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McCAIN MOMENTUM: Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and one-time presidential candidate, is welcomed by Clarence “Sonny” Smith to the Mahoning County Republican Party headquarters. Giuliani made stops in Boardman and Warren on Tuesday to campaign for John McCain, GOP nominee for president.
GOP stirs campaign with ‘socialist’ talk
The head of the Teamsters said the Republicans’ name-calling is ‘desperate.’
BOARDMAN — Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and one-time presidential candidate, is the latest Republican to use the word “socialist” when talking about Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“I don’t care whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, a liberal or a conservative — or if you’re almost anything except maybe a socialist. I don’t see that you really have a choice,” Giuliani said Tuesday about the choice for president between Obama and Republican John McCain.
Giuliani told a crowd of about 250 packed into the Mahoning County Republican Party headquarters that Obama wants a “distribution of wealth,” specifically mentioning that it’s an idea espoused by 19th-century socialist Karl Marx.
When asked later by The Vindicator if he believed Obama was a socialist, Giuliani said he didn’t.
“He does embrace some views that are socialist such as the distribution of wealth,” Giuliani said of Obama. “... That doesn’t make him a socialist or a Marxist. It means he embraces one of those views.”
Republicans can’t talk about the economy because “it’s in the tank” and they can’t talk about the success of President Bush, a Republican, so they resort to name-calling, said James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which supports Obama.
“The McCain-Rudy Giuliani attacks are getting ridiculous,” Hoffa told The Vindicator on Tuesday. “... When you do that so late in the campaign, that’s desperate.”
Though Giuliani brought up socialism but didn’t call Obama a socialist, other Republicans have done so.
U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, a Republican from Cleveland, recently said in southeast Ohio that Obama is a socialist.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s vice-presidential running mate, referred to Obama’s economic plan as “a little bit like socialism,” during a recent speech.
Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, actually said his plan would “spread the wealth around.”
Obama says his plan would reduce taxes for households earning up to $250,000 a year, or 95 percent of Americans. McCain and his supporters dispute that assertion.
“John McCain and his supporters have embraced a smear campaign based on false attacks because they have no plan to turn around our economy and create jobs in Ohio,” said Isaac Baker, an Obama spokesman.
The McCain campaign sees it differently.
“No matter what word you use to describe it, Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes on small businesses would devastate job creation here in Ohio at the worst possible time,” said Paul Lindsay, a McCain spokesman. “Obama calls these reckless proposals ‘spreading the wealth.’ Hard-working Americans ... call it socialism.”
Giuliani said Obama was the least-experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years. He said, however, that McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, is one of the most experienced and best candidates this nation has had for president during that same time period.
Giuliani also praised Palin for her time as a small-town mayor and governor in Alaska.
“Don’t tell me she’s not qualified,” he said.
As for Obama, “he’s never run a city, a state, a business, a military unit,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani told McCain-Palin volunteers to ignore polls and keep working hard for the ticket. Most polls show a very tight race in Ohio.
When asked about his failed attempt to capture the Republican presidential nomination, Giuliani said, “I think within one hour of deciding that I wasn’t going to run for president, I embraced Senator McCain.”
Giuliani said if he couldn’t be president, he’s glad McCain has that opportunity.
“Sure you’re always disappointed,” about not being the party’s nominee, Giuliani said. “That was a long time ago.”
Giuliani was to call voters while at party headquarters but left for an appearance in Warren before making any calls.
Giuliani campaigned Tuesday and Wednesday for McCain in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Hoffa stumped for Obama on Wednesday in Youngstown and Cleveland.
There are 1.45 million Teamsters nationwide including 60,000 in Ohio.
Hoffa expects 70 percent of organized labor members to support Obama in this election.
Though Hoffa wants the nation to overhaul all of its trade policies, Obama wants to modify the current policies.
“My views are a little more extreme than Barack Obama,” Hoffa said.
With less than two weeks before the election, both campaigns are focusing on Ohio, considered one of the few key battleground states in the presidential race.
Meanwhile, the Beastie Boys, Sheryl Crow and other musicians who support Obama are to perform Oct. 29 at the Chevrolet Centre at a Get Out and Vote ’08 concert.
Ticket sales for the show are “all right. Plenty of good seats are available,” said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.
Though Ryan wouldn’t say how many tickets, each costing $36.50, were sold, he is hopeful 4,000 people will attend the concert.
skolnick@vindy.com