Gore's Speech: A Reminder of What's Missing
| Thu Aug. 28, 2008 6:42 PM PDT
There's been some talk among pundits and progressives that the Obama campaign could use a touch more populism--especially to reach those working-class voters (read: white working-class voters). So maybe the Democratic convention could have used someone talking like this:
My focus is on working families--people trying to make house payments and car payments, working overtime to save for college and do right by their kids. Whether you're in a suburb, or an inner-city. Whether you raise crops or drive hogs and cattle on a farm, drive a big rig on the Interstate, or drive e-commerce on the Internet… Whether you're starting out to raise your own family, or getting ready to retire after a lifetime of hard workSo often, powerful forces and powerful interests stand in your way, and the odds seemed stacked against you--even as you do what's right for you and your family.
How and what we do for all of you - the people who pay the taxes, bear the burdens, and live the American dream--that is the standard by which we should be judged.
That's a passage from Al Gore's feisty I-will-fight-for-you-against-powerful-interests acceptance speech at the 2000 convention. This time around, on the final night of the convention, Gore appeared at Invesco Field an hour before Barack Obama was scheduled to come out, and he spoke--no surprise--mostly about climate change. He was eloquent on the subject, as he usually is. He did take a whack at the oil and coal industries and "the forces of the status quo." But he sure did not tailor his remarks to the sort of voters he focused on in his 2000 speech.
Of course, it's not Gore's job to populist-ize the Obama campaign. That seems to be Joe Biden's mission. But Gore's speech on Thursday night--given the obvious comparison to his 2000 speech--was a reminder that something's been missing.
THIS JUST IN: Shortly after Gore spoke, the convention presented several working- or middle-class voters who explained why they were supporting Obama. One of them, Smith Barney, who lost his job in a Marian, Indiana, factory, had what was (so far) the best populist line of the night: "We need a president who puts Barney Smith before SmithBarney."
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To anyone interested:
You may remember Barney Smith from Fairmount, Indiana. He spoke at the Democrat National Convention Thursday night and was one of the people who introduced Barack Obama. He will be remembered for the line "I want a president who cares more about Barney Smith than they do about Smith Barney." A great well-written line that many people remember.
On Thursday night in Denver, when he introduced Barack Obama, he claimed to be a "lifelong" Republican. I spoke with some people from here in Grant County, Indiana, who had a question about that. I mean, if a person is really a "lifelong" Republican, would they be backing a democrat for president?
So this afternoon I went to the Grant County Courthouse and got a copy of his voting record--a public document in Indiana. Attached is a copy of Bernard Smith's voting record from Grant County voter's registration. It shows that for the last 12 years he has voted in 3 primary elections. In 1996 he voted democrat, in 2006 he voted Republican, and in 2008 he voted democrat. He may well have had Republican leanings, and how he voted in general elections is, of course, confidential.
But would you say that voting in one Republican primary in the last 12 years would qualify a person to be a "lifelong" Republican?
Like Fox news says, "We report, you decide".
Mike Roorbach
1615 Lakeview Drive
Marion, IN 46953
home 765-674-7964
mroorbach@indy.rr.com
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