A PA native and mother of four talks about why she supports Obama

[Hope And Change]

Run time: 05:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3iTRSxTPcE   Posted on YouTube: April 06, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 07, 2008 By DU Member: Hope And Change Views on DU: 1278

 

[lligrd]

1. Very Nice! nt

[democracy1st]

2. Thank you Nancy

K & R :toast:

[Pappy]

3. Brings a tear to my eye, go Obama!

[wowimthere]

4. Fantastic analysis of a president

[N4457S]

5. Look...

...the fact that she's a schoolteacher is fine, but Barack Obama is never going to gain the vote of blue collar folks in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Progressives in New York and California don't understand that because they don't understand how far behind the Rust Belt has fallen (socially and economically) in the last ten years or so. Cleveland and Pittsburgh are not San Francisco. Clevelanders and Pittsburghers don't want it to be.

It WON'T happen.

We are very likely at this point to end up with another Republican in the White House.

Hillary would have had a better shot but that appears to be over.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. "blue collar folks" in OH and PA

must be really dumb, then, because McCain and Clinton will continue to sell them out with "free trade". Will Obama? Who knows, but they are sure to get the shaft with either of the other two.

To tell the truth, I grew up in the blue collar area of PA (James Carville's "pennsylbama") and I am hearing amazing stories from my friends who are still in the area about very conservative people there who are supporting Obama this year. We trade emails, amazed that someone's father or father-in-law or cousin, who would never have been expected to vote for a Democrat, let alone a black Democrat, are changing their registration and voting for Obama. It's only anecdotal, but I think there will be a lot of surprises from those populations before this is over.

[N4457S]

7. If That's True...

...then you know where Lewistown is, and their local paper just took a very unscientific poll that ranked McCain ahead of both Democrats.

I know that area. I spent A LOT of summers there. I know where to get a good hoagie. I know where the Seven Mountains are. I've fished for trout at Whipple Dam and carried a rifle during hunting season. I know the place. I know it well.

I remember people saying "it's different this time" with regard to McGovern and Mondale and Dukakis and Kerry and now Obama. And do you know what? It never is.

[ProfessorPlum]

9. Of course, the middle of the state is going to go Republican

- that is what it does. I'm from the area near the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, actually. But Democrats can and do (and have recently) won the whole state. I don't think Obama or any Democrat can actually beat McCain in the middle of the state, but I think McCain's support there is going to be much softer than otherwise expected, and that overall PA will go blue, especially with Obama at the head of the Democratic ticket.

Not sure what your point is, here, exactly. Mine was that Obama has a lot of support in (unexpected for me) places, whereas I'm hearing very little for Hillary. I don't expect him to get a majority of blue collar votes from PA and OH, but I think he'll get a lot more than a business as usual year would expect.

[N4457S]

11. Oh God...

...Tioga county. Now that's a quiet place. Quiet doesn't begin to describe it.

My dad left Mifflin county right after coming home from the Air Force in 1963. He and his brother took off for Ohio...brother came back in 1968. Dad stayed in the suburbs of Akron and he's there now.

My point is there's a lot of quiet racial hatred in those two states due to extent to which their respective economies have been ravaged by the various trade agreements of the last twenty years.

Having Obama win either one of these states will be an uphill battle...and he must have two out of three among Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.

If it doesn't happen, Gimpy wins.

This won't be easy, recession or no recession. McGovern ran as an anti-war candidate in 1972 and couldn't do it. Dukakis ran in the wake of Iran Contra and couldn't do it. Kerry was a decorated war hero and couldn't do it.

I heard today this campaign may be the first in US history to break the billion dollar barrier for total spending. The unions are throwing everything they have at McCain because there's so much on the line for them in the next four years. If the election goes the wrong way, there might not be a UAW four years from now. Things are that bad.

[ProfessorPlum]

14. I'm from near Tioga county

but not quite as quiet as that.

I note from your post count and from some of the things you are saying that you seem to be new to DU and some of the sources of information we've been looking at here for quite a while.

As such, welcome to DU. I hope you have a long, healthy, and informative time here.

