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August 21, 2008

Politicians stump for presidential candidates

By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

State and U.S. political figures reached out to their party faithful Thursday in Joplin stops aimed at reinforcing the messages of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

On Thursday, Obama’s Joplin-area campaign had the help of state Rep. J.C. Kuessner, a third-term Democrat from Eminence, to help stump for support.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma visited Joplin on behalf of McCain to reinforce the GOP’s anti-abortion platform at LifeChoices, 531 E. Seventh St., and later at a rally at Joplin’s Republican headquarters, 2639 E. 32nd St.

Coburn also wanted to assure local Republicans that McCain has views consistent with conservatives. He cited the “Saddleback debate” over the weekend in California. In that session, evangelist Rick Warren questioned McCain and Obama separately at his Saddleback Church.

One local Republican, Sandi McReynolds, of Carl Junction, said that forum cleared up many of her concerns about McCain.

“I was very pleased with what I heard, and I came today with a whole different perspective on McCain,” she said. She said she also has more confidence in McCain because of Coburn’s endorsement of him.

McCain understands the values and work of anti-abortion supporters and programs like LifeChoices, which provides reproductive-health services and alternatives to abortion, Coburn said.

“He understands the importance of having a moral republic and not just a republic,” he said.

Earlier at the Democratic gathering, David Stewart, of Joplin, was one of the voters who showed up to hear Kuessner talk for the Obama campaign at a roundtable staged at Columbia Traders deli, 420 S. Main St.

Kuessner, who serves on the health-care and transportation committees in the Missouri House, said many of the issues in this year’s presidential campaign involve the effects of Republican policies on rural America.

Effects of the Iraq war on the economy and veterans, health-care and insurance issues, education, and the condition of highways are among the issues in the campaign, Kuessner said.

Stewart wanted to know Obama’s views on several of those issues.

“I wanted to find out about health care for veterans, health care for the old, and how they’re going to get their medicine,” he said.

He also wanted to hear Obama’s views on the national debt. “The burden is going to be on our great-grandkids to pay for the (Iraq) war,” Stewart said. “It’s not good for our kids to come up in a society with that burden on them.”

“Obama will fix the health-care system,” Kuessner said, though he didn’t offer specifics of the fixes. He said 300,000 veterans do not have access to health care because coverage has been refused or cut, or because the veterans can’t afford to travel to a Veterans Affairs hospital.

Obama’s campaign Web site says Obama would set up a national health-care system similar to one available to members of Congress that does not exclude anyone from coverage, subsidizes premiums for those who cannot afford them, and is portable and cannot deny coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Kuessner questioned the complexity of the government’s prescription-coverage plan for seniors, saying, “Obama knows we need a simplified health-care plan.”

The Democratic headquarters in Joplin is at 2727 E. 32nd St.

Coburn said McCain has a health-care plan that would offer families a $5,000 tax credit toward paying for health insurance, and that he would create a national health-care market. “McCain knows we have to have a plan for health care or otherwise our kids are going to strangle,” he said.

Energy prices and ways to encourage the development of alternative energy also are key issues in the campaign, both sides said.





Political battle



Barack Obama, only a week away from accepting the Democratic nomination at his party’s national convention in Denver, Colo., has declared Missouri one of four “battleground” states in his effort to march to the White House, according to The Associated Press. He plans campaign stops next week in the state on his way to the convention.

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