Clinton, Edwards To Campaign In Ohio For Minimum Wage Increase

[Catchawave]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Two potential Democratic presidential candidates are scheduled to campaign in Ohio this weekend on behalf of a ballot proposal to increase the state's minimum wage.

Former Senator John Edwards is slated to speak today at a rally in Cincinnati.

Tomorrow he'll join Congressman Sherrod Brown at Ohio State University for the national convention of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Clinton is scheduled to speak Monday at the same convention.

The proposed measure seeks to raise Ohio's minimum wage to $6.85 an hour from the federal minimum of $5.15.

Advocates of the minimum wage hike think Ohio could be a bellwether for how the issue will play nationally and could spur Congress to raise the federal minimum wage.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/07/08/oh_edwards.html

[pinto]

1. Great move. Great bread 'n butter issue.

[rubberducky]

2. "bread and butter issue??

$5.15 an hour won`t even buy day-old bread and margarine for a family.

[Catchawave]

3. Exactly.....

But it's a start, stay tuned :D

[pinto]

4. Great point. But to break the ice on this logjam of a standard would

be a good start.

[Jaundice James]

5. Stay away from her, Johnny...

Don't get any of her on you. She'll mess you up.

You're my golden boy. Stay away from those establishment Democrats.

You do just keep doing what you do and your time will come.

-JJ

[AtomicKitten]

6. $10 an hour is impossible for a family to live on.

This is great news, at least a start.

Is there some reason you can't receive it without slamming one and applauding the other? Shit, they don't even use her first name in the article. This division in the Democratic Party will be our undoing, and that's bullshit.

No worries, dude. You have plenty of company on this website.

[Terran1212]

8. I'd say John Edwards is 100% Establishment Democrat

But he's much more progressive than Hilary and at least does actual work against poverty. But talk to him about something like the Iran issue and he'll take the normal western supremacist view.

[Terran1212]

7. They have to wage huge campaigns for a tiny increase?

This just shows how well entrenched the elite are in this country that we can't even vote in favor of something like this without having huge Senators come to visit.

[fat dad]

10. Oooh, a buck-sevent increase...

I wonder what would happen if a dem candidate would grow a spine and asked for a real, meaningful increase in the minimum wage. Like, say, raising it to match increases in American productivity and inflation since 1968, when the minimum wage was at its highest?

Problem with Democrat politicans is that they are too feaking timid. The house is on fire and they show up with a squirt gun.

[1932]

11. That's a 33% increase, and what makes you think they're stopping there?

This is a very meaningful increase and it's in the context of a dialague about fairness that clearly isn't meant to end with this one increase.

There's really nothing to complain about.

[bobbolink]

15. Santa Fe raised it much higher a few years ago, and yearly

increases.

You're right.... the Dems bar is set waaay too low....

edit: Santa Fe minimum wage is 8.50 for 2006, and will be 10.50 in 2008

[Sam Odom]

9. Edwards is still 2nd tier

If an another 'guy'(?) isnt at the top Edwards is a loser.

[1932]

12. To me, Edwards is a like a progressive version of Reagan. People thought

Reagan was a lightweight, but those people didn't understand how Reagan epitomized a set of ideas that triggered a lot of reverberating understanding and agreement among enough people that he could win an election.

[GreenArrow]

16. progressive version of Reagan...

I see that too, though Edwards is appreciably more intelligent than Reagan. Reagan used to tell the story about the little boy and the manure pile, which I'll include just for anyone who isn't familiar with it.

<<Worried that their son was too optimistic, the parents of a little boy took him to a psychiatrist.

Trying to dampen the boy’s spirits, the psychiatrist showed him into a room piled high with nothing but horse manure. Yet instead of displaying distaste, the little boy clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to all fours, and began digging.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked.

“With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere.” >>

Edwards is trying to sell the manure pile too, but if one looks behind the punchline, it's pretty easy to determine that there is not a pony, only a steaming pile of horseshit.

That kind of Pollyanna pie in the sky stuff apparently sells real well, but I for one am real tired of horseshit.

[AmericanDream]

18. Are you kidding me?

A progressive version of Reagan? Edwards is brilliant - he was known as a "detail person" as a lawyer, he is the political brains behind his own campaigns.... none of this is like Reagan, Reagan was pretty dim.... it was his political strategists who planned his strategies, unlike the Edwards campaign, where Edwards sets the strategy. Reagan had allegiance to grand ideas but was not worried about the details. Edwards is known by insiders as a natural legislator because he can grasp complex issues easily.

Edwards is like Reagan in only one way: they both had some crossover appeal and a way of making people proud of being Americans. They are very different individually.

Lastly, Reagan was known as a lightweight by the political experts etc.... Edwards is actually seen as being very sharp by the D.C. people who've worked with him.

[Catchawave]

13. What makes you think that....?

Really too early to predict, I know, but interesting you label him a "loser"?

I.don't.think.so :D

Doing quite well here:

http://nationaljournal.com/racerankings/wh08/

[Reckon]

14. Right now I'm willing to support

any Dem candidate willing to go bare knuckles with the right-wingnuts. That might change later, but for now we need a mouth piece telling it like it is.

Edit: Watch this great interview with Edwards. This guy has some backbone!

VIDEO:
http://bradblog.com/video/flvplayer/FlvPlayer.html?file=http://www.ameratsu.com/media/vid/abc/abc_tw_john_edwards_slams_bush_060521b_320x240.flv&width=640&height=480%22&OrigWidth=320&OrigHeight=240

[KKKarl is an idiot]

17. Definitely a start.

But we need to go further. But the danger lies in the fact if we do go further then will we lose more companies to foreign soil. I believe it should be a 2 way law increase the min. wage to around $12.00 an hour over 5 years & then put penalties on those companies who are US based who employ people outside the US. We may even get rid of the debt with the increased taxes that are taken in by these 2 moves.