From Marcelline:

Dick Polman, Philadelphia Inquirer

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Actions speak louder than words

Focusing on his real audience - the unpledged Democratic
superdelegates, and the independent voters who will ultimately swing
the November election - here's what Barack Obama needs to say tonight
during the debate in Philadelphia (assuming he hasn't sufficiently
damaged himself already):

"...I'm glad that Senator Clinton has again brought up my remarks about
small-town America, because I do have a few things to say about that.
Obviously, as I have repeatedly admitted, I regret my choice of words
and intended no disrespect. Yet while we continue to fight over words,
we risk ignoring the real problem: that actions speak louder than
words. And it is the actions of several recent administrations - or
perhaps I should say inactions - that have put small-town hard-working
Americans so deep in the hole.

"I'm speaking not just of President Bush, of whom we naturally expected
so little, but also of my opponent's husband, of whom we expected so
much.

"Senator Clinton has called my words 'elitist.' But where was she
during the '90s, when she was supposedly gaining White House
experience, when Bill Clinton took a series of actions that benefited
the elite at the expense of the small-town worker? It is a matter of
record that NAFTA, which President Clinton fought for and signed in
1993, without sufficient protections for domestic workers, has severely
hastened the exodus of jobs from so many of these towns, and worsened
the living conditions of the very people that Senator Clinton professes
to speak for today.

"In 2000, her husband also successfully pushed for giving permanent
trade privileges to China, again without adequate safeguards for
adversely affected American workers. Her husband also said, 'the
evidence is clear that not just in the long run but in the near run,
we'll have more job gains than job losses' out of these trade deals.
Well, tell that to the small-town workers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere
in America. In fact, one of the Democratic congressmen here in
Pennsylvania, Tim Holden, said a few years back that 'Pennsylvania has
been the most adversely affected state in the union as a result of
these trade agreements that we entered into.' Those were elitist
actions, and actions speak louder than words.

"You know, it was Henry Ford who once said, 'I gotta pay my workers
enough so there is somebody to buy the cars they are making.' But now
we have a situation where companies are firing their own customers.
They're shipping the jobs overseas, then goods get made overseas, then
the goods are shipped back here to be sold - but the problem is,
laid-off Pennsylvanians can't afford to buy them. That's all the result
of elitist actions, and actions speak louder than words.

"By the way, organized labor leaders noticed all this happening back
when Senator Clinton was partnering with her husband. Way back in 1995,
one top Democratic labor strategist said in the newspapers that
'there's a lingering feeling among many in the rank and file that you
can't quite put all your trust in this guy.' Another said, 'They
screwed us on NAFTA, what have they done for us?' I'd invite Senator
Clinton, who today champions the economic underdog, to tell us why she
never uttered a word of protest during her in-house training for the
presidency.

"Yes, actions speak louder than words - and so do statistics. The
Census Bureau reported in 2000 that the income gap between rich and
poor actually widened during the Clinton years, and that every
household income category below $80,000 lost ground during the Clinton
years. The median wage, adjusted for inflation, was actually lower than
what it had been in 1989, when the first George Bush took office. And,
in fact, during the final year of the Clinton era, the average CEO
compensation at Fortune 500 companies was $37.5 million, while the
average worker salary of all companies was $38,000.

"So let's take a break from all this back-and-forth about bad wordplay,
and give this issue the context it deserves. I would expect John McCain
to make the 'elitist' charge, because it's a great way to divert
attention from his new economic plan - which offers fiscally
irresponsible tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, including CEOs,
at the expense of the small-town Americans whom he professes to revere,
and which offers huge new tax cuts to the same corporate sector that is
outsourcing these jobs I'm talking about. But I expected better from
Senator Clinton. The least she can do, right now, is to explain the
elitist economic actions of the Clinton era - explain and defend, or
reject and denounce. Unless she truly believes that actions are less
important than words.

"Senator? Go right ahead."