Obama Puts the Focus on November Election: Oakland Co. Visits Stress Economy
By Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press
Jun. 3–Democratic primaries will be held today in Montana and South Dakota, but Sen. Barack Obama set his sights clearly on the November general election during a visit Monday to Troy and Waterford.
He complimented his primary opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and assured a crowd of about 2,000 people at Troy High School that the two politicians would be working together on the November general election.
In Waterford, he told about 100 employees at the Rite Aid Distribution Center that he would do everything possible to help the working class after nearly eight years of a declining economy under the Bush administration.
“We’re not going to be giving tax breaks to companies that send jobs overseas,” Obama said. He added that he wants to help employers deal with spiraling health care costs “so you can start bargaining for better wages instead of just keeping your health care.”
The visit was another clear signal that Obama is getting closer to wrapping up the Democratic nomination, perhaps as early as today. Obama has an estimated 2,072 pledged and superdelegates and needs 2,118 to clinch the nomination — although superdelegates were gradually announcing their support for Obama throughout the day Monday and his total could be higher. Clinton has an estimated 1,915 pledged and superdelegates.
While Clinton gave no indications that she was getting ready to concede defeat, her husband wasn’t so coy.
“This may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind,” Bill Clinton said Monday in South Dakota.
After talking with workers in Waterford, Obama told reporters that he talked with Clinton after her primary victory in Puerto Rico on Sunday and that he was anxious to meet with her “at the time and place of her choosing.”
But he said he’s also urging undecided superdelegates to come to a conclusion soon.
“Tomorrow is the last two contests,” he said. “And the sooner we can bring the party together, the sooner we can start focusing on John McCain and the November election.”
The choice, Obama said earlier Monday in Troy, couldn’t be clearer.
“As much as I admire John McCain — he’s a genuine war hero — but he is running for George Bush’s third term,” Obama said. “That’s why this election is so important. McCain has said we’ve made great progress economically over the last eight years and he’s promising to do more of the same, but I don’t know who he was talking to. He wasn’t talking to all the union workers who have lost their jobs. He’s not talking to you, and he’s not talking to me, and that’s why we can’t afford John McCain.”
In a conference call, Republicans said Obama’s proposals would further exacerbate the economic malaise in Michigan.
Carly Fiorina, former head of Hewlett Packard and a consultant to McCain’s campaign, said that Obama’s “laundry list of tax hikes” is not what the state needs. During visits to Michigan last week, Fiorina said business owners told her “the tax burden is high enough.”
Obama hit on familiar themes in his hour-long visit to Troy, including the need for universal health care, ending the war in Iraq and investing in alternative energy.
The last subject was of particular importance to the Michigan audience because of continued calls for mandated higher auto fuel efficiency standards, which all three candidates have been endorsing.
But the federal government also needs to invest in development of alternative fuels and research and development for the auto industry, Obama said.
“If we’re going to bring gas prices down, we have to invest in alternative energy. We have to make more fuel-efficient cars and invest in research and development right here in Michigan,” he said to a roar of approval.
Perhaps the most enthusiastic response came when he said his campaign was as much about uniting the nation as it was about removing the current administration.
“I’m betting on you — the American people. I know you’re tired of politics that is all about tearing people down and that you’d rather have politics that lifts people up,” he said.
His visit to Troy High School marks the second time Obama visited Michigan in the last three weeks after avoiding the state for nearly a year because of the problems with Michigan’s delegation. The state’s delegate count was resolved Saturday with Michigan’s delegation of 157 people getting seated, but with only half a vote each.
Obama told reporters that he wants Michigan’s delegation “to be happy” after the August convention in Denver, but he didn’t make a specific pledge to restore a full vote for the state’s delegates.
The supporters in both Troy and Waterford were much more interested in things like gas prices than who will be seated at the national convention.
“I spent $91 to fill up my tank this morning,” said Albert Nelson, 50 and a Rite Aid employee from Rochester Hills. “Gas now costs me more than the lease cost on my truck.”
At the Troy town hall meeting, former Detroit mayoral candidate Freman Hendrix said he was more excited to talk about Obama than the problems facing Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
“We have to get through the presidential election and let the dust settle in the City of Detroit,” Hendrix said. “But first and foremost today, this is one of the most important historic primary campaigns in history. To see something that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime is fantastic.”
Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at kgray99@freepress.com.
Staff writer Dawson Bell contributed to this report.
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