NYT: Union Leader (Gerald McEntee-AFSCME) Has Advice for Obama

[Omaha Steve]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/union-leader-has-advice-for-obama/

May 21, 2008, 5:39 pm
Union Leader Has Advice for Obama

By Steven Greenhouse

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s biggest supporter in the labor movement has some pointed advice for Barack Obama.

That supporter, Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said, “You have to reach out to the group we call the Reagan Democrats.”

Mr. McEntee, whose union has 1.4 million members, added: “He’s got to do this. He’s got to reach out to the white working class, these type of folks. He hasn’t been able to make good contact with them.”

Mr. McEntee said it was doubly important that Senator Obama figure out a way to connect with these voters because, he said, Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, “can reach these people.”

Not only does Mr. McEntee head one of the nation’s largest, most politically potent unions, but he also serves as chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee and is a confidant of John Sweeney, the labor federation’s president.

Mr. McEntee said it was still not time for Senator Clinton to withdraw from the campaign.

“For the last three-and-a-half month, she has really been on a roll as a candidate,” he said. “She seems so good in her own skin, with her own message. I am absolutely amazed with her energy.”

FULL story at link.

[MikeNearMcChord]

1. My advice to Mr McEntee.

If these Reagan Democrat dumbasses have not gotten it for the last eight years with job outsourcing and destruction of their economic situation. and would rather cut off their noses to spite their faces. Then I say F** Em. They want to vote McCain, and end up living in the street, while their sons or daughters get an increasing inferior education(and end up playing war in Iraq or Iran), their health care falls out of reach.There are some people who we may never reach, let's not waste time with these dinosaurs.