Posted on 10/01/2013 6:44:05 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
FLORHAM PARK -- Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Cory Booker visited Fairleigh Dickinson University's College at Florham Tuesday to share his plan of affordable education.
But first the 44-year-old Newark mayor weighed in on Congress’s failure to pass a budget, a move that forced a federal shutdown.
Booker told the standing room only crowd jammed into Lenfell Hall that he stayed up late Monday night to see what would happen. When it became apparent no accord could be reached, he understood why a recent opinion poll showed Americans' approval of Congress fell somewhere "between cockroaches and colonoscopies."
"You cannot govern from crisis to crisis," said Booker, who faces Tea Party Republican Steve Lonegan in the Wednesday, Oct. 16 special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of veteran Democrat Frank Lautenberg in June.
The shutdown came when the Democratic-controlled Senate refused to recognize the Republican-controlled House’s measure that included a delay in implementation of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. Political experts say the difference is one of divergent philosophies rather than economics.
Booker warned that such “brinksmanship has vast consequences” and instead suggested politicians cast aside their differences and come together.
"The very hallmark of our own country is 'e pluribus unum' – ‘from many, one,’” he said.
A Yale, educated attorney, Booker has been mayor of Newark since 2006. During his administration the city, once better known for economic hardships and crime, has incurred what he called its "biggest economic boom" in 50 years.
He credits that rebirth to teamwork, including the relationship he has developed with Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
He said despite several philosophical differences, including marriage equality (he's for, Christie is against), the city is enjoying an economic revival.
As late as Friday, Sept. 27, Booker broke ground with National Basketball Association legend Shaquille O'Neal for a $60 million rental project that will provide for between 400 and 500 construction jobs alone.
"No one played brinksmanship. Nobody said, 'shut it down,'" Booker said of Newark.
“The people expected us to work together,” he said of his relationship with Christie. "We could get peace around the globe, for crying out loud."
Booker also lobbed some verbal punches at Lonegan.
"My opponent thinks (Republican U.S. Sen. ) Ted Cruz is a great guy,” he said, commenting on the junior Tea Party senator who filibustered for 21 hours on the Senate floor in Washington. D.C. against the Affordable Care Act.
“My opponent calls himself a right wing radical," Booker added. "This is an election of clear choice between someone who wants to shut down the government or someone who believes in moving forward."
Only then did Booker turn to his education message.
"We used to be the number one country in the globe for college graduations, now we’re below 15th,” he said.
But that, he added, could be turned around by coming together to make it so. "I'm hope unhinged. There's nothing we can't do," he said.
Booker calls for providing better financial aid for both students and institutions, including tax credits for low-income families, plans where tuition loans can be deducted from payrolls based on income, and financial incentives for private and public institutions that hold down tuition costs.
Holding down those costs has become a challenge for institutions of higher learning, including Fairleigh Dickinson.
According to the university, more than 94 percent of all entering freshmen are on some kind of financial support, with the average totaling about $20,000.
That’s not what Saul Alinsky said. You know, the guy Hillary Clinton wrote her college thesis on?
Booker here’s a hint...false calls to “work together” when your party’s leadership refuses to speak with their Republican counterparts is B.S.
Well then you backed the wrong man for president.
Obama’s entire political philosophy is “Never let a crisis go to waste”
Obama works hard to generate a crisis so that he can advance his political agenda.
Just like he did the current crisis.
Crisis to crisis? For Booker, its gunshot to gunshot. Newark crime has doubled under this fraudster.
Let’s hope he still thinks he’s a shoe-in. A Lonegan victory will be one of his own persistence and Booker’s carelessness.
DEMOCRATS CAUSE CRAP LIKE THIS.
Fairleigh Dickinson is a shrinking school that boomed during the Vietnam War giving away deferments; the only person I know that attended there went for one year because he was rejected by the state schools. A year later he re-applied and left FDU. Their campus a couple of miles north of me was sold years ago; their niche is gone and soon they will be, too.
Booker isn’t a “rcok star”; I work with many blacks from Newark and none like him (they were Sharpe James fans). He & Obama are not media-created “rock stars”; they are gimme-da-freebies rap stars.
“Crisis to crisis? For Booker, its gunshot to gunshot. Newark crime has doubled under this fraudster. Let’s hope he still thinks he’s a shoe-in. A Lonegan victory will be one of his own persistence and Booker’s carelessness.”
I don’t see any support for Booker even in Newark; I can’t believe he can win (yet the media has decided he already won). If NJ didn’t learn a lesson from the last time they voted for a “clean” black man, then they deserve the tattered economy they have. There has been a lot of news coverage of job losses here in NJ; I would think this might help Lonegan. The rest of the state is increasingly looking like Newark...
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