I went to a Meet The Candidates event near here night before last:
Angela Zimmann was there. She’s running against Bob Latta for the US House.
John Vanover was there, I’ve mentioned him frequently here before, he’s the brave person who stepped up to run against an entrenched, well-funded culture warrior Republican for a seat in the Ohio legislature. He doesn’t have an online donations page set up yet, but we’re working on it.
The event was mostly Q and A, and it was a good discussion. The attendees asked about Kasich’s plans to sell the turnpike, Lake Erie environmental protections, and school funding. No one asked about birth control, or whether or not President Obama is “really” a Christian, and the college student who was barred from testifying in the GOP House on contraception wasn’t even mentioned, let alone demeaned and insulted.
Yesterday, Angela and some others held a press conference in Toledo to go after Romney on the auto industry rescue that he opposed. It’s a nice hook for Angela, because her opponent Bob Latta opposed the rescue too:
Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern, State Representative Michael Ashford, 5th District Congressional candidate Angela Zimmann and Lucas County Democratic Party Chairman Ron Rothenbuhler stood in front of a podium sign reading, “Romney: Let Jeep Die” and held a press conference in Toledo to highlight Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s out-of-touch record when it comes to manufacturing and the auto industry. The event followed Mitt Romney’s appearance at American Posts LLC in Toledo.
The Ohio Democrats opened the event by pointing to comments made by Romney earlier in the day in which he said, “I gotta push a button. That’ll be my heavy-lift in terms of manufacturing.”
State Representative Mike Ashford of Toledo talked about the autoworkers he represents and the autoworkers across America. “Since President Obama stood up for the auto industry, more than 1.4 million jobs have been saved, 200,000 created and more than 150,000 expected in the next few years. And Chrysler will soon invest $500 million in the Jeep plant, right here in my district.”
Ashford invited Mitt Romney to visit the Jeep plant and meet his constituents to hear how the auto industry has been helped through the rescue efforts that he opposed. 5th District Congressional Candidate Angela Zimmann slammed her Republican opponent, Congressman Bob Latta, for voting against the auto rescue.
“This region of Ohio runs on cars,” Zimmann said. “The auto industry runs in our blood. But if Bob Latta had his way, our auto industry would not exist as it does today. It’s a real slap in the face that he thinks we won’t remember how he voted against our autoworkers.”
The truth is, all Republicans opposed the auto rescue because the lock-step conventional wisdom of the people who manufacture nothing more tangible and real than opinion pieces was that the auto industry rescue would fail. They bet against that industry recovering. They all did. The auto industry collapse was real, and the rescue is real. Millions of jobs and a whole region of the US were hanging in the balance. Republicans don’t want to talk about it, and they may be able to dodge talking about it on the national stage, but they aren’t going to be able to escape it here:
Mr. Romney didn’t mention his opposition to the federal government’s bailout of the auto industry, an issue that plagued him in Michigan, where he defeated former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum on Tuesday. But if Mr. Romney hoped to put the issue behind him after the primary race in Michigan, he’s likely to be disappointed — especially in northwest Ohio, where the local economy is tightly tied to Detroit’s. The North Toledo company Mr. Romney wanted to highlight as a beneficiary of his policies is a prime example. Universal Metals would be much different today without the bailout of the auto industry.
Romney visited NW Ohio to “tout his business credentials”, but here’s what Mitt Romney’s business credentials led him to believe about the auto rescue:
If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Millions of people were watching and waiting to see whether they would be employed the following week, whether their pensions were going to disappear, and Mitt Romney took to the editorial pages to tell them their economic demise was “virtually guaranteed”. Why did he do that? Because he was absolutely confident doing so would benefit Mitt Romney politically, in 2012.
Soprano2
I think the main reason the Republicans were against the government helping the auto companies with a managed bankruptcy is because it didn’t have destroying the UAW as one of its aims. If the government had helped the auto companies destroy the union the Republicans would have been all for it. Listen to what they say – they seem to be most offended by the part of the agreement where the employees got a stake in their companies.
PeakVT
Good stuff. Hammer the Republicans with the auto bailout until they crumble.
Violet
Isn’t it pretty easy to set up an Act Blue page for a candidate? If you set up one for him, I’ll donate. I bet a lot of other Balloon Juicers would too.
I love reading about the very grassroots work you are doing in Ohio. I know that one of the most important ways to change things is at this very local level and I’d love to help support your efforts. A small amount of money can make a big difference in local race. Let us know when you get it set up.
Raven
@Violet: Yea and it’s pretty easy to get spammed mercilessly for the rest of your life if you give one damn dime through Act Blue.
BGinCHI
This can’t be right, Kay. Romney is really, really rich, and so I don’t see how he could be wrong about business. It’s possible that he was so busy creating hundreds, even thousands, of jobs, that he misspoke. But even that seems unlikely. Just look at his wife’s Cadillac purchases. Right there. Job creator.
I’ll take my apology off the air.
The Ancient Randonneur
What does Mitt Romney know about hard work? He and his cohorts call it a special interest. I am absolutely convinced that if Mitt had been the son of union plant auto worker, or a plumber–or a single mom for that matter–we would have never heard of the guy. He’s the Donald Trump of politics. (OK maybe he does have better hair, but you know what I mean.) He is the product of a privileged upbringing. Period.
