Pro-Hillary govs shift to Obama
'08 CAMPAIGN | Blagojevich misses gathering, goes to flood
Barack Obama started the day Friday with a Chicago gathering of 16 Democratic governors who all pledged to work hard to get him elected president — even those who backed Hillary Clinton in the primary.
Then he flew to Florida to warn that John McCain’s plan for off-shore drilling could corrupt the coastline and won’t help American drivers for 22 years.
(AP)
McCain, speaking to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa, praised the North American Free Trade Agreement and declined to weigh in on an Obama adviser earlier this year telling Canadian officials that Obama’s pledge to renegotiate NAFTA was just political rhetoric.
Just a day after Obama announced he would eschew public financing for his campaign, he and McCain both released their May fund-raising figures. Obama took in $22 million, McCain $21 million.
Missing from the gathering of 16 of the nation’s 28 Democratic governors was Gov. Blagojevich.
Though Blagojevich joined a private dinner with Obama and some of those governors Thursday night, he flew to Downstate Alton on Friday morning to tour flood-ravaged areas.
Spokesmen for Blagojevich and Obama denied any effort to avoid the opportunity for photos of Obama with Blagojevich, whose name came up even more often than Obama’s in the recent trial of Tony Rezko, who was convicted of corruption as part of an investigation federal investigators are still pursuing against Blagojevich’s administration.
Obama said he valued the advice of the governors, who he said practice “pragmatism” and spend “less time posturing and trying to score ideological points” than Washington politicians, making no mention of Springfield.
The ostensible purpose of the Friday morning and Thursday night gatherings was for Obama to hear suggestions from the governors about how the federal government can help the states with issues like infrastructure, energy and education.
The meetings also gave Obama and the governors, many of whom just recently switched their allegiance from Clinton to Obama, a chance to plan their strategies for winning the general election. Obama paid special attention to Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, all of whom are former Clinton backers in key swing states.
The gatherings also gave Obama face time with vice-presidential prospects, such as the above-mentioned governors, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb made an unrelated stop in Chicago to promote his latest book Friday. All of the vice-presidential prospects demurred on their interest in the spot, just pledging to help elect Obama.
While McCain was extolling NAFTA up north, Granholm said it cost her state 400,000 manufacturing jobs.
“As applied, NAFTA and CAFTA have given us the shafta,” she said.
The governors asked Obama for more federal help on education.
“We have struggled as the federal government, this administration, has backed off making higher education affordable,” said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle. “We are on pace now to have tripled our commitment to financial assistance in a four-year period.”