Obama: Clinton is No Rocky’
By Dave Pidgeon
PHILADELPHIA – Hillary Clinton as Rocky? Presidential hopeful Barack Obama doesn’t think so.
Obama courted union votes Wednesday, sharply criticizing a comparison his Democratic rival had made just a day before.
Sen. Clinton told the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO on Tuesday she is like movie icon Rocky Balboa, saying she would fight to the end of the campaign just like the fictional Philadelphia boxer.
Sen. Obama told the same group Clinton got the metaphor wrong.
“We all love Rocky, and the last time I checked, I was the underdog in this state,” Obama said. “But Rocky was (fiction). And so is the idea that someone can fight for working people and, at the same time, embrace the broken system in Washington, where corporate lobbyists use their clout to shape laws to their liking.”
Obama went on to say he wanted to go on the “offensive” if elected to the White House, implementing policy that favored workers rather than management.
“What I oppose – and what I have always opposed – are trade deals that put the interests of multinational corporations ahead of the interests of American workers – like NAFTA, and CAFTA, and permanent normal trade relations with China,” he said. “And I’ll also oppose the Colombia Free Trade Agreement if President Bush insists on sending it to Congress, because the violence against unions in Colombia would make a mockery of the very labor protections that we have insisted be included in these kinds of agreements.”
Meanwhile, Clinton in Pittsburgh proposed creating $7 billion annually in tax breaks for U.S. companies to create domestic jobs.
“We reward companies like Exxon-Mobil who park $56 billion in profits overseas because they don’t have to pay a dime in U.S. taxes on those profits. And we’re using your tax dollars to reward companies that ship your jobs overseas,” Clinton said in a news release.
Both candidates wrapped up campaign tours of Pennsylvania Wednesday. Obama’s spoke primarily at schools and college campuses on his six-day bus tour, while Clinton’s lasted three days.
Clinton and Obama are vying for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The next major primary is Pennsylvania’s on April 22.
Two independent polls released Wednesday showed Clinton’s lead either eroding or evaporating among likely Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters.
A Quinnipiac University poll put Clinton’s lead at 9 percentage points, down from 12 percentage points a week earlier.
And a count by Public Policy Polling showed Obama taking a 45 percent to 43 percent lead, a swing of more than 25 percentage points in less than three weeks.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted March 24-31 and has a margin of error of 1.7 percent. The PPP poll was taken March 31 and April 1 and has a margin of error of 2.8 percent.
After Obama’s speech in Philadelphia, steelworker and Clinton supporter Carla Stepsie, 44, of Phoenixville, remained unswayed, saying Clinton’s experience as first lady during the 1990s prepped her to be president.
“Hillary’s already been in the White House for eight years,” Stepsie said. “And anyone who doesn’t put his hand over his heart (during the national anthem) doesn’t deserve to be in the White House.”
Stepsie was referring to a photo taken earlier in the campaign in which Obama can be seen standing during the national anthem with his hands clasped in front of him. Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton both have their right hands over their hearts.
However, Fred Chamberlain, a 47-year-old laborer who works in the Philadelphia shipyards, said Obama’s speech was “from the heart” and he doesn’t trust Clinton’s claims she opposed the NAFTA trade agreement, a signature achievement of her husband Bill Clinton’s administration, while she was first lady.
He also said Obama wins over laborers thanks to his days as a community organizer in Chicago before he entered politics.
“(Unions) want to have a say in the White House, and right now, we don’t feel like we have one,” Chamberlain said. “Do you see Hillary talking and going down to a city and helping out the way he did?”
Organized labor is a potent force in state Democratic politics, which helps explain why Clinton and Obama came on consecutive days to court the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. Roughly 830,000 Pennsylvanians are union members.
Obama pointed to his proposals to invest $60 billion in infrastructure improvements and $150 billion into alternative energy development as means to create jobs.
He directed sharp comments at Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, who Obama said is closely aligned with President Bush on extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and negotiating trade deals many Democrats say are unfair to American workers.
“Now, John McCain said a few weeks ago that the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,’ and that’s clear, since all he’s offering is more of the same Bush policies that have put the American dream out of reach for so many Americans,” Obama said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com
Originally published by Intelligencer Journal Staff.
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