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Strong Union Turnout in Pennsylvania Primary |
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Last night’s Democratic primary in Pennsylvania drew more than 2.3 million voters, continuing an election season of unprecedented turnout in the primary process. Union members came out strong. According to exit polls, 31 percent of voters in the Democratic primary were members of union households.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) defeated Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) 54.7 percent to 45.3 percent in a hotly contested race. Clinton won 59 percent of union households, and Obama won 41 percent of these voters, according to exit polls.
The strong union turnout shows that union members are mobilized and energized for the election this fall, when one of the Democrats will take on Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
McCain’s voting record and his policy proposals show that he just doesn’t get it when it comes to the problems facing working families. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal noted his tax proposal would almost certainly require huge cuts in Medicare and Social Security, while the benefits of his tax cuts would overwhelmingly go to the very richest. One former Reagan administration official called McCain’s case for his corporate tax cuts “so intellectually dishonest it’s outrageous.” Meanwhile, working families who get insurance from their employer would see a major tax hike from McCain’s health care proposal. Rather than offering no real solutions to the economic crisis facing millions of Americans, McCain needs to support proposals, like a one-year moratorium on home foreclosures, that will give working people the relief they need.
Instead, McCain is finding loopholes in his own campaign finance law to benefit his wealthy contributors and refusing to meet with union members.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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With regard to the Democratic Primary in Pennsylvania - When Clinton asks why Obama didn’t take Pennsylvania, she’s not acknowledging a fact that is all too clear. Rush Limbaugh has successfully encouraged thousands upon thousands of Republicans in Ohio, Texas, and now Pennsylvania, to change their party affiliation and vote for Clinton in the primaries - an activity Rush calls “Operation Chaos.” These apparent Clinton supporters have no intention of voting for her in fall. They are 100% McCain supporters, and as Rush intended, they have successfully skewed the vote, kept the fight going between Obama and Clinton, and are draining the financial resources of the Democratic party.
Further, when Clinton asks why Obama didn’t take Pennsylvania, since he out-spent her in this state, she is not acknowledging that 1) She began massive mud-slinging about six weeks ago, which he had to counter, which accounts for a great deal of the money he had to spend, and 2) It was believed that she would lead by 28 or more points, so the fact that she closed out with only a 10-point lead means that Obama did, in fact, take quite a bit of the state of Pennsylvania from Clinton.
Additionally, it is ironic in the extreme - and sad - that so many blue collar workers who’ve watched their jobs shipped overseas have lost their jobs due in large part to Bill Clinton’s NAFTA - yet these people have voted for Hillary as though they know nothing about her husband’s part in destroying their livelihoods; guess they don’t. It was like watching welfare moms voting for Head-Start and social service killer George W. Bush. Nothing could be more sad than seeing people supporting the very leaders who would bury them.
Thank you, jadams, for speaking the truth on all accounts. I’m still shaking my head over the union endorsements that have come Clinton’s way. It is sad that so many union members support Clinton, but I don’t think they are unaware of her husband’s role in outsourcing American jobs. Rather, I believe many of them listen to their union leadership which tends to sugar-coat the damage the Clinton administration did to American jobs, and with Hillary’s help, I might add. She personally lobbied members of congress to pass NAFTA, despite her claims to the contrary.
Maybe many are unaware that Clinton’s chief campaign strategist is the CEO of a company whose business is union busting. Perhaps it isn’t widely known that Hillary spent 8 years on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors and sat by idly while that company used every dirty tactic in the book to thwart unionization. Whatever the excuse for union members flocking to the polls for Clinton, I hope they are prepared, if she becomes the nominee, for the same old brand of politics-as-usual. While Clinton spouts semi-populist slogans in her effort to win the party’s nomination, she will no doubt retreat to safe appeals to affluent swing voters to win the general election.
Jadams I could not agree with you more. Rush Limbaugh is controlling the democratic primaries and no one is talking about it. It is a sad day in American history when the republicans decided who our leaders are.
I am so happy finally someone realizes what is happening in these primary states.
Thank you jadams!
So if there was a strong Union turnout in Pennsylvania, why did Clinton take the nomination? Clinton believes that she will be the best one to defeat McCain in November. I don’t. Obama has a much better chance of defeating McCain. Clinton should take a long hard look at what is going on and realize the best way she can help this country is to support Obama.
This country needs a new leader with innovative, progressive ideas, something which Obama has clearly been shown to represent. We do not need another corporate connected politician.
I say amen to jadams. I live in Md. next to a Pa. county, and Republicans there changed their registration to Democrat so they could vote for Sen. Clinton in the primary, and then vote against her in the general election. .This election, is becoming a farce. It should have been over long ago. People are getting turned off, and I’m one of them, and most people I talk to are too.
I truly believe Sen. Obama could beat John Mccain, but if this negative campaigning goes on, I think he will have trouble.
The winner of the electionhas to get all the Democratic vote, and a lot of independant votes, and some Republican votes. I don’t feel that that all Dems. will vote for Sen Clinton, and not many independants, and no Republicans, so therefore I don’t think she can win. We need someone who can win, or the middleclass America is over.
I feel that many of the leading Democrats need a change of attitude. Far too many support these so called free trade agreements. My Senator and Congressman have each answered letters to me stating that Americans can compete with anyone in the world. If that is true, why have all our jobs, gone to China, India, Mexico and other third world countries? The only way we can compete is to lower our living standards to theirs. They always say, if the playing field is level , we can compete. If the playing field was level in the first place, there would be no need for free trade agreements.
I certainly would like to go shopping and see mostly American made products. I hate buying Chinese products. To me, they are still the largest Communist country in the world who Americans stood up to for approx 50 years, and then our gov’t rewards them with all our great manufacturing industries. It looks like they won in the end.
