If you're not from Northeast Ohio, and Stark County, in particular, you may not be familiar with the Canton Rep. (And for good reason...) Serving Stark County and the city of Canton, Ohio, it is our local fish-wrap, and, good or bad, has a tiny bit of influence on local opinion. The online site, cantonrep.com, has a lively comments section that can be bitterly partisan, raucous, and (sometimes) even a little bit insightful. It's worth checking out, if only for a chuckle...
Progressives here have had a tough row to hoe, to say the least, but the defeat of Mayor Creighton to Jamie Healy last fall, and the retirement of long-time incumbant Ralph Regula has made us godless, wild-eyed liberals here in Stark County feel a little bit hopeful. More on the endorsement and a little bit of the demographics of the Hall of Fame City below the fold...
The endorsement:
When Stark County Democrats choose a presidential candidate March 4, they can look to the past or to the future. They should look ahead — eight months ahead as well as four or eight years.
The Repository editorial board urges Democrats to choose Barack Obama.
John McCain will be the Republican nominee. Democrats will give voters a truer contrast to McCain in November if they nominate Obama rather than Hillary Clinton.
Not surprisingly, the paper also endorsed John McCain. Not exactly a cradle of evangelicals, at least within the city limits, Huckabee never got a lot of play, here. More about Obama:
On many issues, including expanding health care insurance and ending Bush administration tax cuts, Obama and Hillary Clinton have similar if not identical views that contrast sharply with McCain's. But Obama, not Clinton, represents the stronger contrast to McCain's position on the foreign-policy issue that most concerns Americans. As senators, both Clinton and McCain voted for the resolution that President Bush used as authority to invade Iraq. Obama has said he opposed the war from the beginning, and he has a more specific plan for withdrawing U.S. troops than Clinton does. McCain has said, in effect, that he would stay the course.
All of these issues are, of course, important, and the most important thing voters and the media will do after Republicans and Democrats choose their nominees is to pin down the candidates on where they stand and what they would do as president. But this year, issues are not the only things on voters' minds, or on ours.
The Repository editorial board has been right-leaning for a long time, and, while we'll have to see where they come out in the general, I was encouraged to see what is for them a very strong endorsement of Barack Obama.
What an extraordinary campaign this has been so far. Voters have been exposed to the ideas of a wealth of smart, articulate candidates from both parties in dozens of debates. But no candidate of either party has brought the sense of excitement and hope to the process of choosing a president that Obama has. This isn't a frivolous or trivial matter. Obama's appeal to voters black and white, young and old, male and female, is a reassuring sign that ordinary citizens are saying they want politics and governance to look and sound and feel different than they have for too long.
It is a response, in part, to the excesses of the Bush administration — the secrecy, the demonizing of political opponents, the casting of dissent about the war as unpatriotic. And at least where secrecy is concerned, Obama's often-stated commitment to making government more transparent is also a hopeful contrast to the excesses of Bill Clinton's administration.
The Repository endorsed both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for president. That is water under the bridge, ancient history. The worst aspects of the Clinton administration now are baggage for Hillary Clinton in the primary contests. John McCain will face the same challenge in November on issues such as the war that tie him to Bush.
Barack Obama is under no such handicap. On March 4, Stark County Democrats should help to keep him on the road to the White House.
Canton is a city in decline. While Stark County is enjoying a boom in population growth, Canton has been bleeding profusely. Crime and gang activity are reaching epidemic proportions, the jobs are gone, and poverty, not a surprise, has gripped much of the city. The Canton City School system is nearing economic crisis, if not there already, and will be forced to close at least three schools before the next school year. Local school levies fail time and time again, not only for the mostly urban Canton City, but also outlying districts like Plain Township. This is a city in desperate need of hope.
Come March 4th, we need a strong turnout to not only select Barack Obama as our nominee, but also John Boccieri to fight Kirk Shuring, the presumptive Republican, for Regula's vacant House seat (OH-16). Boccieri is, despite his terrific resume, seen as an outsider by many in the district (he lives near Youngstown), and fights an uphill battle, even in the primary. I think he's the best bet to beat Shuring, a known commodity locally, in the general, and he needs our help. www.johnforcongress.com
Peace.