Subject: [big campaign] This is an Idaho swing voter -and this is the swing voter on the Bush Legacy Bus
From: "Caren Benjamin" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "CAN" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:57:22 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

"Rick Bateman said he supports Bush as "a good, Christian person" but
learned new information he'll consider as he decides how to vote in
November. "I didn't see anything falsified in there," said Bateman."

Popkey: Anti-Bush bus promotes liberal message, but keeps things
fair-minded and civil

http://www.idahostatesman.com/207/story/448573.html

I've been thinking lately about how the media too often get sucked into
covering the extremes. So when I went to see Big Labor's anti-Bush bus
on its stop in Boise on Monday, I expected more raw political character
assassination.

Instead, I found the message generally civil and in keeping with the
promises of Barack Obama and John McCain to run clean campaigns.

Yes, the bus was partisan. Yes, it assailed the president on the
economy, Iraq, health care and gas prices. There was rhetorical
hyperbole and a mean-spirited photograph of the vice president. But the
Bush Legacy Tour Bus was rooted in facts and within the bounds of
fair-minded campaign speech. 

I suspect the sponsors were relatively restrained because they know
voters have had a bellyful of name calling, distortions and lies.
Talking to folks who toured the bus Downtown suggests playing it
straight works.

Rick Bateman said he supports Bush as "a good, Christian person" but
learned new information he'll consider as he decides how to vote in
November. "I didn't see anything falsified in there," said Bateman.

Two personal experiences have Bateman, 54, troubled by the country's
direction. In 2004, his classmate from Borah High School, Rick Ulbright,
a civilian special agent with the Air Force, was killed in Iraq.

"This war has gone on way too long," said Bateman, who has worked at
Kmart for 28 years. "More people are losing their lives - for freedom,
yes, but whose freedom? Losing a friend like that at my age, I'm
thinking, Why?"

Another loss has Bateman asking how the next president will repair a
troubled health care system. Bateman's mother died in March. Watching
her suffer while waiting for drugs and helping her negotiate the
bureaucracy convinced him major reform is urgent. That will be a key in
his decision on who to support for president.

"I'm looking for someone who will truly help the people," he said, "not
just say it and run."

Sen. McCain was a victim of false campaign claims in South Carolina in
2000, when opponents said he had fathered an illegitimate black child.
Sen. Obama has been called a closet Muslim, and just last week, I got a
viral e-mail claiming, falsely, that he'd been secretly raising millions
on the Internet from Saudi bankers and the Chinese communist government.

McCain and Obama have promised us civil campaigns. Though both camps
have sniped, we've seen nothing like the scorched-earth tactics of 2000
and 2004. 

A good signal came Monday just before the bus rolled into town. McCain
and Obama agreed to their first joint appearance in a promising venue in
Southern California. They will appear Aug. 16 at the Saddleback Civil
Forum on Leadership and Compassion, organized by Rick Warren, an Orange
County, Calif., pastor of a 22,000-member church.

"This is a critical time for our nation and the American people deserve
to hear both candidates speak from the heart - without interruption - in
a civil and thoughtful format absent the partisan 'gotcha' questions
that typically produce heat instead of light," Warren said.

Warren has both candidates' support for his PEACE Plan, which aims to
have churches around the world focus on five issues: spiritual
emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy. Members
of his coalition, including Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders, will
meet as part of the forum that includes the candidates.

That's the kind of big-picture problem-solving Americans hunger for.

Kim Hoppie, a Boise bookbinder, stopped by the bus Monday. An Obama
supporter, she nevertheless said she was glad to see McCain playing
fair. 

"We've lost our civility and I think that's what makes people yell at
each other from car to car," Hoppie said. "We need to appreciate others'
points of view and their humanity."

Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, also visited the bus, which is sponsored
by groups including the AFL-CIO, VoteVets.org and MoveOn.org.

LeFavour was pleased to see data on uninsured Americans, the growing gap
between the working-class and the wealthiest Americans and financial
connections between industry and policy-making. "It really did talk
about the issues ahead of us and solutions," LeFavour said. 

Recent history has made Americans skeptical of attack campaigns. That an
anti-Bush campaign backed by liberals is sticking to facts gives me hope
we'll have a conversation about addressing America's problems, not
demonizing the two honorable men seeking to lead us.

 

 

Caren Benjamin, Deputy Executive Director

Americans United for Change

202-470-5881 

202-257-9209 (cell)

[email-masked] 

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