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August 17, 2006

Wal-Mart Makes John "Hair Like a Pony" Edwards

...and John "I Wouldn't Buy a Cambodian-Made Magic Hat There" Kerry very angry ~ two gaZILLIONAIRES who don't have a clue. Welcome to one of the Democratic Party's whipping boys.

[In 2004]..."Every consumer should know when they walk into Wal-Mart their tax dollars are going to provide healthcare for Wal-Mart workers?.?.?.?while the people who own Wal-Mart are making billions of dollars," he proclaimed. The retailer struck back immediately. A Wal-Mart official denounced the Pittsburgh event as part of "a union-funded publicity stunt that's more about politics than anything else".

...John Kerry, to whom Mr Edwards was running-mate, cited Wal-Mart and the family of founder Sam Walton in a speech this month on the failings of the US healthcare system. "It's unconscionable and it is unacceptable that five of the 10 richest people in America are Wal-Mart stockholders from the same family – worth double-digit billions each – but they can't find the money to secure health coverage for their own workers and their families," he complained.

...Working Families for Wal-Mart, funded mainly by the retailer, is part of both strategies. Operating with more personal animosity than might be appropriate from the company itself, it is attacking the store chain's critics. For instance, it has just launched a website called PaidCritics.com, aimed at exposing what it says are special-interest links between the anti-Wal-Mart campaign, the unions and politicians in the Democratic party (Wake Up Wal-Mart struck back with its own site – Abunchofgreedyrightwingliarswhoworkforwalmart.com).

Working Families has also set out to mobilise support. It is chaired by Andrew Young, the pro-business former mayor of Atlanta who served as the first black US ambassador to the United Nations. Its board includes Hispanic business figures, while its recently created state organising groups include leading black clergy.

...the black caucus on Chicago's city council was evenly split on the move to set a minimum wage for workers in the city's big stores – with opponents saying depressed inner-city areas needed Wal-Mart's investment and tax revenues.

The vote in Chicago also highlights the risk to the Democrats of trying to use Wal-Mart's record to galvanise support in the run-up to 2008. While Mr Kerry and Mr Edwards might see Wal-Mart's low-paying jobs and healthcare record as a rallying point for voters who feel left out of the American dream, other elements of the party will take a different view – including New York's Senator Hillary Clinton, who in 1986-92 served on the board of the retailer based in Arkansas, her home state.

John Zogby, the pollster, argues that focusing too much on Wal-Mart "means no net gain", because union voters already favour the Democrats and the party must seek other support if it is to recapture the White House in 2008. "When are the Democrats going to talk to Wal-Mart shoppers?" he asks . Mr Zogby, who has done some polling work for Wake Up Wal-Mart, says Democrats still lack "a strategy that deals with Joe and Mary Middle America – and Joe and Mary Middle America are at Wal-Mart".

Even Joe Biden ~ who sometimes can actually speak without a forked tongue ~ is bangin' the drums.

Eye on Election, Democrats Run as Wal-Mart Foe

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden’s main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals.

It was Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer.

...“My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don’t see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people,” Mr. Biden said, standing on the sweltering rooftop of the State Historical Society building here. “They talk about paying them $10 an hour. That’s true. How can you live a middle-class life on that?”

Now, Swillers know I am no fan of Wal-Mart, but only because I don't feel we need 12 Superstores in a 15 miles radius and I despise the influence they peddle, moulding every greedy city council to their wishes. But I am well aware of the resource they provide, both in available jobs and affordable products, services and comestibles (Okay, OKAY, I shop there, too. Sometimes. Ouch.), hence my agreement with Mr. Zogby's warning.

The people who want to see Wal-Mart villified are the unions, who are already basically Democratic Party operatives. The Democratic elite is so far removed from the man on the street (Would anyone but them think the 'abunchofgreedyrightwingliars' etc .com is anything but pissy, petty pique?) that they are pandering shamelessly (and sounding like equine asses) to those union voices already in their pockets. Those same unions who couldn't deliver the presidency to either Gore or Kerry because their current stature doesn't match their rhetoric. (Of course, their stature would increase exponentially if they forced Wal-Mart workers into the fold. Union bosses could give a hooyah about the welfare of Wal-Mart workers ~ more dues in their coffers = more influence. )

The vast majority of regular folks who voted for Bush and Co. are also a fair percentage of the ones who are IN Wal-Mart every day, shopping and working. If the Chicago wage regulations have adverse effects on what already were (from all accounts) well paid and satisfied Wal-Mart employees in the area, those happy Democratic voters might change their minds. As in "well, thank you for saving me from the $11/hr job I ALREADY had and don't NOW." The Democratic Party needs to get it's head out of it's collective nitrogen filled green space helmet and find someone unlike Gore/Kerry/Kos who can listen to the guy in the NASCAR T-shirt or the family with 3 kids at Wal-Mart EVERY DAY and then say something intelligible back.

Maybe even connect on a level somewhere south of their usual exalted pedestal. Actually pulling the SUV entourage into a Wal-Mart parking lot would be a good start. Shoot! Stay in the Escallade/Suburban/Excursion, roll down a window, hobnob with the common little people loading their cars, make a good impression. To a one, you'll hear they LOVE Wal-Mart and you don't even have to touch any of them to find that out. Plus all those same little people will scurry home to tell all their low to middle class friends they met John Kerry in the parking lot at the Wal-Mart and 'what a nice guy'.

Grandstanding at a union rally or Kossites flinging epithets few Wal-Mart shoppers ever have access to does nothing for the voters waiting at the markdown ground beef bin. To be honest, they're not going to look kindly on someone intent on both costing them money and destroying something they really enjoy. They might even get mad.


Posted by tree hugging sister at August 17, 2006 11:05 AM