Ryan and Hillary agree! (On gas tax moratorium, sigh)

Hillary Clinton and Paul Ryan on the same side of an issue? Who would've thunk it!

All this time we thought our home-grown Congressman, R-WI, 1st District, was angling for a VP nod from the Republican heir presumptive, John McCain ... but now it turns out he was really hoping to be on Hillary's ticket?

Just kidding. Still, it is surprising to find Ryan and Clinton in agreement -- even if it's something as ultimately inconsequential and wrong-headed as a summer federal gas tax holiday. Something, we need to point out that John McCain favors as well.


Don't these politicians realize that with the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon -- we spotted the $3.99 sign above just yesterday on Durand at the Citgo station (yes, Citgo is a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and gas in Venezuela is selling for 12 cents a gallon, last we checked) -- a "vacation" from the federal 18.4-cent gas tax won't make any substantive difference? The damage from your 20-gallon fill-up would drop from $80 to $76.40; big whoop. Two years ago, that fill-up cost about $40.

Still, Ryan is for it. Today he introduced legislation that would impose a one-year moratorium on earmarks (he really, really hates earmarks, in case anyone hadn't noticed) and "with the savings from this break in pork-barrel spending Congress would provide some relief at the pump this summer and make much needed investments in our nation's infrastructure," Ryan said. (Never mind that one Congressman's "much needed investments in infrastructure" are another's ... um, earmark and pork.)

Whatever. Ryan unveiled “The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act of 2008” at a joint hearing before the House Budget Committee and House Transportation Committee, which focused on financing infrastructure investments.

The press release from Ryan's office notes:

"Ryan’s proposal would suspend the Federal 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax for the high-demand summer months. Today’s announcement coincides with news that the price of a gallon of gas in Southern Wisconsin has set new record highs, averaging roughly $3.80 per gallon in some areas. With the revenues saved from the earmark moratorium, his bill would replenish the Highway Trust Fund, a critical source of funding aimed to strengthen our nation’s infrastructure. The Gas Tax Relief and Earmark Moratorium Act would go a step further by shoring up the fund’s projected shortfall for the coming fiscal year.

"Ryan’s earmark moratorium adheres to the reform efforts of Representatives Jack Kingston and Frank Wolf. The Kingston-Wolf proposal would conduct a full study of the broken practice of earmarking, bring greater transparency to these spending projects, and bar any new earmarks until the system is fixed. Ryan’s one-year earmark moratorium would provide an estimated $14.8 billion of additional revenue, more than enough to provide Americans relief at the pump and replenish the Highway Trust Fund so that road repairs can continue. Additional earmark savings would be dedicated to reducing the deficit. Challenging his colleagues again on the scourge of pork-barrel spending, Congressman Ryan issued the following statement:

"The decisions made by Congress on taxes and spending impact the paychecks of working men and women. By clinging to this broken earmark practice, Congress is picking pork over paychecks, and pork over potholes. Simply saying no to earmarks for the remainder of the year could give folks in Wisconsin some relief at the pump this summer and fix the Highway Trust Fund’s deficit. I am hopeful that Congress will give up its addiction to pork and address the concerns of the American people,” Ryan said.

(My prediction, in case you hadn't already guessed: Sanjaya has a better chance of becoming the next American Idol and marrying Paula Abdul than this legislation has of passing.)

UPDATE: Newspaper way off on crowd estimate at Obama

UPDATE: Both the J-S and the JT overestimated the crowds at both events. Jim Walczak, executive director of the Racine Civic Centre, wrote to tell us 1,430 people were let into Memorial Hall for Obama's visit. An additional 60 media were let in, for a grand total well below the J-S's reported number of 3,500.

As for the Brat Stop, Pete counted about 750 people. I counted about 300 in the balcony, but couldn't see how many people were on the floor. Pete tells me there were about 150 people sitting and standing on the floor in front of and behind Hillary, and a couple hundred more packed through the place. So there's pretty much no way the crowd got up to 1,500, and even 1,000 seems like a push. Also, the Obama rally was bigger than Hillary's stop, so if there were 1,500 at Obama, I'd say 750 sounds about right for Hillary.

