Obama and Biden Rally in Detroit

On Sunday, September 28, 2008, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph Biden spoke at a Change We Need rally in Detroit, Michigan  on Woodward Avenue in front of the Detroit Public Library and across from the Detroit Institute of Arts. With secret service agents and snipers and sharpshooters on the roofs of both buildings, Democratic Party Presidential candidate Obama and Vice-Presidential candidate Biden spoke to an audience that was estimated at 35,000 on an unexpectedly hot and sun baked day. Many in the crowd suffered from heat exhaustion and fainted. Crowds were ushered by police along Cass Avenue to Warren and then to Woodward, passing vendors and merchandise tables, selling pins, buttons, T-shirts, and volunteers passing out registration forms for the October 6 deadline. Metal detectors were set up for those who wanted to enter the cordoned-off area on Woodward to see the rally.
 
The rally was a major Democratic Party push in Michigan. Michigan has 7.6 eligible voters and is a key battleground state. In attendance were Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, Democratic Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. The new Mayor of Detroit, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., accompanied by his wife Kimberly, and Denise Ilitch, the daughter of Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Little Caesar’s, and Fox Theater owner Mike Ilitch, were in attendance.

Senator Joe Biden with Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi of the AACL, ALbanian lobby group.

Three metro-Detroit religious leaders spoke first. Oak Park rabbi David Nelson emphasized that we are all God's children, descended from the same mother and father and called for unity and peace. Nelson read from the Bible that men should not experience war anymore. A Muslim cleric then spoke emphasizing that all men are created equal and are the same. Finally, a Baptist minister spoke emphasizing the same ideals. The national anthem was sung.
 
Kenneth Cockrel spoke first, emphasizing that John McCain did not address of the needs of Detroiters but merely repeated the failed policies of President George W. Bush. He stated that we must narrow the “gap between the American dream and the American reality.”

Cockrel began his welcoming speech: "We hold in our hands the power to shape the future. There is only one team out there who can take care of America---Obama and Biden."
 
Cockrel focused on the national economy and the disastrous impact in Detroit and Michigan, echoing the Obama and Biden positions. The auto industry needed to be revitalized. There must be investment in renewable energy.

"That's why it is so important that we put Barack Obama in the White House. That's why we have to work as hard as we can to win Michigan for Barack Obama. Those of you from the city of Detroit, you've got to work as hard as you can to win the city of Detroit.”

Cockrel made a favorable impression on the crowd, still reeling from the shock of the Kwame Kilpatrick text message scandal that lasted for over a year and ended in his resignation after pleading guilty to two charges of felony perjury.

With Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising” playing in the background, Obama and Biden and their wives emerged from the Detroit Public Library where they had attended a fund-raiser.

John McCain in New York with Joe DioGuardi, the key U.S. sponsor of Albanian separatism, on February 11, 2000, during the 2000 U.S. Presidential campaign.

Denise llitch said she was honored to be introducing Obama and Biden as "champions for change”. Ilitch stated that: "It is time to have a partner and friend in the White House.” Denise Ilitch spoke and presented Obama and Biden and their wives with customized Detroit Red Wings jerseys with their names on them.
 
Joe Biden spoke, saying “hello Detroit!” He praised McCain's military and foreign policy experience but noted that "we need more than a soldier, we need a wise leader." He then stated how Sarah Palin had talked about being a hockey mom, but that Denise Ilitch was “the First Lady of Hockey" because the Detroit Red Wings had won the Stanley Cup in 2008. Biden also said he liked a city where a sports arena was named "the Joe", referring to the Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit.
 
Biden attacked McCain for not addressing the concerns and needs of middle-class, working class Americans: “John McCain is out of touch with the American people.”
 
Biden then attacked McCain for his support of the war in Iraq:

“John McCain was wrong on the war in Iraq. John McCain was wrong on the conduct of the war in Iraq. John McCain said, unlike Barack and me, that we would be greeted as liberators. John McCain and Dick Cheney said that we'd find Weapons of Mass Destruction. John McCain and Dick Cheney said that Sunnis and Shia have always gotten together and gotten along.
Ladies and gentlemen, he's not only wrong about conducting the war, he's more importantly wrong about continuing the war indefinitely. Barack Obama and I will end this war! Will end this war!”

Obama campaign in Detroit.

