McCain, Lobbyists, And Lost Ohio Jobs

For the last few weeks the big news out of Ohio has been the DHL deal which threatens to move between 8,000 and 10,000 jobs out of Ohio. Essentially this is what happened: In 2003 German-owned DHL bought a US shipping company that operated in Wilmington, Ohio. After the merger, state and local governments in Ohio shelled out more than $400 million for road and facility upgrades for DHL. Fast-forward to now, and it turns out that DHL doesn't feel like staying in Ohio anymore, and can make a bigger profit by cutting Wilmington, along with at least 8,000 jobs, out of the loop. I guess that's the loyalty $400 million in taxpayer dollars gets you.

So, unsurprisingly, McCain recently got asked to use "his DHL connections" to stop the deal. McCain's response? Oh, I don't think we can do that, its all very complicated, I think the plan to uproot all these jobs is going to happen.

Oh, but McCain failed to mention one thing to Ohio voters, it was him and his campaign manager (then lobbyist for the foreign owner of DHL) who helped push the original merger through, over the objections of members of Congress and domestic shippers like UPS. As usual, McCain's lobbyist connections equal influence for corporations. The lobbyists get paid, the corporation gets more money, and McCain undoubtedly benefits. The losers in all this? The taxpayers and workers of Ohio.



Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe (not a lobbyist) had this to say about McCain's "straight talk" in Ohio:

He was there a month ago in this community and was asked a question about this DHL issue and did not say one word about his role in this or the role of his campaign manager. That is the furthest thing from straight talk that we can imagine. John McCain can become an emblem for people about what is wrong with Washington. He released an ad this week about how Washington is broken and how he will strive to fix it. He didn't mention that he has been enmeshed in a broken Washington culture for 26 years or that his campaign is run by the most powerful, now former lobbyist in Washington.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown isn't happy that McCain only uses his warm relations with lobbyists to help the corporations they work for, rather than the people they hurt:

Rick Davis earned hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for DHL. Now it's time to see if he and John McCain will use their considerable clout to lobby for Ohio families.

It is unconscionable to have access to help for these families but not explore
every possible solution to save these jobs. John McCain should act as aggressively to save Wilmington jobs as he did to expedite the sale of Airborne to Deutsche Post. Instead of action, he's taken a path of indifference. Ohioans need a president who will fight for them.

Ohh, but don't count on any help coming from McCain, we know who he stands with:



But it wouldn't be John McCain without some serious hypocrisy. Cue the internal McCain memo leaked to the press (commentary mine):

"Our polling tells us that Americans are still not tuned into what the candidates might do to fix the economy (They don't know the facts)," reads the memo. "We have an opportunity to fill in that gap." (With lies)

The strategy, which was authored by Taylor Griffin -- a veteran of the Bush White House and Treasury Department (What a maverick!) who serves McCain as a senior adviser -- seems built around traditional themes. The McCain campaign will paint Obama as being "aligned with trial lawyers" (Baseless) and "unions (card check, trade, education reform) (Oh my, unions?? How evil! Education reform?! *GASP!*)," and push the frame that he "raises taxes" (Lie)and "will kill jobs." (Mmmmm...savor the hypocrisy)

Yes, as usual we see that McCain's "straight talk" and hyped up "maverick" persona is nothing but spin to cover up his cozy lobbyist/corporate ties and hypocrisy. Who do you think is going to do more to keep jobs in America, the person who flat out says he isn't going to try to do it, and actually helps foreign corporations buy up American companies, or the person who is committed, and has plans to encourage retaining jobs in United States?

Certainly not the lobbyists' favorite puppet:



Update: Obama's new Ohio ad raising the issue of the lobbyist ties and the lost jobs: