The Other McCain

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Bitterly Clinging … to Their Jobs!

Posted on | August 15, 2012 | 10 Comments

Mitt Romney speaks in Beallsville, Ohio, Aug. 14, 2012

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — Mitt Romney’s stop yesterday in Eastern Ohio’s “Coal Country” was an interesting event. Here was Romney — whom Democrats say is “out of touch” with working Americans — on stage with dozens of grimy-faced coal miners, and getting cheered by a crowd full of hardhat-wearing miners.

A miner’s wife sports a hardhat at the Beallsville rally

Many of the miners had brought their wives and kids to the rally. They got Cokes and hot dogs and it was like a late-summer picnic. There was nothing “astroturf” about this crowd of miners: Big muscular bearded guys with tattoos, and the warm-up music before the event featured lots of tunes of the modern country type, with rock guitars and lyrics about dirt roads and trucks. Frankly, I’m not sure what political message — if any — is sent by Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake It for Me),” but the crowd seemed to enjoy it, which was probably the point.

Romney senior advisor Kevin Madden talks to reporters at Beallsville.

A coal miner makes pretty good wages. It’s very much a man’s job, the kind of job that enables a guy with a high-school education and a strong back to be the bread-winner for his family and, as such, coal mining is a community institution in Eastern Ohio.

Why the hell would Obama want to diss these blue-collar guys to pander to a bunch of environmentalist weenies? I talked about the stakes in my American Spectator column today:

Romney began his Ohio tour Tuesday with a rally at a coal mine in Beallsville, highlighting the coal industry’s importance to the local economy — and the hostility of the president’s policies toward that industry. Hundreds of muscular miners in hardhats, wearing stickers with the slogan “Stop Obama’s War on Coal,” cheered and applauded Romney as he asked a rhetorical question, “We have 250 years of coal, why the heck wouldn’t we use it?” Near the West Virginia state line, Beallsville is in Monroe County, which Obama carried by nine points over Republican John McCain in 2008, but the Democratic administration’s energy and environmental policies have estranged many miners and their families. Even the United Mine Workers, the union once bossed by current AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka, has hesitated to endorse Obama this year. Referring to the administration’s plans to limit coal-fired electrical power plants, the UMW’s spokesman told the Washington Times, “Our members aren’t stupid… they see what this means.” . . .

Please read the whole thing.

 


Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Ohio

Comments

10 Responses to “Bitterly Clinging … to Their Jobs!”

  1. The Monster
    August 15th, 2012 @ 11:18 am

    Frankly, I’m not sure what political message — if any – is sent by Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake It for Me),” 

    “I reject the feminist idea that acting in a way to arouse a man’s sexual urges makes a woman less than equal.”?

  2. M. Thompson
    August 15th, 2012 @ 11:28 am

    Ride right through ’em!

  3. CPAguy
    August 15th, 2012 @ 1:15 pm

    Reminds me of that staged Obama picture with those doctors in lab coats.

    However, looks like these guys provided their own uniforms this time rather than utilizing the campaign’s provisions ala Obamao.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    August 15th, 2012 @ 1:29 pm

    Why are Democrats so desperate to lie about Ryan and Romney?

    It is all they have.  

  5. Adjoran
    August 15th, 2012 @ 3:25 pm

    Good report and good Spectator article.  You mention that with Obama’s endorsement of Biden’s “chains” remark, they are trying to stir up the black vote.  You ain’t seen nothing yet.

    Even in 2004 & 2008, the ads on black radio stations had descended to the level of “Republicans want to bring back Jim Crow and Slavery,” which made no sense anyway.  This year, it’s going to be that Romney wants to round up blacks into concentration camps or something. 

    Probably a solid majority of those who hear these outrageous lies understand they are just that – but then they vote for the liars anyway.

  6. Red
    August 15th, 2012 @ 3:49 pm

    The people that will buy that crap should be denied oxygen.

  7. Coal Miners for Mitt Romney | The Lonely Conservative
    August 15th, 2012 @ 7:30 pm

    […] Obama’s war on their industry. Stacy McCain reports that the coal miners are bitterly clinging to their jobs. Mitt Romney’s stop yesterday in Eastern Ohio’s “Coal Country” was an interesting event. […]

  8. richard mcenroe
    August 15th, 2012 @ 8:22 pm

     The black dancer in “Country Girl” is also in Dierks Bentley’s “Sideways”  I swear she’s got an exemption from gravity.

  9. Obama Wants to Do Away With The Coal Industry and Its Jobs – Let’s Stop Him | ZION'S TRUMPET
    August 16th, 2012 @ 9:01 am

    […] Bitterly Clinging … to Their Jobs! […]

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