ORIGINAL POST: The J-S is reporting that 3,500 people were let into Obama's event in Racine last week. That's three times the number I originally reported, in part because organizers said the crowd would be limited to 1,200.

The JT estimated 1,500 people attended Hillary's stop in Kenosha, which, again, feels about right compared to Obama (about half the crowd). There's no sourcing on the estimate, and the head of the Kenosha County Democrats estimated the crowd at 1,000.

I'm not sure how much we can read into the numbers. It's probably not fair to say Obama received three times the local support as Hillary. But we can say the crowds were vastly different. Obama's was diverse; Hillary's was 99 percent white. Hillary's was middle-aged on up; Obama's was young. Both were enthusiastic, but Hillary's venue led to a more raucous feeling, while Obama's venue felt more official/presidential.

Then there was the strange lack of security at Hillary's event. Media photographers didn't even have their equipment scanned, a common practice at these types of event. In this way, Obama felt like the establishment candidate, while Hillary felt like the upstart challenger.

This is all building toward Tuesday's primary. Wisconsin is important nationally, because Obama is looking for his ninth straight win, while Hillary is looking for momentum heading into the big states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Whoever wins Wisconsin may well win the nomination.

VIDEO: Hillary at the Brat Stop

Hillary Clinton visits the Brat Stop

Hillary's visit from the cheap seats

As an independent reporter, I'm learning that it's a lot more interesting (and fun) to cover events from the crowd than press row. There's nothing wrong with dedicated media entrances, unobstructed views and access to the candidates. But you lose something by accepting access from the officials you're covering to separate from the readers you're supposedly serving. Anyway, here was the view from the cheap seats at Hillary's visit at the Brat Stop (or as she called it, the Brat Shop):

Here's the line outside of the stop 90 minutes before Hillary is scheduled to speak. Yup, there's no line. It was somewhat concerning because Obama's line in Racine wrapped around the entire block. Then again, Obama's stop featured broken metal detectors that left us standing in brutal cold for over an hour. With Hillary, we walked straight in ... no metal detectors, though, which was weird.
It got crowded fast. So fast we got stuck in the balcony of the Brat Stop even though we were among the early arrivals. Organizers and volunteers seemed lost and couldn't even tell us where Hillary was going to speak. Most people figured she'd be on the stage, but nope, she was off to the side. When we tried to get back downstairs, the campaign kept us upstairs. While we waited, an older woman collapsed. After several calls for 9-1-1, a police officer arrived. The woman was OK, and I think she stayed to watch the speech.

While we waited, a bartender used a pool cue and her shoelaces to redirect a closed circuit camera while standing on a chair stacked on a table. The MacGyver-esque move was successful ...
Here was our clearest view of Sen. Clinton (it really was clear, the photo is just blurry).

Here was our view of where Hillary was speaking.

Hillary! (We handed our camera off for some closer shots).


One more of the former First Lady ...


Cool shot through the chandelier.

People standing on pool tables to catch a glimpse of Hillary. This sums up the event well.

RacinePost's own Pete Selkowe (second photographer from the left) using a press pass at the event. Yeah, we got credentials.

The crowd packed in for autographs and handshakes after Hillary's speech. We couldn't get real close, but we know someone who jumped a railing and got her autograph on a coffee card. Nice work!

This unfocused, dark photo was taken with camera overhead and random clicks. That's Hillary in the middle.

10 Things to Know About Hillary's Visit to the Brat Stop

My wife and I headed out to see Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech at the Brat Stop in Kenosha Saturday afternoon. Here's what we saw:

1. What a terrible place for a campaign stop. No offense to the Brat Stop, but it was a lousy venue to hear a politician. '80s hair cover bands? Yes. Hillary Clinton? No. We blame the organizers. We got there 90 minutes early and were ushered to the balcony with no instructions (likely because no one knew what was going on). We made an attempt to get back down to the floor, but were blocked upstairs. The longer we waited, the clearer it became we weren't going to be able to see her - at least not an unobstructed view, anyway. We stuck it out and got to see a bartender realign a closed circuit video camera using her shoelaces and a chair stacked on top of a table. It worked, and Hillary was visible on the bar's TVs. Nice work, bartender! Not a good start, though, and perfectly representative of the planning that went into this stop.

