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Wednesday, Apr. 23, 2008

McCain visits Inez Wednesday to woo rural voters

As presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain presides over Wednesday's town hall meeting in Eastern Kentucky, he's expected to deliver two messages: an overt promise of economic opportunity, and a subtle nudge that disenfranchised Americans should vote Republican.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, has embarked on a tour that will stretch through economically depressed areas such as Youngstown, Ohio; the hurricane-ravaged Ninth Ward of New Orleans; and the heart of Appalachia.

McCain's visit to Inez on Wednesday is particularly symbolic.

On April 23, 1964, the town of about 450 people famously served as a launching pad for Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, a campaign initially conceived by John F. Kennedy.

Once again, Inez will find itself in the context of a philosophical battleground -- but this time it's between Democrats and Republicans seeking the presidency by way of rural America.

"We have to earn rural voters in Eastern Kentucky and all over the country," said Republican National Committee Chairman R. Mike Duncan, who hails from Inez. "We do that by the issues and our values. It's significant that Sen. McCain is going to be on Main Street Inez, Kentucky, not Wall Street, talking about these things."

Democrats, however, say they aren't ready to cede great swaths of Middle American voters.

"I think it's time to address the guys with gun racks on the back of their pickups," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told reporters on a conference call Monday. "Those are our voters. Those are the folks who make America go. Those folks used to be Democratic voters ... And we need to talk to them.

"Rural America is up for grabs," he added.

It's the economy ...

In many ways, Inez remains the same poster city for the economic challenges facing Eastern Kentucky that it was when Johnson touched down in 1964 and promised to approve $1 billion in federal aid for Appalachia.

Today, fewer than half the residents of Inez -- Martin County's seat that boomed in the 1970s as a strip-mining town -- have jobs, compared to the U.S. average of 64 percent. And 35 percent live below the federal poverty level, which is three times the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

McCain's message will be focused on job training and finding new ways to attract industry, said Doug Holtz-Eakin, director of economic policy for McCain's campaign.

"We need to get our economy going and keep it going. A good job is the best thing any American can have. It's the foundation for health care and education," Holtz-Eakin said.

Heart of the debate

Democrats already are taking aim at McCain's economic credentials.

In a conference call with reporters, Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville said McCain's proposed spending cuts would cause "tremendous hardships for education" and health care programs.

At the same time, McCain has changed course on tax policy and now favors "maintaining tax cuts for the very wealthy, including oil companies," Yarmuth said.

"He opposed the cuts in 2001. Talk about flip-flops. This is someone who has more positions than a gymnast," added Yarmuth, who backs Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain was one of two GOP senators to oppose President Bush's 2001 tax cuts and a 2003 extension of the reductions, which mostly affected individuals in the highest income bracket.

"When he looked at the lay of the land in 2001 and especially in 2003, he didn't see any spending discipline," Holtz-Eakin told the Herald-Leader. Now, "he's not intending to raise the taxes. We're taking 19 cents out of every American dollar. That's enough."

Holtz-Eakin said McCain would offset the permanent tax cuts by slashing more than $100 billion in spending out of a roughly $1 trillion budget. Much of that would focus on so-called "earmarks" for projects that many call wasteful, such as a famous bridge to nowhere in Alaska.

Delivering the message

Both parties must now sell their arguments to voters weary of rising gas prices, shrinking job markets and the word "recession."

Recently, Democratic contenders Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton increasingly focused on those messages in preparation for Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary.

Yarmuth said "either of the candidates" is more credible than McCain.

But the sentiment of economic despondency was what prompted Obama to utter the words that touched off a firestorm earlier this month at a San Francisco fund-raiser.

Obama said voters in small towns are so bitter over tough economic conditions that they "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Critics called Obama elitist, and he had to defend his comment.

Duncan, the RNC chairman and Inez native, said he's confident that McCain, through small town-hall style meetings such as the one in Inez, will show frustrated voters in rural and urban areas that he is best suited to lead.