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Plouffe: McCain's DHL Deal A Critical Moment Of Campaign
Huffington Post
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."
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The roles of McCain and Davis in the 2003 DHL deal have not been noticed in the current Wilmington flap. They were mentioned briefly, however, in a Washington Post story in June on Davis' lobbying work.
In 2003, Davis lobbied the Senate to accept the proposal by DHL to buy Airborne Express for $1.05 billion. Airborne Express at the time ran the airport and package-sorting facility in Wilmington.
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. They earned $405,000 more from Deutsche Post for work on other issues in 2004 and 2005, Senate records show.
Before the merger, some members of Congress, as well as UPS and Federal Express, cited concerns about a subsidiary of a foreign company controlling a segment of air commerce in the United States. Sen. Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, tried to insert language in a military spending bill to ban a foreign-owned carrier from flying military equipment or troops. That would have made the Airborne Express purchase less attractive to DHL.
McCain, of Arizona, and fellow Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi objected...
Nope. Foreign companies are buying American companies all the time and vice-versa. To say that anyone should have known back in 2004 that these guys MIGHT decide to eliminate jobs 4 years down the road and then declare that to be a gigantic political bungal is taking the theatrical to the extreme.
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Nope. Foreign companies are buying American companies all the time and vice-versa. To say that anyone should have known back in 2004 that these guys MIGHT decide to eliminate jobs 4 years down the road and then declare that to be a gigantic political bungal is taking the theatrical to the extreme.
True... I'm still wondering what the implication actually is here?? Is it that McCain is anti-America? Or that perhaps he has some finanical connection to DHL?? I don't get it...
True... I'm still wondering what the implication actually is here?? Is it that McCain is anti-America? Or that perhaps he has some finanical connection to DHL?? I don't get it...
The implication that will be made will be something along the lines that since McCain made this happen, he is directly responsible for any loss of jobs that occurred as a result.
The implication that will be made will be something along the lines that since McCain made this happen, he is directly responsible for any loss of jobs that occurred as a result.
Since McCain's campaign director was a Lobbyist to get this deal done, and McCain voted AGAINST protecting American jobs in this specific case, yes, McCain can be, should be, and will be linked to the loss of 10,000 American jobs. McSame will lose Ohio over this, rightfully so. The Maverick is nothing but a hack politician, selling America out while claiming otherwise, doing the bidding of big business at the expense of the United States.
Typical. Post something relevant and the McCain supporters go silent. I'd like to see how they defend this one...
It really is pretty stupid to read these few paragraphs from the Huffington Post and assume you have a clue about what happened and why. There are so many considerations that I'd imagine nobody in this thread knows anything about--was Airborne Express solvent? was it going under without a cash infusion? Were there U.S. companies interested in merging? What does "on the chopping block" mean, in practical terms? What would have happened to U.S. jobs without the merger? Does DHL's plans to use UPS for shipping violate the terms of its acquisition of Airborne Express? etc...etc...etc...
The fact that modern technology is changing so many industries (i.e. shipping companies, information dissemination, etc...) means deals like this are soon going to occur with far more frequency, and for reasons that go far deeper than what somebody can learn in a few paragraphs intended to slam a politician.
Of course, because it's in the Huffington Post and especially because it suggests McCain doesn't give a rip about people in Ohio, a lot of people will assume McCain's directly responsible for jobs that might be lost by this transaction, even though there's no rational basis for doing so. (And there's also no rational basis for assuming to the contrary, but since when did reason factor into what most Americans are willing to believe about politicians?)
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