The Smell of Authenticity

Being as I'm originally from Wilmington, Ohio, I felt like I had to link to this post from Steve Benen over at the Carpetbagger Report, which stemmed from an article the Cleveland Plain Dealer did on a recent McCain visit to my hometown.

Wilmington's been in the news a lot lately after it was announced that our biggest employer (by a factor of 10), DHL would be pulling out, and transferring their business over to UPS, costing us some 8,000 jobs. There are about 15,000 people in my hometown, though in fairness people come from all around to work at DHL.

DHL actually bought the biggest company in my hometown, Airborne Express in 2003, as they were trying to expand the air shipping aspect of their business. What McCain apparently forgot to mention while he was courting votes, according to the CPD story, is that his campaign staff, and McCain himself, were pretty involved in the process that allowed DHL (a company based in Germany) to buy Airborne.

I'll be curious how this gets played in my hometown (my parents and most of my family still live there), as it's one of the most reliably Republican counties in the state (electing Bush by a three or four to one margin in 2004). I can't imagine Obama picking up the county, or even the city, but I guess we'll see.

I will say that the massive layoffs caused by DHL's decision, and the despondent tone of news and emails I receive from back home were part of the reason I decided to come to DC and find work in a field where I might have (however small) a role in public policies that effect people's lives. God knows my town could use the help of somebody on the inside in the years to come.