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Economy a top reason Americans are getting tuned in to presidential election
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MILWAUKEE _ The economy tops the draw for many Americans' interest in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Tiffany Martinez, 42, had never worked for a candidate before, and instead of volunteering 10 hours a week, she says she probably should be finding paid work. But even with her husband's unemployment checks running out soon and house payments gnawing at savings for their 5-year-old son's education, working on the election lets Martinez feel she's doing something for her family's future.
"I've voted before and crossed my fingers and wished that my candidate won, and I can't afford to do that this year," said Martinez, who lives in Franklin, Wis., and is campaigning for Barack Obama.
Likewise, Bobby Kraft got involved as a John McCain supporter after a campaign official heard him voicing his concerns as a small-business owner.
"It now gives me an opportunity to make sure at least that maybe the small-business guy and maybe the Main Street person is being heard a little bit," said Kraft, 30, who's president and chief executive officer of First Edge Solutions, a digital printing and document management company with 75 employees in Milwaukee's Walker's Point area.
Martinez considers Obama more attuned to workers. Kraft sees McCain letting entrepreneurs grow.
Economists say that based on their campaign rhetoric, their voting records and the background of their advisers, McCain and Obama have contrasting economic views generally, with McCain more prone to let free markets prevail and Obama more open to government intervention.
Among the issues that separate them, trade policies provide an example in an area important to Wisconsin.
McCain portrays himself as a champion of free trade, supportive of current and pending trade agreements, and an advocate for more. In April, he met with business executives in South Milwaukee and heard how trade deals help local companies compete globally.
Obama says he's for free trade but takes issue with past agreements, seeking stronger language for and enforcement of labor and environmental standards aimed at putting trading partners on more equal footing. At the General Motors plant in Janesville in February, Obama blamed trade policies for the loss of U.S. factory jobs.
Though not drawing as much attention as their tax policies or health care plans, the candidates' foreign trade stances matter more in Wisconsin than in most states because of a heavy reliance on manufacturing.
More than one-fifth of Wisconsin's gross domestic product and 17 percent of its work force depend directly on manufacturing, which collectively pays more than any other sector. The average manufacturing wage exceeded $47,000 last year, 23 percent more than for all industries.
"It's hard to imagine how the state is going to remain prosperous if its best-paying sector keeps on shedding jobs," said Alan Tonelson, research fellow at the United States Business and Industry Council, which represents 1,500 companies, most of which are family-owned manufacturers.
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Manufacturing accounts for 94 percent of Wisconsin's exports, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. More than 40 percent of that trade goes to Canada and Mexico, partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, a point of contention in the campaign.
Blaming NAFTA for U.S. job losses, Obama has called for amending the agreement. McCain has criticized Obama for "protectionist NAFTA-bashing."
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Presidents have relatively little control over such titanic forces as demographics, economic cycles and globalization, but trade pacts are something in their bailiwick, said Scott Drewianka, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"The president has a lot to say about it. These agreements are always negotiated by someone appointed by the president," Drewianka said.
Tonelson said his group is nonpartisan and doesn't endorse candidates, but it would be happier with a candidate who put a higher priority on trade deals and worked to improve trade benefits to U.S. manufacturers.
"What we seem to be left with in this election is, on trade policy matters, a contest between a somewhat ambivalent critic of U.S. trade policy who frankly doesn't seem to attach much importance to it at all and a full-throated champion of current trade policy," Tonelson said.
Van Mobley, an economist at Concordia University Wisconsin, agreed that both candidates need to show more interest in trade policies, especially in manufacturing-heavy battlegrounds such as Wisconsin.
So far, free trade policies have resulted in manufacturing and energy sectors growing in other countries at the expense of those industries in the United States, Mobley said. Consequently, Mobley said, America has relied more on its financial sector, which in light of the federal bailout has proved to be "a dreadful mistake."
"We need Obama and McCain to say, 'Main Street would be better off with a smaller Wall Street and a larger and more vigorous energy and manufacturing sector,' " said Mobley, who supports McCain.
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In their campaign literature, both candidates mention the need to beef up training for workers whose jobs are vulnerable to overseas competition. But they offer separate approaches.
Obama would extend the existing supports for manufacturing workers to service industry workers whose jobs go abroad.
McCain would overhaul the unemployment insurance system to provide retraining assistance.
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Both candidates espouse various policies aimed at energy development, education, infrastructure, defense and health care that could sway job growth in one sector or another.
The Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas analyzed campaign plans and decided that, under Obama, employment in education, telecommunications, manufacturing, alternative energy and construction would benefit. If McCain wins, according to Challenger, oil and gas companies, aerospace and defense contractors, nuclear engineering firms, the automotive industry, and insurance and financial services should expect to grow.
The candidates also take divergent tacks on how to jump-start the economy.
McCain favors targeting problem areas, such as helping cash-poor subprime borrowers, strengthening student loans and having a gas tax holiday, while Obama prefers more traditional shot-in-the-arm stimulants including rebates and state budget relief funds, said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
"They are different approaches, and I don't have an opinion on which would work better. They actually are both crafted from a number of sensible plans," MacGuineas said. "And it's a very confusing economy, so nobody knows how to navigate what we're going through."
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Dissimilar economic approaches by the candidates also pop up on other issues.
For instance, Obama is co-sponsor of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize workers.
McCain opposes the labor-supported measure, saying it would allow unions to coerce workers into joining unions.
Likewise, Obama supports raising the minimum wage and adjusting it annually to inflation. McCain doesn't.
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Of course, candidates' stands aren't always true indicators of how they'll lead, said Dean Baker, economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
"You have to see what they do when they get in office," said Baker, an Obama supporter. Corporate influences on officeholders can be powerful, Baker said.
"If I had to say who's more likely to stick to their position, I'd be very surprised that McCain does not," Baker said. "Less so if Obama does not."
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(c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Visit JSOnline, the Journal Sentinel's World Wide Web site, at http://www.jsonline.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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Copyright ? 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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