Sidebar:
McCain Puts His Campaign Cash Where His Mouth Is
I went yesterday to the scene of a McCain campaign stop just outside Philadelphia at a factory called National Label Co. McCain's campaign entourage there consisted of a whole line of identical giant white Ford Explorers, probably the biggest gas hogs on the road after GM's Humvees. If I were a small donor to the GOP, I'd sure hate to think of my hard-earned money going out the tailpipe of those behemoths.
It was also of instructive to see that the only crowd outside the factory gates in Lafayette Hill, PA was a group of anti-war and pro-labor union activists there to protest McCain at the non-union factory. Apparently, the only way McCain can get a crowd assembled for a backdrop to a photo-op is to go inside a factory and have management order the workforce to assemble at attention, as shown in a photo that accompanied the Philadelphia Inquirer's report on his visit. One reason for a relative lack of public interest may have been it's secrecy. No announcement was made by the McCain campaign, which apparently fears protesters more than it wants backers lining the streets--or maybe the campaign knows it will only get the former, and not the latter, if it announces such visits.
National Label Co., a family-owned company that makes packaging and labels, which was bedecked for the occasion by a two-story-high American Flag, is headed by James H. Shacklett III, a bankroller of local Republicans and a major contributor to the national Republican Party.
While McCain spoke inside the factory, a pair of vultures circled lazily overhead.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and now in paperback). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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