Some points: Obama actually can win without Ohio and Florida. His electoral map really is that interesting and unique. Things are changing. Do some searching around on - you might start with this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=114354

Second, Kerry won PA in 2004 and probably won Ohio as well. Look into Blackwell, OH recounts, etc. This isn't as hard as you seem to think.

Third, I haven't heard anyone around here call McCain "gimpy". As much as we (or I, I won't presume to speak for everyone here) dislike his policies and untruthfulness, it seems cruel to mock him for infirmities due to age or injuries he sustained in service to the country. There's quite enough to mock St. John for without being cruel about it.

The unions being against McCain is a good thing for the Democratic nominee, no? Regardless of which one it is.

[N4457S]

16. My Problem...

...with McCain is that he's too damned old. His politics, frankly, aren't that far away from Hillary's and that's what a lot of Republicans don't like about him. That's also what a lot of Democrats don't like about him. Sometimes I think he and Hillary are close enough on the ideological spectrum to smooch each other in passing.

[ProfessorPlum]

18. Well, I think that is true on a few (very key) issues

but on a whole host of other things, they are pretty widely divergent. On allowing corporate boondoggles/wars, they seem to be on the same page, though no one is quite as bloodthirstily warmongering as McCain. Hillary also seems to realize that the lack of healthcare is a problem (though her solutions have been weak and corporate in the past), while McCain is typically GOP blind on the subject. For corporations/environment, I would expect the same corporate-friendly but moderately regulated blend we had under the first Clinton, while McCain is sure to bring more de- or dis-regulation. Pro-choice vs. pro-life. Etc. So, I think there are a lot of important differences.

Barack, on paper, is perhaps close to Hillary's professed platform. The difference, for me, is that given Barack's background and experience (as a beloved constitutional law professor and community organizer) make him more trustworthy of actually believing some of the things he is saying. And that might make all the difference.

[ProfessorPlum]

10. by the way

"carried a rifle during hunting season"

we're all impressed with your manly manliness.

[N4457S]

12. I Don't...

...really give a fuck what impresses you.

If I cared, I would have asked.

I eat steak, drive a BMW and fly airplanes, too.

[ProfessorPlum]

15. You seem angry. Take it easy, there fella.

[roguevalley]

13. support your contention, N4457S. Don't just speak for a group and

not offer proof. Surely, you understand that on this forum you need to support your opinions when you state them as fact or you'll be laughed out of town. RV, blue collar most of my life

[happygoluckytoyou]

8. never is such a long time.....

we can only hope that those people duped into thinking that the gop gives a fucking hoot about them have awakened to a new day.... AND THAT IS THE ODD-ASSITY OF MY HOPE

[shonester]

17. Response to video and questioning support for Obama

She says Hillary is smart, gutsy and knows her way around government.

Then she says we're in a difficult time.

They she says Obama will take time and think up solutions.

We need solutions NOW. WE need someone who is going to take charge and know what to do before our country falls into the downward spiral.

When you are in a really difficult time you don't take a gamble and hope for the best. This was evident by the "I trust that he will do the right thing" I don't even know what this is being based on. He hasn't really demonstrated this in the US Senate.

To those going on and on about Obama and his stance on the Iraq War. He held that position in 2002 and did not run for the US Senate until 2004. In 2002 it was politically smart to be against the war IN HIS CASE, especially in the state Obama lives in. Even if the war worked out - people still would have died. War is never good and when you aren't the one who votes and holds the trigger it is SO easy to oppose it. And either way you look good for being against it (if they "win" the war, well people still died. If they lose then it's an "I told you so".)

It is surprising he was able to be against a war that he did not know all the much about - lacking access to intelligence reports and having little foreign policy experience to know what would happen. What military experience does Obama have that told him the military plan would not work. His position at the time was based on politcal maneouvoring.

What is concerning is that Obama went around being against the war, but then when he entered the senate he voted along with the Dems for war funding. He voted against Kerry's withdrawal bill. He didn't really take any leadership in ending the war. It makes me wonder if he HAD been a US Senator at the time how he would have voted.

And....He votes for war funding because he "supports the troops" line doesn't work. Post 2002 when the soldiers were arleady in Iraq and Obam was running for the US Senate, Obama claimed he would not support Bush's war funding as a US Senator.