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Region makes way for latest batch of snow; cancellations rise
Falls approves sale of former plaza site
Road crews making room for more snow
Group recommends merging Akron, Summit County health agencies
Jewell Cardwell: LeBron fans cooking up fundraiser
Energy upgrades for Summit, Stark
Downtown Akron restaurants serve up 79,000 pounds of cardboard for recycling
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Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Complaints against officer keep coming
Four teens restrain man, take items from his Akron home
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Police: Man tries to buy crack with credit card
Woman rescued after falling through rotting floor in house
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
Akron Zips:
Zips favored on road against MAC West leader
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Five local gridders to play in Big33
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
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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