2. All that said, Hillary charmed us. After seeing her talk, I believe her campaign's complaints about unfair negative coverage. She's intelligent, warm, highly qualified, funny (wickedly so, at times), populist and profoundly anti-Bush. In short, she's a remarkably strong candidate. If she would have run four years ago, she would have stomped John Kerry and Bush II. This time she's got a tough primary against Obama, but either candidate will attract massive support.

3. All said, Hillary's speech was stronger than Obama's in Racine this week. She talked specifics, covered a broader range of topics and made stronger points than Obama. My wife put it well: Obama is inspiring, while Hillary comes across as very, very intelligent.

4. Hillary swayed us. We both were big Obama supporters after Wednesday, but now I'm undecided and my wife is leaning toward Hillary. We'd be happy with either of them, but Hillary seems to back up her claim that she'll be ready to run the country on Day 1. I hate to say this about Obama, but really, the last thing we need is another guy in the White House everyone wants to hang out with, but can't actually do the job.

5. I loved how Hillary slammed Bush throughout her speech. For example, she vowed to appoint people to government jobs who are actually competent to do the job. The obvious example was Bush's head of FEMA who had never actually managed an emergency. She also whacked him for No Child Left Behind, saying: "We shouldn't view our children as little test-takers."

6. She was creative. One example she gave was encouraging the development of solar power in the U.S. Germany took a similar approach and created thousands of jobs while cutting the country's dependence on foreign oil. Hillary said she'd like to start a similar program. She also touted tax credits for college tuition (like Obama), but added that she wanted grandparents to pass along college tax credits to their grandchildren.

7. Like Obama, she touted the middle class and vowed to tax the wealthiest 1 percent of the country. "We've had a president for the wealthy, I think it's time to have a president for everyone else." Obama offered a similar line, and both got big cheers from the crowd. The Bush tax cuts went too far, and both Democrats vowed to bring them back into line. "We're going to rebuild a strong and prosperous middle class," she said.

8. The national trends seem correct. While Obama drew a younger, more diverse crowd, Hillary drew an older, whiter crowd dominated by women. The question for Tuesday's primary will be whether Obama can turn out the youth and minority vote to overcome Hillary's obvious edge among women voters.

9. Hillary's voice was hoarse, but she rallied the crowd. She was sharper than Obama, making jokes about Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner and talking about Bush running "scams" on the American people. "You've got to laugh to keep from crying," she said. She also had better swag for the crowd. Everyone got stickers, plus they were handing out bumper stickers and Hillary stuck around to sign autographs and shake hands with dozens of people.

10. Hillary handled the questions from the audience better than Obama. Not only did her answers come naturally, they were heart-felt. When a mother and her daughter explained how they were losing their home, Hillary comforted them and was ready with an answer: She proposed a moratorium on housing foreclosures in response to housing woes across the country. One news source is reporting that Hillary cried at the question. It was definitely an emotional moment. If she shed a tear, she wasn't alone and she came back with a strong answer.

A few more comments:

* The JT is estimating the crowd at 1,400 to 1,500 people. I'm not sure where they pulled that number from (it's unsourced), but I'd put the crowd more in the 1,000 range. It was comparable to Obama's crowd in Racine, without the lines. For Obama, we waited outside for 90 minutes. For Hillary's speech, we waited inside for 90 minutes (after walking right in the door).

* There were no metal detectors at Hillary's visit. Obama made everyone wait outside an extra hour because the Secret Service's detectors broke down. Aside from a few cops walking around, it felt like Hillary had no crowd security. There were definitely Secret Service agents there, but no one checked our coats or bags.

* Aside from the smoke, blocked views and general confusion, the one nice thing about the Brat Stop was having a bar and food available. We ate lunch while we waited and a bunch of people were drinking while waiting for Hillary to show up. That didn't hurt the crowd's spirts.