. “On the other hand, Barack Obama’s economic policies would only raise taxes and eliminate jobs. While Barack Obama may give a good speech, the McCain-Palin ticket is actually ready to change and reform Washington.”

Obama scoffed at McCain’s claims that the economy is fundamentally sound. He said the record compiled over the last eight years by the Bush administration is not something McCain should want to run on.

“John McCain is not a bad person,” Obama said. “He just doesn’t get it.”

If elected, Obama said the $200 billion in corporate tax breaks will not continue.

“Not when there are 108 million Americans who haven’t received one dime of tax relief,” Obama said. “My plan would give 95 percent of all Americans a tax cut. I will give it to the people who need it to fill their gas tanks and heat their homes.”

He said he would end tax breaks to companies that continue to send jobs overseas.

“It’s common sense,” he said.

The Democrat vowed to fix the health care system and lower premiums to employers who provide health benefits for employees. He said Republicans want to stop using the term “uninsured,” because, Obama says, the GOP believes anyone can go to the emergency room and get health care.

“I guess we should stop using poor and unemployed too,” Obama said. “We’ll just reclassify them; call them the leisure class.”

After campaigning for two days in the Keystone State, Obama flew to New Jersey. His mission in Northeastern Pennsylvania is to reach out to working class voters who overwhelmingly preferred Hillary Clinton in the primary. Clinton defeated Obama by a 3-to-1 margin in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties and won the state by 10 percentage points.

Obama stressed the need for alternative energy sources and in doing so, millions of new, high-paying jobs will be created.

“We can create a car that can get 150 miles to the gallon,” Obama said. “I will work with the automobile companies. I will rebuild our country’s infrastructure – our roads, bridges and sewer lines.”

Obama said he will fix the educational system too, advocating higher salaries for quality teachers.

“Countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow,” he said.

Equal pay for equal work is high on Obama’s agenda. He said he will fight for single mothers and veterans.

“We’re not alone; we rise and fall together,” Obama said. “I will create a government that will fight for ordinary, hard-working people.”

After a brief question-and-answer session – during which he called the area the “Saudi Arabia of coal” – Obama closed his speech.

“I know I’m not your typical presidential candidate,” he said. “And I know the temptation is to say he hasn’t been in Washington that long. He has a funny name. Can we trust him? Does he have Muslim connections? Does he hang out with radicals? Is he unpatriotic? He hasn’t done much. He will take away our guns.

“I’m not perfect. But there is one thing I cannot deny – I’ve been fighting for ordinary people all my life. That’s why I got involved in politics; to help working people. Don’t be fooled in this election. I need your vote.”

Obama was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and was introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke. Kanjorski is seeking his 13th term in Congress.

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