State standards for the Michigan delegation are prepared on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Live from Denver, Colorado, where it’s day two, round two, of the Democratic National Convention.
There’s a reason Barack Obama was sitting in a living room in Kansas City last night. A reason Obama is winding through Iowa, Missouri, and Montana on his way to Denver. A reason he’ll end up in Colorado. These are all battleground states.
Tonight, former Virginia Governor and now Senate candidate Mark Warner will deliver the convention’s keynote address. And Hillary Clinton will deliver her much-anticipated speech. We will look in this hour at the Hillary Clinton story.
But first, we’re going to battleground states, stories from across the country — including right here in Colorado — where Barack Obama needs to turn red states blue. Can he do it? Tonight we sit down in the convention hall with delegates from the critical front lines.
This hour, On Point: We’re live from Denver, with delegates from the real battlegrounds.
You can join the conversation. Are you from a battleground state? A state on the fence that Barack Obama needs to take? What’s the word on the street? How’s it looking for Obama? For McCain? What are the issues most important to you? And whether it’s borderline states or voters, what does Obama need to do to win?
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Colorado delegate Crisanta Duran. A sixth-generation Coloradan, and Latina, she’s a 27 year-old attorney and president of Colorado Young Democrats.
North Carolina delegate Brad Thompson. He’s a third-time delegate from Raleigh, North Carolina, 60 years old, married with four children, and African American. He runs an advocacy agency for non-profits.
Michigan delegate David Hecker. A thrid-time delegate from Huntington Woods, Michigan, he’s 55 years old, married with three children, and president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan. He was a Hillary Clinton supporter.
Virginia delegate Carlos Del Toro. Born in Cuba and raised in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, he’s a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and had a 26-year career in the Navy including combat experience during the Persian Gulf War. He served in the Clinton White house as a White House Fellow in 1998, and served in the Virginia House of Delegates. Married with children, he is now CEO of SBG Technology Solutions.
Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine since 2001, she has also covered the White House and Congress for the magazine. She writes for Time.com’s Swampland blog. She co-reported Time’s piece “How Healed Is Hillary?,” posted today.
Matt Bai, political writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of “The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.” You can read an excerpt here.
Tags: 2008 Democratic Convention, 2008 election, politics
I’m from Hampton Roads, in southeast Virginia. Here Obama needs to work hard on winning Military votes, and some more working class voters. Virginia is a big state and if only Northern VA goes, then he will not win. But he is making a good effort and just visited our region. He will win if he continues to work hard.
Posted by Ryan Thompson, on August 26th, 2008 at 7:34 pm EDTI’m a bit flabbergasted here. Tom & guests say that there isn’t but the most minute difference between Barack and Hillary in terms of policy. Hillary supporters (like the businessman) don’t argue that point, but they come on and say that Barack just hasn’t spoken to them on the issues they care about.
Huh? How can both of these be true?
Hillary supporters get angry when accused of racism in this context, but it’s either that, left-over bitterness from the campaign, or some other nebulous quality that defies definition. Please enlighten me…
Posted by Chris Johnson, on August 26th, 2008 at 8:09 pm EDT“Here Obama needs to work hard on winning Military votes, and some more working class voters. ”
Could you elaborate on this a little more deeply?
Are you saying that military families are satisfied to see their sons and daughters deployed and redeployed and redeployed again to dangerous conflict zones? And what about the working class voters - working-class people have seen their share of the American pie decline during the Bush presidency - their wages have not kept up with inflation, many have lost health insurance, house prices are down and bankruptcy rates among working-class people are up; their jobs are going overseas.
Do the military and working class people in your area really think that McCain’s policies are going to be so different from Bush’s that any of the above will change?
Posted by Peter Nelson, on August 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am EDTFYI - This show was never in your RSS feed.
Posted by Mike Feinstein, on August 28th, 2008 at 9:12 am EDTWe welcome comments from all of our listeners.
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