McCain in Youngstown, Ohio

From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

In Youngstown
In Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
Bruce Springsteen, "Youngstown," 1995

Springsteen, a Barack Obama supporter by the way captured the frustration of what many people living in Youngstown, Ohio.

John McCain spoke in Youngstown, Ohio today, and he's aware of the problems facing people living in the northeastern Ohio city--amd other cities like it.

From his speech today:

Political candidates have a way of passing through the Mahoning Valley and observing only the serious economic troubles here – which are hard to miss at places like the Fabart fabricating facility that I visited this morning. What they often overlook are the new companies and industries that are struggling to grow here, to find new markets and hire new workers. There are new software and other tech companies in Youngstown. There are startup companies in alternative energies like wind and solar power. There are small businesses in this city, with good ideas and plans for growth. There's a "green space" initiative that's changing the look and direction of Youngstown. As a local supporter of "green spaces" explains, the plan is "getting us to think about where we're going into the future, rather than where we've been in the past."

These new ideas and industries are a long way from matching the importance of the plants and factories that built the economies of this region. But they are based on a guiding conviction – that the American Midwest is more than a "rust belt," and its economy is more than the sum of past hardships. And I believe this. It won't be easy, and, as you know better than I do, it won't happen overnight. But dramatic change can happen, in this great city and others like it. With pro-growth policies to create new jobs, and with honest and efficient government in Washington, we can turn things around in this city. And we can make the future of this region even better than the best days of the past.

Raising taxes on businesses in Ohio and elsewhere, as both my opponents propose to do, will not bring the old jobs back, and it sure won't create new ones.

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