Brown’s "Lovely Wife" Says Racism, NAFTA Important Factors with Ohio Voters

OhioNewsBureau 

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The wake of excitement and approval created by the electric speech given Tuesday night by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign fell short of her party’s nomination, made it crystal clear that she wants all Democrats, especially the 18 million passionate voters who supported her during the primaries and those having second thoughts about  turning their passion from her to Barack Obama for president, to join her in supporting Obama as "our president."

Hillary, playing the role of uniter in Denver, the site of the 2008 Democratic convention, again showed through the style, tone and content of her presentation that come Election Day, to avoid four more years of “the last eight years,” everyone needs to rally around the standard bearer, Obama, so their hopes and aspirations can be realized.

Unity is key to which political party will claim the keys to the Whiter House this November. But in Ohio, where the real message of unity hasn’t arrived just yet, Ohio’s junior senator, who was elected in 2006 on a strong campaign that focused on restoring vigor to the middle class, forecasted Hillary voters will break for Obama, winning him Ohio, its precious 20 Electoral College votes and the White House.

Browns Talk of Restoring Middle Class, NAFTA, Racism

As one of many guests on the Charlie Rose Show, along with his wife, Connie Schultz, an award-winning author and columnist for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown predicted that Hillary voters who are undecided will break for Obama. Although the latest Rasmusseun Poll showing Sen. John McCain of Arizona McCain leading Obama 45-41 percent, barely outside the margin of error, Brown said the small within-the-margin margin McCain enjoys can be reversed with the help of Hillary voters, who he said need to realize that for their dreams to come true they must back Obama, and that voting for McCain is nonsensical. Rasmussen's national tracking poll shows the candidates tied at 44 percent each.

Brown, a former multi- term Congressman representing parts of northeast Ohio, a region hit hard by massive manufacturing job losses over the span of President Bush’s two terms, said Obama needs to voice the themes he used to win his seat, taking down Mike DeWine, a formidable Republican office holder with deep political roots. Brown invited Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee for Vice President this election cycle, to move to Ohio, whose has city’s similar to Scranton, Penn, in that they’ve lost jobs and are on hard times, where he can talk to Hillary voters. Biden’s economic arguments, Brown said, could increase Obama’s lead of McCain by another 5 percentage points.

Brown said Gov. Ted Strickland, elected in the 2006 election that swept Republicans out of most statewide offices and Democrats in, is “now sold on Barack,” adding that a “strong middle class message about job killing trade agreements, taking on the oil industry” will produce a “good margin in Ohio by Election Day.”

The gravely voiced Brown dismissed the tensions between the Obama and Clinton camps, which the mainstream news media has feverishly keep alive, was “mainly at the paid staff levels.” He added that “things are falling into place.

But for things to fall into place as Brown hopes they will, nearly half of Democratic women (47%) who say Barack Obama should have chosen their champion, Hillary Clinton, for his running mate instead of Senator Joseph Biden will have to be talked down from the political ledge they are standing on. The good news is that a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a sizable majority (57%) of Democratic women believe that Obama is the Democratic candidate who will do best against John McCain in the November election

Brown offered some practical, if not peripatetic advice to Obama and his campaign. Send campaign people out on the precinct level and ask people to really think about whether its more important to vote against somebody because of the color of his skin, even though their best interests will be served by Obama, not McCain? It’s a powerful question, one Clinton touch on repeatedly in her talk about why Democrats need to replace Republicans, because the fate of the future hangs in the balance

Connie Schultz, Brown’s second wife and a Pulitzer Prize winning, nationally syndicated columnist for the Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest circulation newspaper, commented on Hillary’s role and position in the bating order of convention speakers. Schultz, whose second book “…And His Lovely Wife” constituted a look back at her husband’s run for the Senate, said “Hillary was on her best behavior” but said tensions, contrary to what her husband had just stated, still existed.

Making a statement about the temerity white journalists like herself and others may have in wanting to raise and talk about the important role race will play in this election, Schultz said its hard admitting that Obama may not get the number of votes he would get if he were white. Schultz confessed that the issue was real, so real in fact that she said her newspaper has had to take some posts by readers down because they were too straight forward racist.

In addition to the issue of race, who parameters have yet to be fully understood, Schultz said eyes in Ohio will look to see if Obama’s stance on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) changes. Both Clinton and Obama campaigned throughout the Buckeye StateOhio,” she said, underscoring that voters will pay attention to that issue to see if Obama makes any changes to the positions he articulated in Ohio previously. in March saying they would renegotiate NAFTA if elected. “That was big news in Ohio," Schultz said of the role NAFTA played in the campaigns of Obama and Clinton.

American People Speaking, Walters Says of Historic Moment Favoring Obama

Ronald Walters of the University of Maryland, internationally known for his expertise on the issues of African American leadership and politics and his writing and his media savvy, answered the question of whether Obama can win Ohio. With one word, he said "yes." Concluding that a unified Democratic Party will be unbeatable if everything else holds steady, Walters said the “tremendous wave of people lining up to vote” bodes well for the Democratic Party and its candidates. “It’s a historical moment when the American people are speaking,” Walters, who served as deputy campaign manager for issues of the Jesse Jackson campaign for president in 1988, said, demoting Obama from “The One” (as Republicans have cast him by mocking his popularity) to a small part of story. He said that even though Obama is the “band leader now,” voters in November will start to look at party positions. With new voters aligning far more with Democrats over Republicans, the thinking of Walters argues that, despite the might efforts of Republicans to divide and conquer, an election strategy that has worked for them especially when elections are within the margin of error, won’t work this year.

John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief for ePluribus Media Journal. Find ONB archives here.
Photo credits: (c) 2008 AnHarris, istockphoto

To send a tip or story idea to this correspondent, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it