The crowd then erupted in chants of: "End the war...end the war...end the war.... End this war! End this war! End this war! End this war!” Biden paused to allow the statement to sink in.
 
Biden continued his speech by attacking McCain for not focusing on Afghanistan:

“Folks, John McCain...Folks, it’s not only on Iraq that John McCain has been so painfully wrong along with George Bush, but John continues to be wrong on Afghanistan, wrong about our Homeland Security. …
 
John McCain had said he will follow Ossama bin Laden to the gates of hell. Well, let me tell you something, President Barack Obama will chase him to where he lives and send him to hell because he lives in Pakistan. He lives in Afghanistan. He does not live in Iraq.”

Biden, however, had voted for the Iraq war and had advocated that the country be dismembered into three countries, a Kurdish state, a Shia state, and a Sunni state. Biden has voted for funding the occupation, has sought more troops for Iraq, and seeks a more multi-lateral or “internationalized” approach to the conflict.

When Barack Obama introduced Joe Biden to be his running mate on August 23, 2008 in Springfield, Illinois, he emphasized Biden’s anti-Serbian stance and policies during the Yugoslav breakup of the 1990s: “He looked Slobodan Milosevic in the eye and called him a war criminal, and then helped shape policies that would end the killing in the Balkans and bring him to justice. He passed laws to lock down chemical weapons, and led the push to bring Europe's newest democracies into NATO.” Biden maintained that “opponents of a new Kosovo must be stopped” and argued that U.S. support for Albanian Muslim separatism “could yield a victory for Muslim democracy” that would present a “much-needed example of a successful US-Muslim partnership.” Like McCain and Palin, both Obama and Biden support interventionism and “American exceptionalism” in U.S. foreign policy.

Palin speaks in Detroit.

Both Obama and Biden seek a continuation of the anti-Serbian policy by the United States and both place responsibility for the conflicts and civil wars in the Balkans on Serbia. Moreover, both support NATO expansion in the Balkans, “Southeastern Europe”, and the strategic and military encirclement of the Russian Federation. Both Serbian and Russian Orthodox Christians are seen as adversaries and rivals, a major threat to U.S. strategic and geopolitical interests. Not surprisingly, Joe Biden is the primary sponsor of the Albanian Muslims and John McCain is the main supporter of Georgia. This anti-Serbian, anti-Russian, anti-Orthodox policy is bi-partisan and central to both the Democratic and Republican Party platforms. On these two key issues, Obama and Biden have identical positions to those of McCain and Palin and Bush and Cheney. Obama’s position on Kosovo is identical to that of the Bill Clinton and George Bush Administrations. Obama sees Kosovo not as an ethnically motivated separatist and secessionist conflict like that in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but as “a unique situation” that resulted “from the irreparable rupture Slobodan Milosevic’s actions caused.” This is an erroneous and inaccurate assessment of the Kosovo conflict. Albanian Muslims have sought to create a Greater Albania by annexing and detaching Kosovo at least since 1878, long before Slobodan Milosevic arrived on the scene. Barack Obama is merely parroting and echoing the failed and faulty policies of the Clinton and Bush Administrations.

Biden attacked McCain for arguing that the economy is fundamentally sound and then switching his stand after the Wall Street crisis.

Obama was greeted by cheers as he stepped to the podium in a light blue shirt. Neither Obama nor Biden wore a tie, projecting a casual look. Obama began by focusing the economic crisis on Detroit:

“We meet here at a time of great uncertainty in Detroit and all across America. The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led us to a financial crisis as serious as any we have faced since the Great Depression. … I know these are difficult days and nowhere has it been more difficult than Michigan and Detroit. But here’s what I also know: We can steer ourselves out of this crisis. Because that’s who we are. Because that’s what we’ve always done as Americans.”
 
Michigan and Detroit lead the country in unemployment rate and home foreclosures. Obama stressed that Detroit was especially hit hard by the economic downturn: “Everywhere you look, the economic news is troubling. But for so many Americans, for so many people here in Detroit, it isn't really news at all.

McCain in Detroit.

Six-hundred-thousand workers have lost their jobs since January. I know these are difficult days. But here's what I also know. I know we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. Because that's who we are. Because that's what we've always done as Americans."
 
