Udall, the EFCA, Liberal media and Coloradan's Who Like Blue Skies

The other day I was puzzled by a TV ad railing against Udall for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which was portrayed in a campaign ad as denying employees the right to a privacy in votes regarding unionizing. It seemed like a bad thing to deny employee’s privacy in voting. I mean, it is generally accepted that employee rights are shrinking compared to the growing power and influence of corporations. So this ad is seeking to protect employees, so the EFCA must be a bad thing, and Udall must be a pretty bad guy to support it... Right? WRONG.

It turns out the ad is quite misleading, even though it was from a group called “The Coloradans for Employee Freedom”. It turns out this group is a front for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other anti-labor groups.

In a cleverly Orwellian twist, “The Coloradans for Employee Freedom” present their argument as protecting the rights of employees from coercion without the protection of private elections. In truth, the EFCA would deny employers a secret ballot election when there is no evidence of illegal coercion and a majority of employees sign union cards. The EFCA is a bill that favors employee rights, and is being hotly contested by anti-union groups like “The Coloradans for Employee Freedom” and companies like Walmart, which will close entire stores if their union-busting intimidation and coercion don’t work. The aptly labeled “Boulder Liberal” Mark Udall J supports the EFCA, as does Sen. Obama, which is one reason Walmart is “educating” their employees about the possible risks to their jobs should Obama be elected President. The Denver newspapers parrot this message as if Walmart is just being socially responsible.

The “_____ for Employee Freedom” front group runs identical ads against many pro-labor candidates. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has similar ads, including one making the same claim against Sen. Obama.

Here is a good summary and background info on the EFCA and a link to the actual bill text.

Changing the subject slightly… Obama has been slipping in the polls. I believe this is due to McCain’s negative advertising, which is effective particularly when media consumers do not evaluate the content critically, as in the case of these anti-Udall ads. On the presidential scene, a great source of truth in advertising is Fact Check, which evaluates the claims made in campaign ads.

The mislabeled “liberal” mainstream media doesn’t help with critical evaluation, and has largely revived McCain’s campaign acting as an echo chamber for misinformation and playing up innuendo that makes for entertaining sound bites, such as the theme that Obama is elitist. Along those lines, here is a great article. Also, a good site illuminating media bias and lazing reporting is Media Matters. Rather depressingly, because of the sheer volume of misinformation being dished up by the media in Colorado, we have our very own Colorado Media Matters site.

My point in all this is: don’t trust the mainstream media to serve up the facts or the full story. They are protecting their own interests, which are ratings and profitability (selling ads). And always evaluate who is pushing a given perspective and know their agenda. The PAC’s doing the advertising have become masters of naming their organizations things like “Coloradan’s Who Like Blue Skies” which would invariably turn out to be a group advocating cloud seeding to produce rain.

McCain has a broken sense of humor

When Barack Obama humorously notes that he doesn't look like previous presidents on our currency, in a serious warning not to let his being black be used as a divisive campaign issue, the McCain campaign fiercely denounces it as making race a campaign issue.

When the McCain campaign impugns Obama's popularity with comparisons to celebrities or mocks Obama's supporters with religious comparisons to Moses, McCain says it is just humor, just having a little good natured but still respectful "fun"...

Seems McCain's sense of humor is as broken as his common sense. First, it would be absurd for Obama to make race an issue. Further, the comment would have passed with no media fanfare or much notice at all, at least until the McCain campaign made a big deal out of it. So who is really making race a campaign issue? The fact is, Obama is just stating the obvious, while McCain is trying to make it divisive.

Obama is black. He will likely be our first black president. He doesn't look like previous presidents - BECAUSE HE IS BLACK! Deal with it. This is an unavoidable topic. It isn't "playing the race card"; it is just one way he is different from previous presidents. Being different can be good, can be bad, can be irrelevant, can be pertinent, and it can be comforting or scary, all depending on your perspective. Being black is part of who Obama is. McCain claims to want to deal with this the same way he deals with homosexuality in the military (don't ask, don't tell). This may be comfortable, but it is also dysfunctional.

Barack Obama routinely is asked by the press, by various interest groups, and by supporters (by seemingly everyone it seems) about issues of race and culture and religion. These are lines that are routinely used to categorize and analyze voters. These are also lines that have been exploited in campaigns to divide people and create fear that can be exploited for political gain (thanks Karl Rove). Obama does a great, thoughtful and sensitive job of addressing these serious, previously ineffable issues. His message is consistently one of mutual respect, understanding and unity.

I would, just once, love to see John McCain address the same questions that are routinely hurled at Barack Obama. But McCain seems to believe that race should be unmentionable. Could it be that McCain just doesn't have any compelling thoughts or messages on the subject? Or perhaps, having hired the same strategist Bush used in 2004, and the same man that smeared his own daughter in the 2000 primaries, McCain plans to use race as a divisive campaign issue. Or maybe he just thinks we shouldn't talk about it, for fear we might recognize our commonality and unite for a change!