Plouffe: McCain's DHL Deal A Critical Moment Of Campaign

Barack Obama's presidential campaign claimed that the general election had reached a critical turning point this past week after it was revealed that John McCain and his campaign manager had helped facilitate a merger that could result in the loss of thousands of jobs in Ohio.

On a conference call with reporters, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe said news of McCain and Rick Davis' involvement in the DHL deal was "the most important development of the entire campaign this week" and would convince voters in the critical swing state that the Arizona Republican was far from his maverick image.

"He was there a month ago in this community and was asked a question about this DHL issue and did not say one word about his role in this or the role of his campaign manager. That is the furthest thing from straight talk that we can imagine," said Plouffe. "John McCain can become an emblem for people about what is wrong with Washington. He released an ad this week about how Washington is broken and how he will strive to fix it. He didn't mention that he has been enmeshed in a broken Washington culture for 26 years or that his campaign is run by the most powerful, now former lobbyist in Washington."

Prior to the press conference the Obama campaign released a harsh new radio ad blasting McCain for his role in helping "foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio."

On Thursday, the Republican presidential candidate called on the Justice Department to launch an investigation into DHL's plans to puts its packages aboard the planes of a rival, United Parcel Service. If that deal is to go through (with UPS flying its cargo out of Louisville, Kentucky) DHL's shipping hub in Wilmington, Ohio would be effectively closed, eliminating up to 10,000 jobs.

On the conference call, Plouffe was forthcoming about the political advantages that he believed the revelation presented.

"He has spent several days now dogged with questions about this," said the campaign manager. "His appearances in Ohio were completely overshadowed by this. And by November 4 in the Cincinnati and Dayton markets this is something that is going to be known by every voter in this area."

Comments

[ilovemydoggy]

03:33 PM on 08/12/2008

Quelle surprise!! as the French say. Gosh, our leaders are influenced by lobbyists and corporate interests, who knew???

Baby boomer social commentary: http://www.Vaboomer.com

[neesy08]

02:48 PM on 08/11/2008

another from mcclatchy. if obama looses OH, he and his campaign staffers should be raked over the coals!
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/46761.html

[AnitaBreak]

03:31 PM on 08/11/2008

AEP tells us the coal is (cough, cough hack, sputter) clean and enviromentally friendly here in O-HI-OOOOOO. So maybe we sould rake them oversomething else ;-)

[neesy08]

02:37 PM on 08/11/2008

I just found this on the washington post

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/channel-08/2008/08/democrats_hit_mccain_on_ohio_j.html

[luvangelHussein330]

02:35 PM on 08/11/2008

It makes me sick to my stomach that the media has chosen to turn a blind eye on issues that will seriously effect the merican Public. They will dig up non issues like someones personal life for the sake of " the american public needs to know" but will not report on stuff like this....sick...sick..I guess money and ratings will do that

[ilovemydoggy]

03:42 PM on 08/12/2008

Luvangel, Isn't that the job of the corp-media? to purposefully turn a blind eye? What do you think their real job is? give us the news? hahaha falling on floor laughing...

[luvangelHussein330]

02:31 PM on 08/11/2008

It only matters if the media picks up the story. Unfortunatly, they have been either not reportingon or covering up alot of things that should have ended McKeatingFive's election run.

[RAStewart]

12:11 PM on 08/11/2008

Well. It *ought* to be a critical moment of the campaign. It ought to take Ohio decisively out of the Republican column, at the very least.

But then, if we were a country whose citizens considered their actual interests when voting, Reagan would have been at most a one-term president, and the keynote address at Denver would be delivered by outgoing President Al Gore.

[GunnyJ]

06:30 AM on 08/11/2008

Don't forget that during the primaries McC told people in this same region (Michigan) that they would need to retrain themselves as the jobs were not coming back. I hope this revelation brings the point home. McC knows the jobs are not coming back because he is sending them away......

