McCain makes pitchagainst protectionism

Last update: April 22, 2008 - 9:36 PM

MCCAIN MAKES PITCH AGAINST PROTECTIONISM

Standing before a nearly shuttered Youngstown, Ohio, factory pocked with broken windows, John McCain on Tuesday urged Americans to reject the "siren song of protectionism" and embrace a future of free trade.

The Arizona senator used his own recent political fortunes to illustrate that depressed Rust Belt cities can have bright futures. "A person learns along the way that if you hold on -- if you don't quit no matter what the odds -- sometimes life will surprise you," McCain said in a speech at Youngstown State University after meeting the five remaining workers at Fabart, a steel-fabricating factory that had more than 100 employees a few years ago.

Continuing a weeklong tour of what he calls the "forgotten America," McCain called for the increased use of community colleges to retrain workers and investment in alternative energy technologies to replace the manufacturing jobs that have gone overseas as free trade agreements made it easier for companies to move to where production is cheaper.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICES SKEPTICAL OF ELECTION RULE

Supreme Court justices cast doubt Tuesday on a campaign-finance law designed to level the playing field when a millionaire candidate enters a race.

In the most explicitly political case of this presidential election year, conservative justices voiced skepticism about the so-called "millionaire's amendment" championed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and other incumbents. The measure lifts contribution limits for candidates facing rich opponents who pay for their own campaigns.

"It could be the millionaires have already been elected, and they're pulling up the ladder" behind them, Justice Antonin Scalia suggested.

The audience laughed, but Scalia and his allies repeatedly raised serious questions during the hour-long oral argument in the case. It is the latest challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law passed by Congress in 2002, and it comes before a court that's already proved itself willing to limit the law's reach.

PROMINENT REPUBLICAN SOLIDLY BEHIND OBAMA

One of President Nixon's daughters, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, apparently supports a Democrat this year -- Barack Obama.

Eisenhower has contributed the maximum amount allowed during the primary season to Obama's campaign: $2,300.

One of her father's staunchest defenders during the Watergate scandal, she married the grandson of another GOP president, David Eisenhower, just before her father took office.

NEWS SERVICES

Recent President stories

Obama proposes adding seats to Consumer Product Safety Commission, nominates new chairman - April 22, 2008

Obama proposes adding seats to Consumer Product Safety Commission, nominates new chairman - President Barack Obama is turning to South Carolina's former school superintendent to head an expanded Consumer Product Safety Commission, an embattled agency that has been criticized by advocates for being too cozy with industry. More

Comment on this story | Be the first to comment | Hide reader comments

The Whistleblower blog has moved

The Star Tribune is still blowing the whistle, but our look and location have changed. Click here to get to the new blog. If you want the actual URL, it’s www.startribune.com/blogs/whistleblower.html. Our blog posts will now be easier to search on the web site, but you’ll need to register to post a comment. In the [...]