Obama Needs To Hit McCain HARD Today!

McCain’s going to go around Ohio today, lying to the people in Ohio about how he feels their pain on the DHL job losses. Guess what? He was a big player behind the loss of 8,000 jobs for Ohioans in the DHL-Airborne Express merger!

McCain on Thursday was to discuss DHL’s plans with local officials and others affected by the potential job losses. The economy and job losses are important issues in Ohio, a critical swing state that gave President Bush the electoral votes needed for re-election in 2004.

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said Wednesday that Davis had not worked with DHL since 2005, long before DHL announced plans to move its work out of Wilmington. The companies merged in 2003.

“At the time of the merger, no one anticipated an impact on jobs in Wilmington,” Rogers said.

McCain, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, had a role in the deal too. He urged then-Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens to abandon proposed legislation that would have prohibited foreign-owned carriers from flying U.S. military equipment or troops, which Airborne Express said was aimed at torpedoing its merger with DHL.

McCain’s own campaign adviser, Rick Davis, helped lobby Congress on the DHL merger.

In 2003, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis lobbied Congress to accept a proposal by German-owned DHL to buy Airborne Express, which kept its domestic hub in Wilmington in southwest Ohio.

Senator Obama needs to hit McCain HARD on this issue, especially on the loss of 8,000 jobs, and make McCain out to be the hypocrite that he really is. It would be interesting if Obama could release a TV ad aimed at Ohioans on this specific issue, and tie that into the attack ad he released yesterday, questioning McCain’s so-called maverickness.

It’s not the time for Obama to be soft in his response on this issue!. He missed attacking McCain successfully on the Phil Gramm issue–that was a prime opportunity to “define” McCain, and he missed that one, served up to him on a silver platter.

After McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm suggested that the United States has become “a nation of whiners,” Democratic strategists said Obama should have immediately started an ad blitz.

Senator Obama, make McCain defend his role in helping Ohioans lose over 8,000 jobs! Make McCain defend himself in front of the people he’ll be campaigning with today.