Dueling Advocates Rally Sunday for Obama, Romney
NILES, Ohio – As the final weekend before tomorrow’s election came to a close, advocates for both presidential candidates and their political parties sought to rally supporters Sunday, urging them to make phone calls or knock on doors to get voters to the polls, and to cast ballots themselves.
U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the Cincinnati Republican who serves as speaker of the House of Representatives, made two appearances in the region Sunday evening as part of the “Real Recovery Road Rally” launched Friday to promote presidential nominee Mitt Romney, running mate Paul Ryan and other GOP candidates. Joined by GOP incumbents and challengers for state and federal office, Boehner offered brief remarks to cap a half-hour outdoor rally outside the Niles Victory Center at the Eastwood Mall Complex.
“We gave [President Obama] four years and the president made a lot of promises four years ago and guess what, he didn’t fulfill any of them,” Boehner said, citing Obama's pledges to reduce unemployment, cut the deficit, end gridlock and have a “better tone” in Washington.
“Listen, we’ve given him an awful lot of opportunities and it hasn’t worked. It’s time for a change,” he remarked.
Boehner said the Obama Administration has gone after oil, coal and gas, and his Environmental Protection Agency and “20 other agencies are trying to find some way to regulate fracking in America,” he warned. “You know what that means. That means that they’re going to try to shut down oil and gas production on private lands. They’ve already done it on public lands,” he said.
“I see our oil, gas and other natural resources as assets that we should maximize for the economic strength and the national security of America,” said state Treasurer Josh Mandel, running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sherrod Brown. When it comes to these natural resources and their exploration, Obama, Brown and the Democrats “aren’t on the wrong side simply of the issue, they’re on the wrong side of history,” Mandel said. Accusing Brown of “casting the deciding vote” on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, he also pledged to be “the 51st vote to repeal ObamaCare,” as critics have taken to calling the law.
“In two days we’re going to send Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi a big message. We don’t believe this stuff that you’ve been trying to sell us and push down our throats,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-6 Ohio, as he introduced Boehner. “We don’t believe in ObamaCare. We don’t believe in the attack on the coal industry.
“The war on coal is real but it’s not the only war that the administration has mounted. It’s a war on business,” Johnson continued. “You heard what the president said: ‘You didn’t build this,’” a reference to remarks Obama made earlier this year, which his critics charge he was directing at business.
Johnson pointed to the activity happening at V&M Star, which is constructing a new mill in Youngstown. “The steel industry is coming back. Why? Because jobs are coming back to Ohio, not because of President Obama but in spite of what the president has done.”
The Obama Administration provided nearly $20 million in infrastructure funds for the V&M site through the American Recovery Act. The administration pursued tariffs on Chinese imports of oil country tubular goods, a move considered key in V&M’s decision to develop the mill here. The pipe will be used in oil and gas exploration.
Some 200 strong -- roughly double the number at the Niles rally -- braved the chilly November temperature to rally support for the Romney/Ryan ticket at Lisbon’s town square Sunday evening. There were clearly no dissenters in the crowd as supporters showed up with their yard signs that read ‘Romney 2012,’ ‘Stop the War on Coal,’ and ‘Catholics for Romney.’ The opening lineup of speakers reminded the crowd that Election Day is just two days away, prompting chants of “Two more days,” to counter the “Four more years” chant heard during Obama rallies
As he did earlier in Niles, Johnson commented on the coal industry and what critics describe as the Obama administration’s “war on coal,” pointing out some coal miners in the crowd who waved signs reading “Coal = Jobs.”
“Anybody who doesn’t feel the administration’s war on coal is real, talk to these guys,” Johnson said. “Talk to the families up and down the Ohio River who have lost their jobs. Talk to the families who are paying on average an additional $300 more per year to fuel their homes.”
Johnson again introduced Boehner, who dubbed Lisbon and Columbiana County “Romney and Ryan country.” Flanked by Johnson, Kennedy, state Rep. Craig Newbold, County Commissioner Mike Halleck and county commissioner candidate Tim Weigle, Boehner expressed pride in the Republican ticket.
“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand that America can produce low-cost energy that’ll help our manufacturers compete with anybody in the whole world,” Boehner said. “[Obama] just doesn’t get it. But what would you expect from somebody who just hasn’t done anything before?”
As speaker of the House, Boehner said that he, more than any other Republican has worked with Obama, Pelosi and Reid, each name prompting a chorus of boos from the crowd. He called on the crowd to vote Republican and to encourage others to do the same to “put America back to work.
“Listen, we know what’s under attack, and we know that every industry in America is under attack,” Boehner said. “But let me tell you, the enthusiasm I see here tonight, and the enthusiasm I’ve seen all across the country tells me one thing -- Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are going to be our next president and vice president.”
John Koval of Poland seconded Boehner’s sentiment, saying the Obama Administration “isn’t so friendly on coal, and isn’t as good for manufacturing as he’d like you to believe,” and that a Romney/Ryan White House would be good for the country and the Mahoning Valley. A Romney administration would better understand how the economy works and would find ways to grow jobs “from the ground up, not from the top down,” he said.
“Government’s never created a job,” Koval said. “People create jobs every day. Small businesses, medium businesses, large businesses. They all need help and they need a Romney/Ryan ticket to do so.”
While recent polls show the presidential election almost in a dead heat, Koval said he feels the polls are “significantly undervaluing Romney and Ryan.”
Earlier in the day, Richard Trumka, national president of the AFL-CIO, appeared at Carl Dittmer Hall in Niles, home of United Steel Workers Local 2155, to rally labor support for the president and Democrats.
“This election matters more than any we’ve seen in our lifetime because you’ve got two very divergent choices here,” Trumka told the room of volunteers preparing to do phone-banking and canvassing. “You’ve got Barack Obama, who’s had our back, who really wants to create an economy where all of us and our kids and their kids get a fair chance, where you don’t have to be rich to be able to get a fair shot at the American dream.”
Trumpka contrasted the president with his GOP challenger, who is “a new person … every time I hear him talk,” he said. “But here’s what he believes in consistently. He wants to take more tax cuts for the rich; ultimately we’ll pay for them. He wants to deregulate Wall Street and everything else so that Corporate America has a free hand. Well, you know what? We’re the last line of defense.”
Trumka called Romney a “political chameleon” for what critics have characterized as his varying stances on the federal aid to General Motors and Chrysler, an issue revived recently by Romney’s ads – widely debunked – implying that the automakers are adding jobs in China at the expense of U.S. jobs.
“First he was against Detroit, let it go bankrupt,” he said, referring to a New York Times column Romney wrote that advocated carmakers go through a traditional bankruptcy with government-backed loans once they emerged. Instead the government provided direct loans to the companies, which the president’s supporters argue preserved not just the two companies but the American auto industry. “Then he was for it, then he was against it. Now he's for China, I guess. I don’t know what he is. You can't tell where he is.”
Those ads, which have drawn sharp rebukes from both companies, have done “significant damage” to Romney, Trumka said. “It shows that you can’t trust him. It shows that he will anything or say anything to try to get elected. He tossed the truth to the side.”
The labor leader, who identified himself as a third-generation coal miner, also went after Romney on the “war on coal” issue, pointing to statements he made as governor of Massachusetts pledging to shut down a plant that he said killed. “I've never seen more hypocrisy in my entire life,” he remarked. Under Obama, he said, coal production is up and coal jobs are up in Ohio and elsewhere.
Jeremy Lydic contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.