[BretLudwig]

((Ohio should tell McCain to eat a **** casserole. Worker retraining is a
proven waste of time because no one will hire them even if they are
retrainable. We need industry and the good paying industrial jobs it
provides. Bret.))


Pro-Nafta, McCain Delivers Bad News to Ohio Audience

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio €” Is Nafta a four-letter word?
S


No, Senator John McCain told an Ohio voter on Tuesday, he did not think
so.

€œI am prone on occasion to make a mistake,€� Mr. McCain, the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told Jack OConnell, a
retired labor leader, at a town-hall-style meeting at Youngstown State
University. Still, he said, €œlast time I checked, Nafta has five
letters, not four.€�

Mr. McCain was responding to a question from Mr. OConnell, who called
Nafta, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, €œa bad four
letters,€� then asked Mr. McCain what he thought of the deal. Mr.
McCains answer made the crowd laugh, even if his more substantive
response €” the overall result of the trade agreement has been €œa
benefit to our country€� €” was politically unpalatable to many Ohio
voters who blame the trade deal for lost American jobs.

Nonetheless, Mr. McCain kept up his free-trade-is-good message in this
economically depressed city, a contrast to his Democratic competitors,
Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who both have called for
renegotiating Nafta. Mr. McCain also repeated his message that lost
manufacturing jobs would not return, a position that polls show may have
helped him lose the Michigan Republican primary in January to Mitt
Romney.

But Mr. McCain, who compared the struggles of Youngstown to his own
back-from-the-dead campaign, insisted that in the end workers would be
better off through retraining and education programs in technology he has
promised them as president.

€œI cant tell you that these jobs are ever going to come back to this
magnificent part of the country,€� Mr. McCain told another questioner,
Sam Carbon, a student at Youngstown State, who asked Mr. McCain about how
he planned to save American jobs. €œBut I will commit to giving these
workers a second chance. They need it, they deserve it. I know thats
small comfort to you, but I cant look you in the eye and tell you those
steel mills are coming back.€�

Mr. McCain, who was on the second day of a weeklong tour to the
countrys €œforgotten places€� while his two Democratic competitors
battled for the nomination in Pennsylvania, sought to strike an empathetic
note in the midst of his sober message.

€œIve been left recently in the unfamiliar position of facing no
opposition within my own party,€� Mr. McCain said in remarks before he
took questions at the public forum, which was held at the university.
€œAnd as you might recall, it was a different story last year, when I
could claim the unqualified support of Cindy and my mother €” and my mom
was starting to keep her options open.€� (Cindy is Mr. McCains wife.)

€œBack then,€� Mr. McCain continued, €œthere were some very impressive
front-runners, there was a very formidable second tier of contenders, and
then there was me.€�

Despite being written off as €œa hopeless cause,€� Mr. McCain said, €œa
person learns along the way that if you hold on, if you dont quit no
matter what the odds, sometimes life will surprise you. Sometimes you get
a second chance, and opportunity turns back your way. And when it does, we
are stronger and readier because of all that we had to overcome.€�

Mr. McCain added: €œI bring up all this today, my friends, because the
men and women of Youngstown know what it feels like to be counted out.
Youve been written off a few times yourselves, in the competition of
the market. You know how it feels to hear that good things are happening
in the American economy €” theyre just not happening to you.€�

Afterward, Mr. Carbon, a Republican, said that Mr. McCains answer had
partly satisfied him, and that he would vote for him in November. He said
he understood that manufacturing jobs would not return, but €œI was
looking for more about his views on tariffs and taxes on imported
things.€�

Mr. McCain is to continue his tour on Wednesday with a public forum in
Inez, Ky., the place where President Lyndon B. Johnson made his 1964
speech declaring a national war on poverty."



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[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

What, is his new watch broken?

[Jenn[_2_]]

In article
,
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote:

What, is his new watch broken?

Or his purse...

Or his Nikies...

[Clyde Slick]

On 25 Apr, 01:39, "Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!"
wrote:
What, is his new watch broken?

What else would youexpect from a Swatzi?

[Clyde Slick]

On 25 Apr, 01:47, Jenn wrote:
In article
,
*"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote:

What, is his new watch broken?

Or his purse...

Or his Nikies...

is Bratzi selling those too?