Thank you
I sure was ashamed to see my Union brothers and sisters supporting a former member of the board of Directors of Walmart
Candidates ignore unions at their own peril. We are strong and we’re getting stronger. Someone has to protect workers from corporate greed, and that “someone” is us-the men and women of America’s union movement!
One way to sum up the pro-Clinton union vote is this: “Labor Pie-cards Hoodwink Their Ranks-and-File.”
One blowhard characterized Obama supporters as “latte sipping, Prius driving, Birkenstck wearing trust fund babies.” What that labor-faker failed to reveal is that he hasn’t been on the job for decades. As soon as he could attain desk-jockey status he jumped at it and hasn’t looked back. His disdain for those of us who actually work for a living while supporting Obama is reprehensible. And get a load of this: His membership has diminished during his tenure. He’s been too preoccupied supporting NAFTA-loving neoliberals and greasing up his nose so he could bury it where the sun don’t shine. His union endorsed Clinton and Huckabee. What a joke!
Clinton says NAFTA has to be fixed. She sure wasn’t saying that when she was extolling the virtues of that lousy trade scheme while speaking at a Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) “Conversation”. She didn’t criticize NAFTA at other events either. By the way, she co-chairs the DLC. It’s “trade agenda” includes deregulation, unfettered “free” trade, and the elimination of tariffs. Where the neoconservatives use missiles and bombs to achieve their goal of world domination, the neoliberals instead resort to slight-of-hand backdoor legislation.
Her health care malarkey? The insurance carriers love it! So does the AMA and very for-profit provider in the country. And big-Pharma is giddy over her plan. It astounds me when I hear people talk-up her “universal” coverage rhetoric. It makes me think they never read it. Her plan is not “universal” and neither is it comprehensive. And top-tier coverage for medically necessary procedures is far to expensive for millions of low, medium-low, and middle class families.
And her Iraq war position? She voted for it! It was only very late in the game that she finally said it was a mistake (and that was only because by defending her vote to go to war she was losing votes.)
As a champion of “women” she sure falls short. She bragged about her hubby’s “welfare to workplace partnership” program. Hat a bunch of baloney! That Republican-inspired “welfare reform” meanness was an attack on poor and nearly-poor single women (many of whom were single mothers.)
It is appalling that business-union style collaborators have backed her. And it is equally shameful that thee have led their memberships down a primrose path. The labor leaders of yore are rolling in their graves
If you admire NAFTA and if like the fact that American jobs are moving offshore, vote Clinton. If you adore our nation’s health care crisis vote Clinton. She’ll deliver more of the same. If you think scape-goating single women is good, Hillary is your gal.
Oh, and there is one more thing that needs mentioning: Her saber-rattling about nuking Iran is a page right out of the chicken-hawk “fear spreading” handbook authored by Bush and Cheney. Strange bedfellows? Maybe not. After all, old Bill ushered in the “African Renaissance” which was aimed at toppling democratically-elected African leaders and replacing them with thugs and goons beholding to American-led neoconservatives/neoliberals.
Oops, just one more thing: Obama took his name off the Michigan ballot because Michigan Democrats violated rules that every campaign supported. He was unable to remove his name from the Florida ballot, but kept his work and refused to campaign there.
Clinton? She thumbed her nose at the rules and kept her name on the Michigan ballot, and campaigned in Florida too. Now she wants those votes to be counted. She wasn’t singing that tune when she was the presumptive nominee, but after Obama passed her up she cried foul. It seems the rules only matter when they favor her.
For labor “leaders” to endorse her given all the shenanigans and voter-double crossing she’s pulled is shameful. Labor is supposed to set an examples for others to follow. Pie cards evidently haven’t gotten that message.
Instead they lead their members down the primrose path in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. No wonder union density in the U.S. has fallen from over 35% down to today’s 12%. Most of the hierarchy wouldn’t know what working class ideology looked like even if t bit them ob the butt. It seems the’ rather attend inaugural balls instead of serving their ranks-and-file.
Wake up workers. Don’t let labor blowhards sell you out anymore!
Isn’t 20 years of the Bush/Clinton/Bush anti-worker agenda enough?
Vote fr Obama!
I’m a 67 year old union man who has worked all my adult life. I know what it is like to actually labor for a living. Most of you reading this do too. Isn’t it time we tell the suits and ties masquerading as labor leaders that they had better lead or get the hell out of the way?
The important thing to remember is that John McCain really does “get it” when it comes to working families- he just doesn’t care. He thinks NAFTA is a good deal and we’ll just have to live with the fact that our jobs won’t be coming back. WRONG ANSWER! NAFTA could and should be renegotiated to include labor protections to level the playing field.
Personally I think we should all unite around the candidate that is nominated. And in November when there is a democrat in the white house, I hope Rush Limbaugh is slowly driven insane and has to be carted off in a white suit and taken to a mental institute
where he can take his rightful place and finally rule as king.
Thanks to all of you who have posted. If only more people were more informed of these things. I, too have suspected that ‘Republicans’ were trying to get Clinton elected. I also began to think that Hillary was acting more and more like a Republican in her campaigning, and I find myself saying I really don’t trust her. Well, of all things, what I didn’t know was that Hillary was a Republican in her early years. She supported Goldwater (Thank you Keith). Considering the many things she has supported these past few years, the Iraq war, NAFTA, CAFTA, and even how she wants to handle the health care situation, she is definitely more Republican than Democrat. It would be wise of the American people to see through this and to understand just why her campaign is getting uglier and uglier. Don’t trust her. She will end up being persuaded by the corporates of Washington.