by Christi Parsons
LAKE WORTH, Fla.--It went on, and on, and on.
Halfway through, the trickle of people sneaking out of Barack Obama's campaign event at the local community college gym turned into a steady stream.
A senior citizen massaged her joints. A college student slept on a friend's shoulder for more than half an hour.
But Obama aides watched placidly as Obama and a roundtable of advisors probed away at the problems of the American economy for more than an hour -- its sheer wonkiness seeming to be the whole point.
"This event was actually substantive, instead of just all the rah-rah-rah," panelist Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said afterward. "We should have more of it."
Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman, explained the rudiments of the current financial crisis.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm spelled out a four-part plan for how the federal government can help the states deal with it (in a nutshell, by funding state projects, Medicaid, unemployment benefits and foreclosure prevention).
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter talked about expanding the "new energy economy."
And the panelists agreed on the solution they were there to pitch - Obama in the White House.
"We have to rely upon government to solve some of these problems, most of all in the area of finance, where people have been most noisy about keeping the government out," said Volcker. "With good leadership, we can change that sorry picture."
Obama took one shot at Republican John McCain.
Sen. McCain has been a little confused on my plan," said Obama. "Maybe he didn't read it . . . He been suggesting I'm going to take away money from Joe the Plumber. Now, Joe is going to get a tax cut under my plan."
But mostly he talked about his economic plan, and his overall view that middle-class job creation, sweetened with talk of a middle-class tax cut, is the answer to the country's problems.
One woman in the crowd sat rapt for the lengthy presentation.
"I got some substance," said Ellen Grace, director of human resources at Palm Beach Junior College, where the event took place. "It's hard to get details sometimes, but I got a lot of them today."
Justin Gaboury, a student at the school with accounting ambitions, also praised the event.
"Overall," he said, "I thought it was pretty informative."
The part he was awake for, anyway. He snoozed through most of it, head nestled onto the shoulder of the young woman seated next to him.
Comments
Maybe they snoozed because they talked about the same old ideas that have been tried and failed throughout history. Nothing new here....but that's the story with Obama...no real new ideas, just change to the failed ideas of the past.
Posted by: Joe the Chicagoan | October 21, 2008 11:02 PM
In a TV ad and in speeches, Obama is making bogus claims that McCain plans to cut $880 billion from Medicare spending and to reduce benefits.
A TV spot says McCain's plan requires "cuts in benefits, eligibility or both."
Obama said in a speech that McCain plans "cuts" that would force seniors to "pay more for your drugs, receive fewer services, and get lower quality care."
Update, Oct. 21: A second Obama ad claims that McCain’s plan would bring about a 22 percent cut in benefits, “higher premiums and co-pays," and more expensive prescription drugs.
These claims are false, and based on a single newspaper report that says no such thing. McCain's policy director states unequivocally that no benefit cuts are envisioned. McCain does propose substantial "savings" through such means as cutting fraud, increased use of information technology in medicine and better handling of expensive chronic diseases. Obama himself proposes some of the same cost-saving measures. We're skeptical that either candidate can deliver the savings they promise, but that's no basis for Obama to accuse McCain of planning
Posted by: 56lady | October 23, 2008 1:07 AM