McCain is the nominee for the Republicans and has been for sometime. He has been able to attack Barack Obama and Democrats in general. Meanwhile, Hillary has been praising him and Obama has had to fight both of them, a true two-front war. Now a group is stepping in to fight the guy that really deserves it, John McCain. That group is none other than the powerful AFL-CIO.
From DailyKos:
Although the Democratic nomination is still up in the air, the AFL-CIO has decided to step in against John McCain now, rather than leaving him to raise money and attempt to look presidential with no opposition. Its McCain Revealed campaign will be forcefully making the case to 13 million union households in 23 states (and particularly in five: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) that McCain would represent a third Bush term.
In a conference call yesterday, the AFL's political director, Karen Ackerman, laid out some of the details. The organization has budgeted a record $53.4 million for their political efforts this year, the bulk of which will be focused on the presidential race. (Affiliate unions will no doubt spend heavily as well.) The money will go not to television advertising but to a more grassroots mobilization including fliers distributed in the workplace (and available as a PDF for download here), mail pieces, phone calls, and canvassing. They'll also organize turnout at McCain's own campaign events to highlight his worker-unfriendly views on economic issues. (They kicked this off at a McCain event in Exeter, New Hampshire yesterday.)
This is exactly what we need as the Democratic primaries drag on and on: Without endorsing one of the Democratic candidates over the other, the AFL-CIO is stepping up and ending McCain's free ride. They're taking on one of the most important issues in this election, which just happens to be one of McCain's weakest points. They're reaching out to millions of people in key general election states, and they have a proven record of delivering votes to Democrats.
I couldn't have said it better myself! And since you have to give to get and vice versa in politics, the new Democratic President will/must/should deliver for unions and put the unions' corporate tormentors in their place.
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