Newsmaker

The tour series is called the Steel Blitz for Barack sponsored by the United Steel Workers. The tour features a clever mix of Steelers football, steelworkers, and Barack. The heads of the USW are rallying their members to turn out the vote for Obama by touring Pennsylvania with the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and some retired players. We luckily were invited along for the ride. While the idea is simple the task is not. Union membership does not automatically mean a Democratic vote.

USW Tour Series for Obama

We spent our morning at one of the Steel Workers’ smallest locals. It did not go off as planned. The AFL-CIO decided not to bring the stage for the rally. This was just as well because it was not the correct weather for an outdoor rally. As we sloshed around in the rain with the steel workers, we got an interesting portrait of the election in the Northeast’s only swing state. The union was passing out flyers, “Barack Obama WON’T Take Away Your Gun…But John McCain WILL Take Away Your Union.” One thing has become very apparent, the polls are lying, the race in PA is extremely close.

I was struck by the sense that Obama supporters are getting overly excited. I overheard the union officials saying the internal polls were a lot closer. Then there is the fact that John McCain more or less needs to win Pennsylvania to win and has shifted his resources accordingly.

The Steelers were clearly a big draw. It was two old timers, one guy a receiver I gathered was really good in his day. As much as the Patriots fan in me doesn’t want to admit it, the Steelers are pretty cool. At the second and third events, the owner of the Steelers showed up with his son. There is something really nice about rich people saying, “I don’t pay enough taxes, and you, the middle class, are getting screwed.” The Steelers embody the working class heroes, whom they are named after. It is clearly instilled in the players and it seemed only natural that they give back in this way.

Union Hall, Leechburg PA

It was a pretty unique opportunity to travel around with the USW. Much to my surprise the international president of the union joined us. Leo Gerard is the president of the International, which represents nearly 3 million of the 15 million unionized workers in the US. Leo was extremely down to earth. He started as a coal miner and has worked his way up to where he is today.

Over breakfast Leo, covered head to toe in Steelers and Obama garb, was all jokes as he was busy recounting something he had heard on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown the night before. I listened as Leo was talking about which parts of his stump speech seemed to be connecting with the workers most. He found the old timers really connected with Obama choosing to go visit his dying grandma, despite the election sprinting to its close.

Union Hall, Beaver PA

Leo is a smart guy who has a true brotherhood with the workers. I was really impressed with Leo’s speech. So often on the news we hear people attempting to turn Obama into a saint. Leo, while appreciating Obama’s character, sees the election in terms of the issues that affect him and the steel workers. The speech was about why Obama is better for the middle class than McCain. In fact, his stump speech spends more time attacking McCain’s policies then claiming Obama is the savior. It is an interesting distinction. It is almost seeing one’s vote as a defensive measure rather than an investment.

Unions Love Democrats But Hate Trees

Leo Gerard, Internation President USW

Leo also had no problem going after McCain’s character. “McCain came back from Vietnam to find his beautiful queen wife disabled, not so beautiful; so he cheated on her and left.” Everywhere we went, McCain’s divorce mattered more than I realized. In these small communities, where everyone works at the plant, betrayal becomes a community matter, and they were holding McCain to this same standard.

It occurs to me that maybe the way these candidates are talked about in kitchens across the country is vastly different from the impressions presented on TV and in the papers. It is hard to pin down how each community’s unique social reality frames the larger world.

Welcome to Ohio Please Ignore the Poverty

Around 4 o’clock we headed on to Ohio. We drove across the point where Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia meet. Frankly, I found it fitting that these are the places that determine our president because they are the ones most in need of help. The poverty was striking. Homes and trailers reinforced with cardboard. There were no stores nor any semblance of a town to be found. One thing that struck me as particularly odd was that with so much open land, all the houses were right on top of each other. It was beautiful land of rolling hills and corn fields running along the banks of the Ohio River. The closer we got to Cleveland the ratio of McCain to Obama signs switched. Not surprisingly somewhere in the middle the signs stood at a 50-50 ratio. Particularly interesting was that the Obama houses were also sporting handmade signs reading, “You can steal my sign but you can’t steal my vote!” One last comment on yard signs, they were ridiculously big in Ohio. I would say 4 times the size of the average NY yard sign.

I hoped to interview some voters in Cleveland, but there weren’t any people to talk to. We seriously drove around Cleveland without even seeing a soul. Judging from the vast number of churches in the town we could only assume that’s where they must all be. Although, I feel no ill feeling for Cleveland my breakfast was only $3.95 after all.

My experience driving through the ultimate swing states are that this really is a referendum on Obama. The partisans are partisan.  But the middle class voters we meet have a decision to make. For some they need to decide if Obama will take away their guns or if God will allow them to go blue. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way.  It is just that these were the issues people were talking about. As for racism, I confirmed that there are racists, but they seem to have found other reasons to justify voting for McCain. God, Guns, and Race…our economic futures hangs in the balance in the American Midwest.