Ohio Valley Politics

Testing

I know this blog has been dead for a long time, but I saw something that I just had to post here. The Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling, WV will finally re-open after being shut down for almost two years.

The hall had been owned by Clear Channel, who basically brushed it off to the side and failed to maintain it. The hall was eventually shut down because it wasn’t kept up to code.

There’s been talk of re-opening it ever since, but nothing really came out of it. Until now that is. The Wheeling CVB took out a loan and purchased the building, and hopes to have it open by September.

Please leave all comments at Buckeye State Blog.

Ted Celeste on Broadband and Technology [ 0:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5157)

Nancy Garland and Ted Celeste Discuss The Election [ 2:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9837)

I’ve moved on to the Buckeye State Blog.

If you haven’t already heard the news, I’ll be leaving my own little online empire here to help takeover the Buckeye State Blog. There are still a few things I need to get worked out before I really get started there, but as of now I consider BSB my primary concern.

The Ohio Democratic Party, lacking a definite candidate to support, is launching a new radio ad attacking John McCain’s economic positions.

This ad is mainly targeted right here in Southeastern Ohio. It will be ran on country and Christian radio stations to target people outside the typical Democratic base.

One of the main points of the ad focuses on McCain’s claim that the way to avoid foreclosure is “working a second job, skipping a vacation”. I find two things really interesting about this.

1. John McCain is talking about second jobs even has he and his staff try to avoid his first job. You see, they think it could be inconvenient if McCain got caught up in any controversial moments in the Senate.
2. As a candidate of a party that claims to base itself on family values, it seems hypocritical that McCain seems hellbent on keeping families apart.  It’s hard enough for families to find time together when there’s only a single job in the equation.

You can find the script of the ad and associated documentation here. The ad itself is embedded below.

"More of the Same" ODP McCain Ad [ 1:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6049)

The DNC is also going after McCain with a television ad.

The Center for Progressive Leadership is looking to hire people in Ohio for this years New Leaders Fellowship Program. More details after the break.

Applications are due by May1st.

Continue Reading »

The Alliance for American Manufacturing’s “Manufacture This” blog is pointing out that Pittsburgh television station KDKA has posted full, uncut video of both candidates speeches at Monday’s candidates forum.

Watch the videos:

• Senator Clinton
• Senator Obama

As you probably know, on Monday I had the opportunity to attend a forum put together by the Alliance for American Manufacturing that featured both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. During the event I managed to record audio of the candidates speeches. This is nothing fancy, just a small digital voice recorder sat on a table at the back of the room. It is understandable for the most part, and actually turned out much better than I expected it would.

I don’t have the Hillary speech sliced and diced yet, but it should be up this weekend.

Barack Obama Speaks at the AAM Forum [ 38:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (20200)

Congressman Zack Space’s re-election chances are looking pretty good. I know we’ve heard this story before, but Space is really good at fundraising. His campaign has pulled in $360,088, giving them almost a million dollars on hand.

“I’m extraordinarily thankful for the support I’ve received. Our effort to listen and respond to the needs of the people of 18th’s Congressional District continues to resonate.

“We have a long way to go in what is going to be a very tough race, but having nearly one million in the bank puts our campaign in a good position.”

– Rep. Zack Space

I haven’t heard anything about the Republican’s finances, but that pretty much says it all right there.

Yesterday I took place in what will surely be one of the most memorable events of my life. I saw both Democratic presidential candidates speak on the same day about a topic I find extremely important, trade and manufacturing. This all took place at the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s candidates forum in Pittsburgh, PA.

Both candidates spoke for about 45 minutes to an hour, including a short question & answer session. Obama spoke in the morning, with Clinton’s speech ending the days events around noon. A panel on trade filled the time between the two speeches. It was mentioned that John McCain was invited to attend, but declined. This was met with a round of laughter. McCain did manage to find time in his schedule to visit Pittsburgh today however, where he discussed other parts of the economy in front of a friendly audience.

Obama seemed to be the crowd favorite, receiving multiple standing ovations. He did take a few shots at Clinton and respond to claims of “elitism”, but he mostly stuck to the topic at hand.

Clinton’s speech started out on a bad note. She made an allegation that Obama had spent most of his speech attacking her was met with grumbles from the crowd and even some people shouting “no”. Clinton soon recovered though, when she moved on to policy issues. During the Q&A session she deflected a somewhat loaded question over her husbands support of NAFTA by saying that “As smart as my husband is, he does make mistakes”, cutting through tension and providing an opening for a more serious answer about renegotiating NAFTA.

I think both Obama and Clinton demonstrated that they both understand the plight of the American worker. Policy-wise, the aren’t all that different. They both promised to do a better job at enforcing our trade agreements in their current form and to work to renegotiate them to give American workers a level playing field.

It was said at one point that this event was organized in only 11 days, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell it by looking around. Things ran quickly and efficiently. I, the worlds biggest complainer, was greatly impressed.

I’m sure they’re be several other posts related to the forum posted over the next couple days as I review my recordings of the forum. You’ll be able to find all past and future posts on this topic here.

I highly doubt this works, but it’s worth a try. I can’t see the viewer right so let me know if the updates aren’t showing up.

Well I made it, I’m in. I think I’m sitting in the traveling press pool area but it’s the only place with tables and outlets.

If your reading this post, I’ve successfully managed to wake up at 4 A.M. and head out for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. If things have worked out as planned, I’ll be picking up press credentials and attending a closed door forum on economic issues put on by several labor unions. Now here’s the exciting part: both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be speaking there. John McCain was also invited, but declined to attend.

I’m not exactly sure how exactly I’ll cover the event, as my laptop is still down with a crashed hard drive (I’ve been too disgusted to fix it). I’ve got a creative solution that may allow me to restore limited functionality to it. Regardless of how that works out I’ll be trying to post updates to the OVP Twitter page (this is not my personal account, I don’t want to bombard people with unwanted messages. Follow OVP for these messages) and some iPhone photo’s to the OVP Flickr page. I’ve also added Twitter and Flickr badges to the sidebar to display some of the most recent updates.

Update: I’ve arrived at the convention center 90 minutes early.

The laughs never end over at the Ohio Republican Party’s “State of the Union” blog. They have a post up right now titled “Obama insults small town Americans” In the post they criticize Barack Obama for the following quote.

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

You know what? That’s pretty damning stuff. But hold up, a little later I found a Politico article with the quote in context.

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

You know what? I reluctantly have to agree with him. I come from small town America, actually I live in a county that doesn’t even have a town. Our largest population center is classified as a village. I believe he makes a valid point, as much as I hate to admit it.

Nice try ORP, but I’m not buying it. You’ve flunked the integrity test and that’s why your candidates are getting the boot.