Posted on 05/20/2012 4:30:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Dave Betras is known in “The Valley” for his colorful language and his political antics and drama. Last Wednesday, however, when Vice President Joe Biden visited a local industrial park, Betras was all about numbers.
“Oh, the valley is going to turn out big for Barack Obama this year, big!” he said, spreading his arms wide for emphasis. The chairman of Mahoning County’s Democrats pointed to the shipping warehouse of M7 Technologies, a local manufacturer, filled with people waiting to hear Biden speak. “Turn-out like today, a full room,” Betras, 52, said.
If his job is to turn out Obama supporters on Election Day, he may want to check on their allegiances before he buses them to the polls. Many of the Youngstown attendees at Biden’s event do not support him or the president.
Bob McClain and his wife, Myra, went to M7 Technologies to support their friend’s family business. Neither supports the Obama-Biden ticket.
“We are friends of the owners – that is why we came, to show support for the Garvey family,” said McClain. At 71, he’s retired but volunteers full-time as a counselor for Mahoning Valley small-business owners.
“Our vote is going for who is best to lead on the economy. That is Romney, for us,” said Myra as her husband nodded.
Richard Furillo stood with his son Matthew at his son’s place of employment; a lifelong Democrat, he voted for Obama in 2008 but won’t again. “I don't know why I did it but I cannot stand anymore ‘change,’ ” he said, referring to the president’s old campaign slogan.
Father and son both said they attended the event to support the company.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a sitting vice president,” added Matthew, also a Democrat. He, too, said he will vote for Romney.
Standing beside them, Jeff Cunningham echoed their sentiments: “The biggest challenge in this country is creating jobs that last, jobs that sustain families.” The 36-year-old valley native said his vote will be for Romney.
Montgomery “Monty” Deruyter sat several rows from where Biden stood, addressing the crowd. The 43-year-old father of two started working at M7 as a machinist two months ago; uncertainty is driving him to favor Romney.
“I hold both parties at arm’s length but trust Romney’s business skills to lead on the economy,” he said.
They were only five of more than a score of people interviewed who said they will not vote for Obama in November; they were the audience members not captured by TV cameras, who sat respectfully during Biden’s 30-minute populist speech while the party faithful – gathered up and bused in by Betras – leaped up every time Biden’s voice pitched several decibels.
Even then, discontent was voiced among those faithful – and worry that some of the community have no reason to vote for the president next fall.
Joe Louis Teague, 70, a black community icon who has run several failed campaigns for local office, is in charge of coordinating the Obama campaign’s voter registration in the Mahoning Valley. He is worried about the black vote because “people are discouraged.”
Black-on-black crime is out of control; drugs and poor parenting are at the heart of that problem, he said.
“I am going to be honest, I think he could have done more,” he said of the first black president’s attention to the black community. “I think he needs to do more.”
As Biden switched between fiery class-warfare rhetoric and whispers about his upbringing in neighboring Pennsylvania, two things stood out: no mention of coal or Marcellus shale natural gas – the resources that are bringing prosperity back to this region – and his rhetoric about middle-class resentment.
“They don’t get it! They don’t get who we are!” he shouted after one pitch about how Republicans don't understand the little guy in places such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
That’s an interesting take from Biden, considering Obama's “understanding” of those same gun- and Bible-clinging embittered voters that he famously described at a high-dollar San Francisco fundraiser in 2008.
It probably is why last week’s Quinnipiac poll showed only one percentage point advantage for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in the Buckeye State.
Some years back, a politician with a sense of humor was asked why he always tried to be the Grand Marshal in a parade. He replied that when a circus comes to town, everybody wants to see the clown.
Yes, and don't ask them to clean up the trash they leave behind when they're finished eating that free lunch either.
I never realized it was such a big deal to see a sitting Vice President. I've seen two men who at the time were former Vice Presidents (Nixon, G.H.W. Bush) and one who was a future Vice President (Cheney), but none who was in office at the time.
My niece in Toledo got a photo taken of herself with Obama the week he ran into Joe the Plumber. She is a staunch democrat and her husband a staunch republican (good for him). Toledo is a strong union city and customarily votes according to what their unions tell them to do.
“Dolphins laugh at Biden, then ignore him....”
That is likely true because dolphin are smart. Whereas Biden is a big dummy.
Also, Dolphin are not plagiarist.
they were the audience members not captured by TV cameras, who sat respectfully during Biden’s 30-minute populist speech while the party faithful – gathered up and bused in by Betras – leaped up every time Biden’s voice pitched several decibels.
Triumph of the Will
AMEN to that, it is STILL THE ECONOMY that is to be the MAIN FOCUS.
