Mitt Romney Scores Big With Blue Collar Backbone In Ohio
Last week, soon after his announcement of embracing Congressman (WI) Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney scheduled a meeting with coal miners in eastern Ohio. The photo at the top of this posting was one of the main photos of the event ... all pretty standard stuff with the Republican nominee for president 2012 shaking hands with workers.
What wasn't broadcast broadly was this photo posted by a conservative blog that showed the anticipation and participation from these unionized workers, many of whom generally vote Democrat in support of their union labor vocations.
This excerpted and edited from the Toledo Blade -
Romney focuses on coal during Ohio speech
BY JIM PROVANCE - BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF - Published: 8/14/2012
Mitt Romney today stood in front of eastern Ohioans seemingly straight out of the mine — hard hats, smudged faces, and blue and gray uniforms — as he accused President Obama of “waging war” on coal.
"He’s for all the sources of energy that come from above the ground, none of the sources below the ground, like oil and coal and gas,” the presumptive Republican nominee told a crowd outside American Energy Corp’s Century Mine near Beallsville, Belmont County.
"I’m for all of the above, whether it comes from above the ground or below the ground,” he said. “We’re going to take advantage of our energy resources to save your jobs, create more jobs, and, by the way, when we use our plentiful energy resources, our inexpensive carbon-based resources, you’re going to see manufacturing come back to America…,” he said.
“By the end of my second term — hopefully, I get that first and second term — we will have North American energy independence,” he said. “We won’t have to buy oil from Venezuala of the the Middle East.”
The president's campaign refuted Mr. Romney's comments about coal today.
“Only one candidate in this race actually has a record of finding a clean future for coal, and that’s President Obama,'' said Obama spokesman Lis Smith. "President Obama has increased investments in the research and development of clean coal technology and employment in the mining industry hit a 15-year high in 2011.
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On the outskirts of Beallsville, there’s no doubt that coal is king. Signs dot the rural roads: “Stop the war on coal. Fire Obama.”
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He didn’t mention his new running mate, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, until near the end of his nearly 20-minute speech and then it was a passing reference. Mr. Ryan is expected at Miami University in Oxford on Wednesday.
The mining industry has a love-hate relationship with southeast Ohio, balancing thousands of jobs against environmental concerns. A subsidiary of Murray Energy, the largest private coal company in the United States, recently pleaded guilty and faces millions in penalties for a nearby pipeline rupture that polluted Captina Creek.
Another subsidiary in nearby Brilliant has blamed federal regulation for its plans to close.
Mr. Romney told the crowd that the Democratic [Democrat Political Party] must win Ohio to win re-election.
“To win Ohio, he’s got to win eastern Ohio, and he’s got to get the votes of the people in these communities all around us here, and you’re not going to let that happen, because you’re going to keep our jobs,” he said. “You’re going to keep Ohio strong and bring back America.”
He targeted his message directly toward his audience.
“We’ve 250 years left of coal,” he said. ‘’Why in the world wouldn’t we use it?”
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“(Mr. Obama) says he’s for coal, but the regulation he’s putting on coal is making it basically impossible for us to mine the coal,” said Shawn Schoolcraft, of St. Clairsville, who has worked for two years as a roof-bolter at the deep mine Mr. Romney visited today.
“Underground, they don’t want us to have so much dust … and with EPA with the power plants, they’re killing so many megawatts that our plants just can’t run as clean as they want them to run,” he said.
[Reference Here]
As the attitudes of these blue collar Democrats have shown, the erosion that Obama policies have had on many voting blocks will not have these blocks be as strong as they were in 2008.
We just hope that the discontent generated with ObamaCare, running the country with NO BUDGET in three years (over 1,000 days), increased federal regulations that are chocking off business activity through the increase in time required to report back to the Government on compliance, a foreign policy that is characterized as "Leading From Behind" as opposed to standing on principle and traditional relationships, and this 44th Executive Branch's war on traditional religion through healthcare regulations, has people lining up at the voting polls just as the miners above were lining up to hear Mitt Romney address the gathered crowd.
As far as voter fraud is concerned ... "If It Ain't Close They Can't Cheat!". Vote early and often for Romney Ryan 2012!
** Article first published as Mitt Romney Scores Big with Blue Collar Backbone in Ohio on Technorati **
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