Sen. Joe Biden To Stop In Castlewood Today
AP Graphic
U.S. Sen. Joe Biden
* What: Sen. Joe Biden headlines the United Mine Workers of America’s annual Fish Fry
* Where: State Route 59, 237 Donnie Dean Drive, Castlewood, Va.
* When: The doors open at 10 a.m.; the program begins at 1 p.m.
* Who’s invited: Open to the public, no tickets needed
Source: United Mine Workers of America
U.S. Sen. Joe Biden’s planned stop in Castlewood, Va., today is the latest salvo fired in a fierce power play for a state and the presidency.
The visit by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate marks the party’s third foray since June into what is a traditionally Republican Southwest Virginia.
It also comes less than two weeks after Obama, of Illinois, addressed thousands at Lebanon High School. Obama’s first stop after securing enough votes for his party’s nomination was in Bristol, Va.
“I have not heard that [Obama has] hit any other area of the country that hard,” said Cordel Faulk, communications director at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, and commentary editor for the Richmond-Times Dispatch.
Sen. Biden, of Delaware, will headline the United Mine Workers of America’s annual Fish Fry alongside fellow Democrats Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher.
U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have yet to tour the region, a possible signal of their confidence in holding votes here.
Republican views on coal, values and tax cuts for small businesses fall more in line with the region, said Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s attorney general and state co-chairman of the McCain campaign.
“They [Obama and Biden] don’t fit Southwest Virginia,” McDonnell said by telephone on Friday.
McCain has only nine campaign offices in Virginia, the nearest in Roanoke. Most offices are clustered in Northern Virginia, where there is a strong Democratic following, and in Hampton Roads, home of a strong military vote.
By comparison, the Obama camp has pitched 36 Virginia offices, clustered mainly near McCain’s sites, but also with locations in Bristol, Big Stone Gap and Castlewood.
This discrepancy is a sure sign of McCain’s overconfidence in his following here, U.S. Rep. Boucher, of the 9th District, said by telephone on Friday.
“There are more undecided voters in Southwest Virginia than any other part of the state in this election,” he said.
Virginia, with 13 electoral votes, has been a Republican stronghold for more than 40 years. But a recent New York Times poll lists Virginia as among the seven “toss-up” states. In all, the poll found that there are 79 electoral votes up for grabs in a race that most polls show is a dead heat.
Whether McCain or Palin will visit this part of the state remains unknown, said McDonnell, although he said he has requested that they tour here.
Obama, on the other hand, likely will revisit the region before the Nov. 4 election, Boucher said.
Asked why McCain hasn’t visited the region, while the Democrats continue to woo Southwest Virginia, Faulk said: “Maybe he [McCain] thinks Obama is on a fool’s errand.”
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The major shortcoming of the current system of electing the President is that presidential candidates concentrate their attention on a handful of closely divided “battleground” states. In 2004 two-thirds of the visits and money were focused in just six states; 88% on 9 states, and 99% of the money went to just 16 states. Two-thirds of the states and people were merely spectators to the presidential election. Candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or worry about the voter concerns in states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind. The reason for this is the winner-take-all rule under which all of a state’s electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the most votes in each separate state.
Another shortcoming of the current system is that a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections.
The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
The National Popular Vote bill has passed 21 state legislative chambers, including one house in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These four states possess 50 electoral votes — 19% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
susan
The current Financial Crisis was created by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, introduced into the Senate in 2000 by Senator Phil Gramm, John McCain’s economic advisor. It allowed banks, other institutions to bundle subprime debt, like people’s home mortgages with high adjustable rates, and sell, or"swap” it to institutions worldwide, specifically banned any government regulation of these credit default swaps. So these same companies make billion$ for years, then when the housing market collapses, as they were warned it would, the taxpayers have to pay for the mess, $5.3 trillion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose CEO’s are to be paid over $20 million dollars in their severance packages! $85 billion dollars for the AIG bailout,whose CEO got $47 million. This is just like 1989’s Savings and Loan disaster. Congress deregulated the S&L;industry by passing a bill called the DIDMCA, written by the same Senator Gramm, which allowed S&L;‘s to operate without government regulation. Then after making too many bad loans, the S&L;industry had to be bailed out to the tune of 1.4 Trillion of our dollars.(Remember the Keating 5, one of whom was John McCain.) Wake up, folks, this is your money, and these elected officials manage it! Our tax dollars should pay for bettering our lives, shouldn’t they? How much of your tax dollar gets spent on your family? How about spending some of our tax money to reduce our home electricity bills, solar power for every home would cost less than $300 billion. Or guaranteeing low interest home loans for all Americans. Or making sure our soldiers fighting in Iraq, (why they are there is a mystery to me) get proper medical care. Or have a national job training program so the Millions of people who have lost their jobs over the last 8 years, have an opportunity to train for a new job. All in all, this “bailout” seems like just another hornswaggle, and I’m fed up with paying for big businesses blunders. How about you?
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