Clinton, Obama strike similar chords in Pennsylvania
SWATARA, Pa. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, brushing aside an umbrella-toting aide, stood in a cold drizzle here Monday to commiserate with truck drivers about rising fuel prices.
A few hours earlier and about 35 miles east, Sen. Barack Obama lamented his less-than-stellar bowling scores before a crowd at a college gym.
The Democratic presidential candidates hit populist notes as they nearly crossed paths campaigning for votes in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary, the next contest in their marathon battle for the nomination.
It was a day that illustrated the dilemmas facing the two candidates as they struggle to best each other while complying with the pleas of Democratic leaders, such as national party Chairman Howard Dean, to avoid personal attacks. On the issues here Monday, Clinton and Obama were virtually indistinguishable.
"We haven't done enough to take care of people who are the real heart and soul of America," Clinton said as she opened up a roundtable discussion at the Capitol Diner in this suburb of Harrisburg. "You feel like the American dream is kind of receding."
Obama expressed a similar sentiment before a rally at Lancaster's Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. "People on Main Street have been struggling for years now," he said. "It's just nobody heard their cries."
Other similarities between the two candidates:
• Both provided detailed explanations of their plans to expand health care coverage. Both promised to open Congress' health insurance plan to all Americans.
• Both suggested that a portion of the increased fuel costs are due to price gouging. Obama vowed to "go after oil profits." Clinton said she believes some speculators are holding oil off the markets to wait for higher prices.
• Both expressed concern about the loss of manufacturing jobs, a major issue in this Rust Belt state. Obama noted that he opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was enacted before he rose to political office and which the AFL-CIO blames for sending jobs to Mexico. Former president Bill Clinton enacted the deal, but his wife now says she would revise it. "I don't think we can stay a great country and not make things," said Clinton, who promised tax breaks for manufacturers.
• Both criticized the Bush administration for not doing more to aid families faced with home foreclosure. "We've got to keep people in their homes," Clinton said.
Obama noted that two top executives of Countrywide Financial Corp. got $19 million in stock bonuses while many of the subprime lender's customers now are facing foreclosure. "Nobody seems to be outraged about it," he said. "Washington is not listening to you."
The first-term senator cited his long opposition to the Iraq war as a key distinction between himself and Clinton or GOP candidate John McCain, both of whom voted in favor of the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. Even so, Obama, like Clinton, says withdrawing troops from Iraq must be gradual. He estimated it would take 16 months to complete.
Clinton focused on education costs, a key concern among the seven families who participated in a roundtable she hosted. Ana Vargas, a single mother, said she worries she can't afford to help her daughter realize her dream of becoming a doctor. Clinton promised to reinstitute low-interest student loans and to create a program that allows students to work off their debts by performing public-service jobs.
Both Clinton and Obama have campaign events planned today in Wilkes-Barre. And both plan to address the state AFL-CIO convention this week in Philadelphia. Clinton will appear before the union gathering today; Obama will speak Wednesday.