Posted on 11/16/2011 4:55:03 AM PST by EBH
The event -- treated as a political rally, not as official White House business -- was the first Ohio stop for the president's re-election team. The timing of the visit signaled Democrats' renewed optimism in an always crucial swing state that Obama won by four points in 2008.
Firefighters were among the large coalition that united this year to defeat Senate Bill 5, the Republican-backed law. Issue 2, as it was known on the ballot, failed 61 percent to 39 percent.
Chants of "four more years" broke out after Euclid fireman Bill Mastroianni introduced the vice president by repeating Obama's "fired up and ready to go" rallying cry from 2008.
Repeatedly in his half-hour speech, Biden cast the fight as a victory not for labor, but for the middle class. He told stories about his childhood and of his father, who struggled to find work.
"Folks," the vice president said at the close of his speech, "you fired the first shot. It's not about Barack Obama. It's not about Joe Biden. It's about whether middle-class people are going to be put back in the saddle again -- because you are the people who make this country move."
Biden and Solis also took aim at Republican Gov. John Kasich, who with the help of a GOP-controlled legislature made SB 5 a focal point of his first year in office. Kasich, said Solis, was the only state executive to go after police officers and firefighters. "How dare he?" she said.
Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols asserted that SB 5 was "in many ways less restrictive than the system Vice President Biden and Secretary Solis preside over at this very moment."
Though Tuesday's event was organized... He only mentioned one top-tier Republican contender by name -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in passing.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
Too bad he didn’t mention the really important victory...the Ohio smackdown of “Obama/commiicare’!!
Ohio Ping
Truly spoken like a man who neither lives nor pays taxes in Ohio.
To look on the bright side the unions and their supporters have $30 million or more less money to spend on the 2012 election because they spent it on protecting the government unions.
He’s a suppurating butt wart.
Whatever it was, I had to drive through the three ring circus to get to where I was going. There were half a dozen Euclid police cars, black suv’s, a satellite truck and guys in black windbreakers walking up and down the street talking into their hands, not to mention a ton of cars parked on both sides of the side streets, leaving just enough room for one car to squeeze through.
This “political event” was held at a municipal fire station, which implies to me an implicit endorsement by the city government, which is logical given that our fair city is bright blue. Methinks that you'll not see that courtesy extended to any Conservative candidates.
I hope nobody needed Fire or EMS rescue in that neck of the woods yesterday because that firehouse was effectively out of service for at least half a day and maybe longer, (the streets were just as crowded at 1:00 PM when I left the area as when I got there at 10:00 AM).
this small business will be moving to Indiana!
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