By Penni Schaefer
10/15/08
October 14, 2008 10:47 pm
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A campaign stop in Meadville by two former Democratic governors drew a crowd of about 90 people Tuesday afternoon to rally area Barack Obama supporters and to spread what they see as the candidate’s message of change.
Ray Mabus of Mississippi and Jim Hodges of South Carolina have been campaigning together on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and spent several hours in Meadville talking to supporters
Hodges, who served as governor from 1999 to 2003 and spent 11 years in the North Carolina state House of Representatives, told the crowd that what separates the Obama-Joe Biden campaign from previous elections is that Democrats “didn’t work hard enough.”
“The sound of a winning campaign” is people coming from out of town to spread the word locally, according to Hodges, who challenged people to commit to energy independence, health care for those who need it, and better education for children.
Mabus, who was governor of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992, told supporters “there are two ways to run a campaign: scared and unopposed,” and with only three weeks left until the election, he said “we haven’t won a thing yet.”
From outside of the Obama Campaign for Change headquarters on Chestnut Street, Mabus said he signed up with Obama a year and a half ago and Pennsylvania is the 28th state he has visited on Obama’s behalf.
Mabus, who currently works in international business and served as an ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996, said it’s imperative for the Democratic Party to “work hard over the next three weeks because we have got to change the direction of this country ... and change the direction of the economy.”
Both former governors said what’s happening in northwestern Pennsylvania with the economy is happening everywhere and that it’s necessary to give the middle class a tax cut and “end our dependence on foreign oil.”
“The loss of jobs, so many people without health insurance and educational system that desperately needs improving — we cannot stand four more years of the last eight,” Mabus said, in reference to Republican President George W. Bush.
GOV. RENDELL TO APPEAR
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is scheduled to be the featured speaker at the Crawford County Democratic Party’s fall banquet Saturday night at the Italian Civic Club, 869 Water St., Meadville.
Rendell is scheduled to speak at the dinner at approximately 8 p.m.
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