[ilovemydoggy]

04:00 PM on 08/12/2008

GunnyJ, Have you read Machiavelli, the Italian statesman,

"But it is necessary ... to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men are so simple, ... that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived."

"Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to ... to appear to have (qualities) -- to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and
know how to change to the opposite."

[UnknownSoldier]

06:26 PM on 08/10/2008

I'd love for someone ot break down the condition of economy of those states that voted for Bush. They said Florida is in a recession. Ohio isn't doing so great with a net loss of a few hundred thousand jobs. Have we gotten to the point where will have to ban people from states that voted against their own economic interest.

Is it fair to those workers who voted correctly to be put under pressure because some stupid person in Ohio voted for an idiot who pushed for a weak dollar and a war which lead to higher oil prices which has now lead to DHL to pool resources with UPS to save money on fuel. I don't think the people in Pennslyvania should be held accountable when they voted for Kerry the second time around.

[kay]

11:06 AM on 08/10/2008

The Democratic Party noted that on the eve of McCain's visit today to DHL-Airborne Express in Wilmington, Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer's Washington Bureau chief, reported that McCain's campaign manager and longtime friend Rick Davis lobbied on behalf of DHL to overcome Congressional opposition to allowing a foreign company to take over Airborne, and that McCain himself intervened to ensure that the deal went through.

The story on Tuesday said that filings in the Senate show Davis' lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, was hired to help both companies deal with Congress, where objections over DHL's foreign ownership arose. Davis and a partner earned their firm $185,000 for the DHL-Airborne Express work that year, records show.

[lady49]

10:46 AM on 08/10/2008

The KEY is "Will they get the Message OUT"?

Once the good people in Ohio know this, they will act. However, you have to keep this on the front page!

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

05:43 PM on 08/10/2008

Sorry, but apparently Sen. Edwards' affair is a more important issue for the voters (or at least the folks who run HuffPo) than the loss of 10,000+ blue-collar jobs in the mid-west.

[dbm1966]

02:34 PM on 08/11/2008

It seems like a radio ad is pretty ineffectual. Who controls the radio? Republican talk show blowhards. This warrants a television ad.

[WilburM]

10:40 AM on 08/10/2008

So DHL is getting rid of jobs in Ohio... UPS is adding people in Lousiville and other places. It's amarket adjustment.

DHL has never fully penetrated the U.S. market; for decades, it's been FedEx & UPS then everyone else. I am no McCain supporter but I fail to see why he or his campaign manager should have anything to do with this or take the blame.

[kay]

10:59 AM on 08/10/2008

The Ohio Democrats have an ad up that's actually fairly devastating to McCain.

It's a clip of the Town Hall meeting in question. McCain expresses sorrow and anger when he's questioned on the deal by a woman on the verge of tears. He says he's "been briefed" on it. He then promises to have the Justice Department investigate.

The facts are that McCain worked with his lobbyist staffer to write legislation to permit the deal to go through. The Cleveland Plain Dealer revealed the connections.

He's lying in the Town Hall meeting. He wasn't "briefed" on the deal. He was intimately involved in brokering it.

[SCG2]

11:43 AM on 08/10/2008

What gets me, if you look at other news accounts of this story, is the woman asking the tearful DHL question at the town hall, is a Mc Cain supporter, and claims to have supported him in 2000 primaries.

[tahoeprogressive]

12:18 PM on 08/10/2008

I went to Wilmington College in the early 60s. Airborne's opening at the old Clinton County AFB, several years after I graduated, was great for this economy in the beautiful farming area of SW Ohio. Currrently, DHL provides thousands of jobs, including part time night work sorting packages.
Some of these part time jobs are held by college students trying to earn money and reduce the financial burden of a good education. WC President Dan DiBiasio uses these good paying jobs as a tool to make college affordable for potential students.
The loss of 10,000 jobs in a community of 30,000 will destroy the economy of the city of Wilmington. This is not a merger of the two companies. It is just DHL using another company's airplanes to haul their merchandise and probably make a bigger profit.
McCain should have to suffer for his past work in allowing this potential disaster to happen. The people of SW Ohio need to know the truth about how the Airborne/DHL merger was allowed to come about and who got paid to get it through Congress.