Correct and it really always has been. Imagine that we consistently had a conservative governor and statehouse in 26/50 states over the last century. That’s local politics, but with national implications. Those conservatives could have fought for state’s rights, given a bad name over unConstitutional racially biased laws, and perhaps we could have kept the Leviathan in check. Imagine a FedGov half to a third the size we have now with less than a tenth of its regulatory power.
The SCOTUS will also be critical. We have to keep control of the thoughtspace no matter who is POTUS. I believe that Romney is the better choice right now, but electing conservatives from dog catcher to governor will do more to ensure liberty than fretting over Romney’s RINOism.
“I am going to be honest, I think he could have done more,” he said of the first black president’s attention to the black community. “I think he needs to do more.”
Yes, Obama had a rare opportunity to improve the lot of the black community but gave it up for political advantage.
But honestly he probably never recognized it after a life time of indoctrination by the likes of Rev. Wright in the philosophy of Black Liberation Theology.
What Obama could have done is spoke truth to power (Black Power) as the Democrats are fond of saying. He could have told the black community that they are destroying their own future, that blaming whitey does nothing to improve their lot, that black men making babies with multiple women that they have no intention of marrying or babies that they have neither the ability or the desire to raise will not improve the black community and will only make their lives worse.
He could have told the black community that none of these things is the fault of the white race and that the responsibility to change these things is entirely that of the black community and that only the black community can change these things.
But Obama is completely happy with things the way they are because all of these things keep the black community at home on the Democratic Plantation voting for Democrats 90% of the time.
These are things that a charismatic black leader needs to say to the black community. These are things that the black community needs to hear and things that they need to do something about. But Obama “the First Black President” has abdicated this responsibility and has missed the opportunity. The First Black President is coming to the end of his tenure as president having done less than nothing for his core constituency. The First Black President will leave office having only made things worse for his people; that is all of his people.
It’s called projection. The dems do it so they figure everyone else does to.
Great post! Seldom see any word about the thoughtless impregnation of black females, which both Barack and Michelle should have addressed, only the results of so many unwanted children growing into angry young men who are destroying their own lives and communities. They are killing their own! There is incredible pain and sorrow in the black communities over the murder of innocents. For what? Then Republicans are blamed for the “unfair” lop-sided prison population.
Wrong.
‘...that black men making babies with multiple women that they have no intention of marrying or babies that they have neither the ability or the desire to raise will not improve the black community and will only make their lives worse.”
Like that guy last week with 30 children from 11 mothers who works a minimum wage job and was in court to have his child support reduced? Each of the mothers gets about $1.49 per child per month.
I had forgotten about plagiarism and Biden; so have most of his followers in PA and DE. They still believe in Biden.
Why?
.
I do not forget much - and I am careful about what I write or say
I turn the left’s own words and deeds back upon them
The left acts like there are no printed or published words and no audio and/or video archives
Basically they are just morons
Evidence: The books allegedly written by Hussy Junior and his own voice on tape or CD - Sean Hannity is making good use of Hussy’s own recorded words and confessions on ABC and FNC now
What kind of moron would write and especially then record their own insane ramblings and admissions?
- The jerk in the White Hut!
.
“...“They don’t get it! They don’t get who we are!”...”
Yeah....we...pretty much know EXACTLY who you guys are, Joey old boy.
Saw this movie before...heard the same music before too. Saw the corpse piles too, from the last time this sh*t was tried...
“Ha ha. You’ve never been to a union demonstration, have you? Here is how it works:”
Actually here’s how to make liquoring up union demonstrators even more effective. Give them vodka to was the beer down with!
Dr. Jack Wheeler’s newsletter in January of 2005 had a hilarious story about the Ukrainian election:
Eastern Ukraine is heavily ethnic Russian. The main industry is coal. The miners are rough, tough, and hate Yushchenko for wanting to take Ukraine away from Russia and towards the West. It was arranged for more than a thousand of them to be taken from Donetsk, the capital of the coal-mining region, by bus and train to Kiev, where, armed with clubs and blunt tools, they would physically beat up the Orange Revolutionaries. Such mass violence was not only to disperse the demonstrators but serve as an excuse for the government to declare martial law, suspending the Ukrainian Parliament (the Rada) and elections indefinitely.
When the miners got on their buses and trains, they found to their joy case after case of vodka “ just for them. When they arrived in Kiev, trucks awaited them filled with more cases of vodka“ all free provided by “friends” of the Donetsk coal miners. Completely soused, they never made it to Independence Square. Too hammered blind to cause any violence at all, they had a merry time, passed out, and were shipped back to Donetsk.
Guess who the Friends of the Miners were?
And just who were the miner’s friends that had the vodka for them? The same folks who had all the supplies for the democracy demonstrators: teams of Porter Goss’s CIA working with their counterparts in British MI6 intelligence.
From a post by: Sue Bob at: http://suebobsdiary.com/?m=200502
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.