Reviews start coming in
Posted by Athenae
From Dayton, OH:
Sipping Budweisers from plastic cups, the union crowd applauded when Kerry talked about creating more jobs and losing fewer to other nations. They winced when Kerry talked about a steelworker in Ohio who lost his job to outsourcing abroad. They nodded when Kerry talked about getting American workers a "fairer playing field."
"That's good, that's good," they said when Kerry talked about cutting taxes for the middle class. "He's defined himself to us in his speech."
"Talking about taxes and jobs, that's where it's at," said Wesley Wells, executive secretary director of the regional labor council here.
And yeah, you'd think a union hall would be a friendly place for Kerry, but as the story points out, he had to earn it from this crowd:
"While labor supported Democrat Al Gore in 2000, it was lukewarm at best. Of the 68,000 members tied to this AFL-CIO chapter, as many as a third of them voted for Bush in 2000 because of his stance on conservative issues such as guns.
"I think people got spoiled by prosperity under Bill Clinton," Wells said. "So they voted for Bush. Many of them are the younger ones who lost their jobs under Bush."
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