[ejay579]

12:12 PM on 08/10/2008

There may be an economy of truth here. But, you know what, let McStain explain it. The truth is McStain and Davis assisted a foreign company in purchasing an American company.less than 5 years ago. Now the foreign company wants to constrict its business and American's are going to lose jobs.

[Sambadaddy]

12:22 PM on 08/10/2008

Airbus, anyone?

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/133654.asp

[Hughsie]

10:37 AM on 08/10/2008

This DHL mess is merely a microcosm of what McBush stands for! Please all you Reagan Democrats listen up!! TO CONSISTENTLY VOTE FOR CONSERVATIVES IS TO VOTE AGAINST YOUR OWN SELF INTEREST.In other words,which is most important? Losing my job because of a lousy economy,OR............. voting for the guy who says he is like me but,has never once shown it. McCAIN and PRESIDENT STUPID have NEVER been on your side.Did you like the Democratic Clinton economy? OR do you think McBush is where it's at? After all,HE SUPPORTS PRESIDENT STUPID'S ECONOMIC 'HELP THE RICH PLAN' 95-100% of the time.If you're a wage earner and vote Republican, you have only yourself to blame for the MESS WE WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE! Give the smart guy a chance. What have you got to lose?

[Belisarius]

10:14 AM on 08/10/2008

DHL is only the beginning. The McCain campaign is funded and run by his lobbyist friends. Do you think that they will have something to do with running the country if old John wins?

And how would you like to have Phil Gramm running the economy?

We have the head of the oil lobby as vice president now. Think things will be different with old John in charge? Who do you think is the oil lobby's man in this race?

[netzwerg]

07:24 AM on 08/10/2008

Referring to jetglowes youtube videos: You're not gonna make German CEO's think twice by portraying them publically as Nazi's.

[jetglowes]

01:29 PM on 08/10/2008

They are.

[netzwerg]

01:39 PM on 08/10/2008

They are CEOs of multi billion euro/dollar businesses. DHL made a profit of 6,7 billion $$ in 2007 worldwide, whereas DHL USA made a deficit of 1 billion $ that year.., if the germans learned from the US, then they dont care about foreign jobs and work on their shareholder value.

[redthreatchicago]

02:10 PM on 08/12/2008

LOL

[whizkid]

05:52 AM on 08/10/2008

McCain has as little to do with DHL as Hillary did with NAFTA.
The lying antics of the Obama campaign know no bounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPe0hhyUCx0

[DaOne]

06:47 AM on 08/10/2008

Yeah posting a song link really proves your point.Too bad the facts say otherwise.

http://www.thestate.com/365/story/482715.html

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1218011630135640.xml&coll=2

[whizkid]

06:59 AM on 08/10/2008

Daone
So this makes up for helping Rezko?
Don't bite off more than you can chew.

[BCubedReg]

10:04 AM on 08/10/2008

Whizkid is exactly the reason why i say this election has already been decided, we just don't know who won. Some people can be beat incessantly with the truth and still believe the lie. Whether is blind stupidity (a factor the repubs count on) or racism, BO is not going to win because of people like whizkid.

By the way whiz... how the heck did you get that name being so dumb.

[Donns]

08:14 AM on 08/10/2008

You are absolutely correct, McCain is not a crook, or was that Nixon? I forget who has been proclaiming their innocence and support of "we the people" lately. Anyway our leaders are the best that money can buy and nobody should forget that.

[JamesInDenver]

01:19 PM on 08/10/2008

McCain not a crook???? Keating Five scandal was certainly a smoking gun. Either McCain is a crook or he's easily played. Either way he's not Presidential material.