Gov. Rendell urges voters to consider issues, not race
WILKES-BARRE — A greater concern for the economy than skin color should compel racist voters in Pennsylvania to choose Sen. Barack Obama in next Tuesday’s presidential election, Gov. Ed Rendell said Friday.
“When people are hurting, their biggest concern is ‘who can help my budget?’ Not Washington’s budget — ‘who can help my budget? Who can help me make my mortgage payments, who can help me with my energy costs,’ and they get serious and they forget about the middle name and they forget about ethnic background,” Rendell said after a speech at Wilkes University. “They concentrate on the policies and the personal qualities of the candidate and that’s why I think Obama has broken this open.”
Rendell raised the possibility of racism and a racial divide affecting voting in February, as he campaigned for Obama’s former rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., prior to the state’s Democratic primary in April.
Volunteers for the Obama campaign said they encountered racism as they campaigned in the spring in Northeastern Pennsylvania. More recently, Obama’s middle name, Hussein, has been invoked by supporters of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, as a link to the Muslim faith.
“You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate,” Rendell said in February during a meeting with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann been the identical candidate that he was — well-spoken, charismatic, good-looking — but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so,” Rendell said, referring to his Republican opponent in the 2006 gubernatorial election, the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The economic downturn and Obama’s resounding popularity and message of hope and optimism have changed things, Rendell said.
Obama, the first black presidential nominee from a major party, holds a double-digit lead in the state, according to most polls, but an NBC News/Mason-Dixon survey released Thursday shows McCain within four points of the lead.
“This is going to be, in my judgment, a closer election than most of the polls are showing,” Rendell told an audience of more than 100 people at Wilkes, returning to his prosecutorial roots to deliver a closing argument for Obama. “I’ve run for office an awful lot in Pennsylvania and my gut is telling me that this isn’t a 12- or 13-point lead.”
Rendell said Obama’s tax and health care plans would benefit most Pennsylvanians while McCain’s policies would help big business and the rich.
Under Obama’s plan, families would receive a $5,000 annual tuition tax credit and, a 10 percent increase in the tax credit on mortgage payments and an increase in the child tax credit to $6,000 each year. Taxpayers who make less than $200,000 will receive a tax cut and taxpayers who make less than $250,000 will not have their taxes increased, Rendell said.
“My guess is, that means most people who live and work and go to school here in Luzerne County don’t have to worry about their taxes being raised,” Rendell said.
Rendell, making the 18th stop on a seven-day, 37-stop bus tour of the state, joked about the Republican ticket, particularly the repeated invocation by McCain of “Joe the Plumber” as a misguided small-time warrior against Obama’s tax plan, and the recent mini-maelstrom over the $150,000 spent on clothing for McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her family.
“Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have been in Pennsylvania so much, I am contemplating charging them state income tax,” Rendell joked.
Rendell described Palin as “a friend” of his from the National Governors Association and, referring to the report last week that the Republican National Committee spent more than $150,000 on a new wardrobe for Palin and her family, said he suggested she shop in Pennsylvania.
“I sent her a little note reminding her that there is no sales tax on clothing here in Pennsylvania. She might want to buy an outfit for election night, a $25,000 gown or something, we’ve got a lot of great malls, she can come here — no sales tax.”
