Austin Mayor has been keeping up on the other guy running for Senate in Illinois.
First, I missed his stop in East Saint Louis:
Earlier, speaking to a standing-room-only crowd of supporters in East St. Louis, Obama was more reflective. After the convention, he said, he visited the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where a bomb exploded on Sept. 15, 1963, killing four young black girls. The experience had helped him put his status as a rising star in perspective, he said.
“It’s easy to get swept up in the hoopla, to read your name in the papers and to see yourself on TV,” he said. “And all of that is fun. But standing in that church in Birmingham, Ala., I realized and I reminded myself that the reason you get into public service is not for yourself. It’s not about your family. It’s not about your vanity. It’s not about your ambition. If you want to be first, you have to be first in service.”
In Galesburg talking to workers being outsourced:
U.S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama says the struggle of workers is always on his mind.
“How do I make sure a situation like what’s happening in Galesburg does not happen again? How can I make sure ordinary folks get a decent shot at life?? says U.S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama to hundreds of cheering Galesburg residents.
A lengthy excerpt from the Quad City Times
Q:: On the topic of jobs, when you were in Rock Island recently, you noted both the Maytag (Galesburg) and Case (East Moline) factories were closing. What do you do to keep corporations in America in this global marketplace?
A: I don?t think there are quick and easy solutions. Some of these have to do with broader global trends and technology, but there are some things our government can do to encourage jobs growth and discourage outsourcing.
Number one, we can change our tax code to provide incentives for jobs to stay here at home. Right now we have a tax code that is backwards on that issue.
We can make sure our trade agreements are properly enforced so that when China devalues its currency by 40 percent, we?re bringing them before the World Trade Organization and making sure that we have an even playing field.
The third thing is investing in infrastructure that?s going to keep us competitive ? bricks and mortar, bridges, roads, broadband lines ? and also human capital, making sure we continue to have a first-class education system.
Interestingly, his answer to this isn’t as simple as many would make it out to be. Nor as content free.