Barack has just completed the 3-stop Appalachian portion of his Ohio "American Jobs Tour." For this entire region, it's a game changer. Coming fresh on the news that his own direct ancestor was an Irish immigrant settler in the lower Scioto Valley of Ohio (See Andrew Feight on Obama's Ohio Ancestry
), Barack made an unannounced stop in Georgetown (boyhood home of Ulysses S. Grant), and then addressed huge (by local standards) rallies in Portsmouth, last night, and Chillicothe, this morning.
Rallies in less-colorful Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus served as bookends (my bias shows).
In Portsmouth, the dark looming hills of Kentucky served as backdrop, and at least 8,000 attended -- gates had to be closed to the enclosed outdoor space on the campus of Shawnee State University. Three hundred SSU students were given preferred seating, in the land where that privilege has always been given to the ol' boy pols. The new face of southern Ohio was magnificently on display.
More below the fold.
In Chillicothe, Obama stood in front of the monumental edifice of the historic Ross County courthouse.
The symbolism and timing could not have been more perfect. In Georgetown, Senator Obama and Governor Strickland stopped at a Republican eating etablishment for pie. According to Barack, he had coconut creme, while Ted had lemon. (I shall reserve interpretation of that until after the election.)
Sherrod "Made in America" Brown spoke at both rallies, and Congressman Tim Ryan was introduced. Ryan will run for the Senate seat opening in 2010 when Voinovich is expected to retire.
Vic Wulsin, who is challenging the unshameable Jean Schmidt, led off the evening in Portsmouth, with a call for honesty in politics. Not long ago, such a statement would have been considered a violation of Ohio Election Rules. (Those who want no drama in campaigns had best stay far away from OH-02.) In Chillicothe, that speaking space was given to the OH-18 congressman sprinting toward reelection, Zack Space.
Barack Obama was on fire, epecially in Chillicothe, railing against the bankers of Wall Street and the bosses of Washington like one of the greats, like Bryan or Clay. Obama, in other words, had found his home turf, and that is why we wanted so much for him to come.
Who would have thought (other than Ted Strickland of course) that only seven months ago, Obama pulled less than 20% of the vote in Ross and Scioto counties? Now he is going to win them.
That was evident not so much at the rallies themelves, as in everything happening before and after. Unlike the rallies in larger cities, the tradition of pre-presidential pandering in the lower Scioto Valley is an enormous festival affair. Last night the Huddle Hut north of Portsmouth had its busiest night by far, ever. Two sheriff's deputies who had served on Secret Service detail found themselves engaged in the pro-Obama pandemoniun. The single waitress on duty -- a moonlighting high school student -- was moaning about not making the main event as if she had missed the Beatles in 1967. And the entourage, including press and security, literally occupied all five floors of the Portsmouth Ramada Inn.
Obama is good for business. That's the word. Pass it on. The only local not caught up in Obamania I could find was a Chinese waiter in Chillicothe. "What's wrong?" I asked, when he made a sour face despite very brisk lunch business. "I like my gun too much," he said. I thought about asking if his gun was made in China, but decided not to go there.
Strickland addressed the gun issue in both Portsmouth and Chillicothe:
You know me. I am one of you.... If you are a gun owner, if you are a sportsman, if you support the Second Amendment, you have NOTHING TO FEAR from Barack Obama.... Barack Obama is a strong Christian family man.
It was incredibly condescending to both Obama and the voters, but we are putting up with the back-handed "support" our governor is giving to the Obama campaign. It's better than fore-handed opposition. (Sherrod Brown mentioned that the Governor comes from "a place called Duck Run." Sherrod didn't mention the folk etymology of the name. There is so much gun violence in the neighborhood, the most commonly heard expression there is "Duck! Run!" -- Roy Rogers developed his real marksmanship talents as a boy on Duck Run.)
Perhaps the most telling attribute of the 2008 American Jobs Tour in Ohio is the thing that nobody mentioned. Midway between Portsmouth and Chillicothe is the sprawling federal reservation at Piketon, site of a nuclear fuels plant that closed in 2001, and scene of innumerable contractor scams and fraudulent jobs promises ever since. In EVERY presidential election since 1952, Democrats and Republicans have run in the lower Scioto Valley on nuclear boosterism of the most baseless and shameless variety. Portsmouth used to be called "Ohio's Atomic City."
John McCain followed suit when he came to Portsmouth in July of this year.
But now Barack Obama and entourage have come and gone without one explicit mention of the Piketon site. Even though they drove right past it at 9 am this morning. It's almost inconceivable. What the heck are they thinking, all these brilliant campaign minds?
Ah, but you see, Barack did talk all about the Piketon site, just not by name. He said:
We will create five million new green jobs in the next decade. We'll open up old plants and start making solar panels and wind turbines. We don't have to build them overseas, we can build them right here in Ohio.
In other words, Barack Obama has just launched the first post-nuclear campaign in southern Ohio. And for that, we will always consider him a hometown boy.
Scioto and Ross counties have long been the belwethers of Ohio, and Ohio, of course, has been the belwether of the nation. This year, the belwethers swing with Obama.