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Candidates debate merits of trade deal
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau
Published on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
It was a moment in history that we will return to time and time again.
At Cleveland State University, a pure week before voters went to the polls, two trailblazing U.S. senators, each hoping to be the first to represent their gender or race as a major party candidate for president, sat down for a singular debate prior to the most important primary of their lives and possibly ours.
It was fitting that Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were in Cleveland, a waning, poverty-stricken metropolis struggling to adapt, transform and survive in the still fresh dawn of the 21st century.
Neither Democrat would need to wander very far to meet the faces of those challenged in our country.
They live here in Cleveland, they are real in Akron, and their neighbors reside across Northeast Ohio and the rest of the state.
Families with sons and daughters, spouses and loved ones in Iraq, workers who witnessed trade agreements bring the exodus of manufacturing jobs
across our borders and overseas, people concerned about health-care coverage, households working to make ends meet, homeowners facing foreclosure, senior citizens struggling to balance medical bills against fixed household budgets, and the undereducated facing escalating college costs.
While the rest of the country tuned in to MSNBC for the debate, in Northeast Ohio, voters listened intently for specific ideas from the candidates that would address their concerns and help them make a decision before casting their vote next Tuesday.
The viewing audience would need to be content to sift through broad promises, because each candidate stayed close to their campaign platforms.
Yes, like rock stars on stage or a late-night weatherman trying to snap a drowsy viewer to attention, Clinton and Obama name-dropped places like Youngstown, Lorain, Dayton, Toledo and Cincinnati. Even Parma got a shout-out.
And they agreed on most issues, just not the path to resolution.
Both are for universal health care.
Clinton compared her plan to Social Security and Medicare where everyone is mandated to join and said Obama's plan would leave millions without coverage.
Obama countered children would be covered under their parents' plans until age 25, and that forcing people to buy insurance would not work, because many would not be able to afford it.
They debated the merits and shortcomings of the North American Free Trade Agreement, with Obama trying to convince angry voters in Ohio that Clinton supported the treaty.
But their solutions were resonant. Both pledged to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate over labor, environmental and safety issues or face the U.S. withdrawing from the pact.
On the war, both candidates talked about a timetable for withdrawal, and both stated they would pull out of Iraq immediately if the government there no longer supported U.S. involvement.
Obama said he would bring in the Joint Chiefs of Staff upon entering the Oval Office and begin preparing to bring troops home while providing the necessary continued support to Iraq.
Clinton said she would begin an orderly withdrawal within 60 days, bringing one or two brigades home each month.
She went further in the closing moments, stating she would take back her vote to authorize the war in Iraq if she could.
Clinton had suggested the same idea before but never with such clarity.
And between now and the primary, voters will have to decide which candidate they believe and believe in, whom they trust to remember them after the polls are closed and each lot has been determined.
And when we look back on Tuesday night and the pledges made by each candidate, we will still be asking did they mean it, did they follow through on their promises, did we make the right decision, were we correct to place our faith and hope in them?
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
It was a moment in history that we will return to time and time again.
Get the full article here.
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