At a rally held at Mehlville High School in southern St. Louis county on Tuesday, Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden brought some serious rhetorical game to the Show-Me state, giving about 1500 suburban Midwesterners a taste of what they have to look forward to when Washington University in St. Louis hosts the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate.
America's faltering economy seemed to be the theme of the day. Several local politicians were in attendance, including St. Louis City mayor Francis Slay, former Senator Jean Carnahan, and U.S. Representative Russ Carnahan. But Biden was not introduced by a mayor or a congressman. Instead, a St. Louis area woman, a member of the United Auto Workers union, prefaced Biden's speech with a personal story exemplifying the consequences so many ordinary Americans have suffered as a result of the nation's ongoing economic downturn. She explained that, after being laid off by Chrysler when the plant she had worked at for years closed down, she eventually found employment at a second Chrysler plant, only to be laid off again a short time later; meanwhile, in Canada, Chrysler has bustling factories working at full capacity, running three shifts per day.
It was an appropriate intro to a speech wherein Biden focused strongly on the decline of our economy over the past eight years under the Republican's economic policies, policies Biden asserted McCain plans to continue. Biden highlighted key policy differences in Obama's plan to stop American job loss and help revive the economy.
Biden offered plenty of policy meat and potatoes, outlining the basics of the Obama-Biden economic strategy by emphasizing the following key points:
- Close corporate tax loopholes that often make it more cost-effective for companies to ship jobs overseas than to employ Americans here at home.
- Re-focus tax relief on working middle class families instead of the wealthy.
- Reduce the national debt by cutting unnecessary expenses and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.
- Improve access to education so that all of our citizens can compete in an ever-changing global economy.
- Provide citizens better access to health care and increasing the cost efficiency or our current health care system, thereby reducing the cost to American businesses that currently cannot compete with corporations overseas in countries where universal health care is provided.
- Support middle class households by preventing pay discrimination against working women
Biden also criticized the Bush/McCain approach to national security policy, citing strategy failures in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senator emphasized the need to support and protect our soldiers with proper equipment, and access to top-quality health care not just while they are fighting but also when they come home. He spoke with earnest passion about the skill and bravery of America's armed forces, at one point bringing the crowd to its feet with the words, "They did their job. Now it's time for politicians to do theirs!"
His pride in his own son, Beau Biden, a soldier who will soon deploy to Iraq, was clearly evident in his words.
The crowd at the rally appeared to be fairly pro-Obama-Biden. I saw plenty of Obama and Hillary bumper stickers in the parking lot on my way in to the school, and many of those in attendance wore Obama shirts or Obama pins. Several people who apparently weren't able to make it in to the speech stood outside with signs promoting the Democratic ticket. My favorites were these:
Yes, the Rednecks for Obama are for real. And also quite gentlemanly despite their redneckness.
Once again, an internet meme crosses over to the physical plane.
But in largely Republican southern St. Louis county, I'm sure Biden still had some selling to do. And I have to say, judging by the response of the crowd at Tuesdays speech, who reacted to several of Biden's lines with resounding cheers and standing ovations, he succeeded in connecting with Midwestern voters.
Unfortunately, I only was able to capture the first half of the speech on my digital point-and-shoot. Check out part one of my video above. You can see Part Two of my video here. I've been searching for a better, full-length video of the speech. When I find it I'll link to it here.
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As an aside, I was pleased while attending this event to discover that the Obama-Biden campaign, in addition to credentialing an ordinary suburban SAHM (me) as press for this event, also offered coveted press spots to student reporters from at least two area districts-- students from Mehlville High School and students from St. Charles' Francis Howell school district were allowed to take photos and notes of the event right alongside reporters from CNN. How cool is that? Here are some of the cub reporters (and yes, I got permission to post their photos. Hi, of course I asked first. I'm somebody's mother!).
These were the only people I spoke with who knew immediately what I was talking about when I said, "I'm live-Tweeting the speech from my Palm."
There has been some local controversy about the campaign's choice to host the rally at a high school. I think it was an excellent idea. The event was held after classes were dismissed; the school is getting paid by the campaign for rental of the space, and over a hundred students were offered the opportunity to attend the event in a special seating section. It was a wonderful opportunity for some local students to get involved in the presidential election. I hope the McCain campaign follows suit.
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