A WDIV/Detroit Free Press poll showed that Obama was leading John McCain by 13 percentage points in Michigan, which has voted overwhelmingly for Democratic Presidential candidates in the past four elections.
 
Obama stated: “I'm absolutely convinced that we will win Michigan and if we win Michigan, we will win the general election and if we win the general election, you and I together will change this country and this world.”
 
Heat exhaustion took its toll on the audience. Obama tossed a plastic bottle of bottled water to one person in the crowd and water bottles were distributed.

McCain and Palin at Rally at Freedom Hill in Sterling Heights

One day after making a dramatic 2008 Republican Convention presidential acceptance speech, Senator John McCain and his vice-presidential running mate Sarah Palin spoke at the Road to Victory rally at the Freedom Hill amphitheatre in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on September 5, 2008. Located in Macomb County, eight miles north of Detroit, this is a crucial battleground region known for “Reagan Democrats”, small-town, blue collar voters. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won the state of Michigan was George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Sterling Heights was their second stop after Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on a day when they kicked off their presidential campaign.

The McCain convention acceptance speech had drawn a national audience of 38.9 million viewers according to Nielsen, the highest audience for any of the convention speeches. McCain and Palin were riding the “convention bubble”. They drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 at Freedom Hill, a capacity crowd for the outdoor musical venue. The streets leading to the rally, Metropolitan Parkway and Dodge Park, were jammed and at a standstill. There was an overflow, standing room only crowd at the rally.

McCain and Palin repeated their campaign themes from the convention word-for-word, that they were Washington outsiders and “mavericks” who would change the status quo in Washington. They both recycled the catch-phrases and slogans from the convention, not wasting and squandering the efforts of speechwriters and PR specialists. They were both “on message”.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin spoke first. She managed to carry over the momentum built up at the convention. Both Palin, a “hockey mom”, and McCain were cheered when they walked on stage. They were presented Detroit Red Wings jerseys. The crowd chanted “Sa-rah, Sa-rah”, “Mc-Cain, Mc-Cain”, “U-S-A”, “U-S-A”, and “drill, baby, drill” during their speeches. Candice Miller, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, and Joe Knollenberg were also in attendance at the rally.

Palin greeted the crowd warmly, emphasizing the theme that they were bringing the campaign to Mainstreet, U.S.A.: “It's so good to be here in beautiful Sterling Heights, Michigan…. We went right from the convention to Small Town, U.S.A…. Michigan, you took care of my boy and now that boy is serving in the U.S. Army and he's going to take care of you.” Her son Track spent his senior year in Michigan attending Portage Central High School, where he played hockey, during the 2006/2007 school year. Track had enlisted in the U.S. Army and was going to be deployed to Iraq.

Palin holds Detroit Red Wings jersey.

Palin was energized by the celebrity and rock star status that the convention media coverage had generated. She gushed in her praises for John McCain when she introduced him to loud cheers.

McCain emphasized the themes from the convention: “This is the ticket to shake up Washington because Sen. Obama doesn't have the strength to do it. Send a team of mavericks who aren't afraid to go to Washington and break some china.”

McCain emphasized that he did not win any congeniality awards in the U.S. Senate. He wanted to shake up the status quo on the Beltway. About Palin, he was ecstatic about the enthusiasm she had brought to the campaign: “I can't wait, I can't wait to introduce her to Washington, D.C.”

The issue was the economy. In August, 2008, 39,000 auto workers and parts suppliers lost their jobs in Michigan. Within the year, 127,800 auto industry workers had lost their jobs. Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the U.S.

McCain acknowledged the significance of the economic issue for the Michigan economy, but offered no concrete or practical solutions: “Tough times all over America.… I know in Michigan that times are tough. I know all you ask from government is to stand on your side and not in your way.”

Where McCain differed from Obama on the economy was that Obama proposed a “fundamental change” in the economy while McCain maintained that the economy was fundamentally sound and that President George Bush’s economic policies were on track. Obama had proposed a $50 billion stimulus package that would overhaul automakers and parts suppliers.

McCain proposed that a way to solve the energy crisis in the U.S. was to develop alternative energy sources, to expand off-shore drilling for oil, to reduce the $700 billion aid the U.S. gives to nations yearly, and to reduce wasteful U.S. projects.

Finally, McCain emphasized the importance of Michigan in the 2008 presidential election: "A little straight talk here: I need Michigan to win. We will disagree from time to time on a specific issue, but I promise you this: I will never let you down and I will always, always put my country first.”

