Barack Obama continued his tour through the swing states in Michigan yesterday.  He gave a speech outlining his economic proposals that could specifically help economically distressed communities like Flint.

For a few moments Senator Obama sounded a lot like, Senator John McCain: “I believe in free trade,” said Obama, “It can save money for our consumers, generate business for U.S. exporters, and expand global wealth.”  However, Barack Obama emphasized that there are significant problems with the trade deals that have been negotiated recently, trade deals without environmental and labor standards, or the agreements that undermine the long-term interests of the American industries. 

Obama stated: “Allowing subsidized and unfairly traded products to flood our markets is not free trade and it’s not fair to the people of Michigan. We cannot stand by while countries manipulate currencies to promote exports, creating huge imbalances in the global economy. We cannot let foreign regulatory policies exclude American products.” 

Senator’s long-term plan to ensure America’s continued economic growth and prosperity includes investments in secondary and higher education to create a work force that is able to compete globally; a new energy strategy that weans America off foreign oil and invests in research and development, and the manufacturing of “green” technologies in the U.S.; a more efficient health care system that ultimately costs less and allows American businesses to stay competitive; investment in scientific research and in our infrastructure to meet our current and future needs.
 

The race in Indiana is definitely on.  Over the weekend both Democratic candidates and their surrogates criss-crossed the state.  Indiana would be a prized win for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: a recent national Gallop tracking poll suggests that the Democratic Presidential candidates are in dead heat.

Barack Obama has fine-tuned his communication with working-class voters in Indiana, a demographic he has yet to win over.  The candidate spoke in Anderson, Indiana over the weekend.  It’s a community of 131, 312  people, hard-hit by the closure of the Delphi autoparts manufacturing plant last year.  Between 2006 and 2007, the number of people that left Anderson cancelled out the natural population increase in the community for that year.  The unemployment rate in February of 2008 was 6.8%, compared to 5.2% in Indiana, and 4.8% nationally.

What can the future President do for communities like Anderson across the nation?  Well, certainly doing nothing is not the answer.  Sen. Obama was right on target when he emphasized that plant closures like Delphi do not just affect the laid-off workers, “the whole community takes a blow.”  He spoke about giving tax breaks to companies that invest “right here in Anderson, ” and of his plans to renegotiate NAFTA, to include stricter labor provisions, because “we can’t compete against forced labor or child labor.” 

Barack Obama held a rally in North Carolina yesterday.  He talked about the ABC debate dismissing it as focused on “gotcha” politics rather than the substantive policy issues the voters care about.  “Last night I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people,” he said to the crowd of 2,000 cheering supporters. 

And Barack was absolutely right.  ABC was widely criticized by the viewers and the media alike.  We at AAM also were disappointed that opportunities to ask the candidates serious, thoughtful questions were missed by the moderators.  

However, here was Obama’s chance to talk about some of these important issues he didn’t get to during the debate. The event was held in North Carolina, after all, the state next in line to hold its primary after Pennsylvania.  There were crowds of supporters and plenty of national media to spread the message.  So, what did Sen. Obama say about the economy, the issue that concerns the voters the most, as poll after poll indicates?  “Domestically our economy is in shambles. Wall Street just figured this out, but Main Street knew it a long time ago.” He went on to say that most Americans “… are tired of the spin and (public relations),”and “They want straight talk.”

Well, “they” are listening and even though the sentiment is right, Barack’s speech is light on substance.  And this time there are no moderators to blame.