Kay
@Soprano2:
I don’t think Republicans and media can continue to draw this bullshit distinction between “the auto industry” and the “people who work in the auto industry”.
It’s not an abstract idea, the auto industry. It exists. Their aspirational, fictional “auto industry” does not exist, just like Mitt Romney’s fictional investors in the (tanking) auto industry did not exist.
One can’t love the (fictional) “auto industry” and yet hate the (real) auto industry. They have to choose. They DID choose.
Kay
@Violet:
I’m freaking out a little, honestly. I don’t like to be “behind”. They have all these EVENTS. I don’t know when we’ll have time to run his campaign, what with all this CAMPAIGNING :)
He has another one tonight. It’s on small business/health care law. I’m tired just thinking about that mess.
kay
@Violet:
But he/we will get to it, I promise. I went away every weekend in February, doing fun non-political things, so that didn’t help. After this next weekend I’ll be around more.
Violet
@Raven:
I’ve donated through Act Blue. I use a specific email for political donations and hardly ever check it. Works for me. When I do check it, it’s filled with all sorts of annoying pleas for money, though. You’re right about that.
Violet
@kay:
I had a busy February too. I know it’s easy to get behind. Just let us know when you do get it set up. I am really enjoying watch the development of the candidate and campaign. You’re doing a great job and also doing a great job telling and showing us how it’s done!
I just read this part from Romney:
He’s not totally wrong. Nothing lives forever. The auto industry won’t live forever. Mitt Romney would like to speed up the timeline so he can feast on their entrails, however.
kay
@Violet:
Mitt Romney didn’t know the political landscape and tenor and tone would change when he wrote it. Mitt Romney didn’t know there’d be a move towards populism, and a whole conversation on manufacturing. Mitt Romney didn’t know people in Ohio were going to reject union busting, 65/35.
If he HAD known that, he would have written a very different editorial.
I think he’s a completely hollowed-out individual. There’s absolutely nothing real there. He takes no risks regarding Mitt Romney. I think he learned that in the field he chose. Romney always got paid. Romney always came out okay.
Villago Delenda Est
Pretty much the same “business credentials” as rampaging Visigoths in Rome.
Steve
This is a very helpful reminder that all politics is local. The people who show up to events like this, even though they’re interested enough in politics to attend a Meet the Candidates forum, aren’t really interested in rehashing the Huffington Post issue du jour. They want to talk about the things that directly affect their lives.
Sometimes those things might be national issues, like the auto bailout. But often they’re purely local. In Michigan, for example, god forbid you should ever let anyone divert Great Lakes water to any of the other 49 states. Too often when people bring up their local congressional candidates the first thing we want to do is apply a bunch of national litmus tests that really have so little relevance to whether they’re likely to win that local race.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve:
Say what? You expect the vermin of the Village to deign to learn about anything that’s of interest to the serfs in flyover country? Are you mad?
dww44
I am so saving this, Kay, to share with all of my conservative relatives and friends, who, bar none, were totally against the auto bailout. Some of them were even from the Midwest area. Anyways, they deserve to have this thrown back at them. Particularly one cousin who made a big deal about GM not paying back all of the funds it received. Never noting that the overwhelming amount of those monies were paid out. And, that was discounting placing a price tag on all the jobs and businesses it saved
Violet
@kay:
Completely agree. He just seems empty. And he can’t talk about his religion, which defines him in so many ways, so he’s left with his empty “business achievements” to try to sell people when they really want red meat social issues stuff. There’s just no there there.
PeakVT
@dww44: Particularly one cousin who made a big deal about GM not paying back all of the funds it received.
You can point out to him that even if GM doesn’t pay off every last cent, the government came out ahead because of the increased tax revenues and reduced spending on unemployment and the like. The savings in stress to families and individuals is priceless, too.
ksmiami
@kay: Bingo – also where is any overarching narrative compelling his candidacy except. Hire me to outsource EVERYTHING… He would be fundamentally weak as a president and would simply bow to whatever group or Israeli leader had his ear at any given moment.
On another note, I guess I simply don’t understand rubes who vote Republican esp those earning less than 600k…
/back to lurking
rikyrah
and remember, WILLARD supported SB5!!!!
Ohioans should never be allowed to forget it.
kay
@ksmiami:
I don’t think he can say it. Because he must have one. So what is it? That his father should have been President? Some religious-type destiny? Why won’t he just say?
Remember, he’s been running FOREVER, so the idea that Obama is some big radical who inspired Mitt Romney to jump in and restore capitalism is bullshit.
He’s been running since 2007, well prior to Obama’s presidency. Why does he want to be president? Why did he want to be president in 2007?
Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post says he wants to be President to “fix” the economy, but that’s just convenient, him responding to events rather than putting forth a reason.
The economy wasn’t broken (supposedly) when he started running. What was his original reason for wanting to be president? Bush was president when he started. His wanting to be president has nothing to do with Obama.
WaterGirl
Kay, Violet’s comment inspired me to check into how easy it is to set up fundraising with act blue. It looks really easy. Here’s the form.
grandpa john
@dww44:And that doesn’t include all the satellite companies across the country that was also saved like my daughters Job at a plant here in South Carolina that was saved. she is now working 6-7 days a week instead of 3-4 days every other week