Like Obama and Biden, McCain and Palin seek to continue the anti-Serbian, anti-Russian, and anti-Orthodox policies that have characterized U.S. foreign policy since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992. McCain and Palin seek the expansion of NATO in the Balkans and in the Caucasus. Like Obama and Biden, both seek the military and strategic encirclement of the Russian Federation and both seek to maintain anti-Serbian policies, preventing a resurgence of Serbian “nationalism” and drastically restricting Serbian sovereignty over its own territory.

McCain was one of the most vocal and militant supporters of Georgia and its goal to resolve territorial disputes by the use of military force, U.S.-backed, U.S.-funded, and U.S.-trained military force. During the Kosovo conflict, John McCain was at the forefront of the anti-Serbian policies of the U.S. McCain was a strident and militant hawk and laptop bombardier calling for all-out war against Serbia and the Serbian people. McCain stated about the Kosovo conflict: “We’re in it, and we’ve gotta win it!” McCain advocated all-out, total war against Serbia. McCain warned against “an excessively restricted air campaign” and advocated, like Joe Lieberman, that U.S. bombers should and must go after whatever it took to win, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, power grids, busses, television stations, or passenger trains. Targeting civilians is a war crime under international law, but McCain discarded any legal or moral niceties. War is about winning. Period. That is the lesson of Vietnam.

McCain also vociferously called for ground troops against Serbia, “boots on the ground”. McCain dismissed Serbian civilian casualties as “unavoidable”. McCain, a veteran of the Vietnam War, who bombed the North Vietnamese capital Hanoi, saw the Kosovo conflict through that lens. He argued that the Bill Clinton Administration was ignorant of “every lesson we learned in Vietnam.” What McCain learned from Vietnam was that war was about winning and that the U.S. must do whatever it took to win. There had to be no holding back. War, to be effective, had to be total and all-out. That was how you won a war. For McCain, everything is a replay of the Vietnam War. The mistakes of Vietnam must be avoided.

McCain told Margaret Warner on the News Hour on PBS on October 15, 1999 regarding the Kosovo conflict: “My biggest problem with the president was, one, he stumbled into it, but two, once we were in it, he wasn't prepared to do whatever's necessary. That's one of the lessons of the Vietnam War.” For McCain, the U.S. should be willing “to do whatever’s necessary” to win a war or a conflict.  Diplomacy and negotiations are unnecessary and superfluous. Military force is all that matters. McCain reiterated that “clearly the shadow of Vietnam falls on things that I -- as I contemplate president future challenges to America's security.”

McCain is committed to interventionism and American “exceptionalism”. McCain explained the rationale for interventionism and exceptionalism: “If we were a nation like any other in the world, and only "realpolitik," in other words, how it affects the United States, was the decision, we could make that decision in a matter of minutes. But we are a nation that is dedicated to Democratic values, to freedom and democracy throughout the world, and where those values are threatened, we also have to intervene where we can, and can beneficially. That's where it makes it very difficult. The United States sits astride the world as the most powerful nation since the Roman Empire, and we have, with that, great responsibilities and great blessings. … When we see a situation like Kosovo … we have to do whatever is necessary.”

McCain sees U.S. foreign policy as an endless re-enactment of the Vietnam War. In this regard, McCain retains the rigid ideological convictions and certainties of the Cold War. Nothing has changed for McCain since Vietnam. McCain is fighting the same battle over and over again, whether that battleground is in Bosnia, Kosovo, or Georgia. On foreign policy, McCain offered very little that was new. It is the Cold War mentality made popular by Ronald Reagan. The U.S. is constantly seeking “evil empires” to defeat and destroy. The MO remains the same.

Obama and Biden endorse and espouse the same holdover, anachronistic Cold War mentality and worldview. This mentality is bi-partisan. Both Republicans and Democrats belong to the War Party because that is the party that has ensured the continuation and the propagation of the military-industrial complex. And the military-industrial complex pays Obama’s and Biden’s bills, and it pays McCain’s and Palin’s bills. As long as it pays the bills, the U.S. position on foreign policy will not change. Neither of the candidates offer the “change we need” but represent a continuation and perpetuation of the failed and disastrous policies of the past administrations.