The hall had been owned by Clear Channel, who basically brushed it off to the side and failed to maintain it. The hall was eventually shut down because it wasn’t kept up to code.

There’s been talk of re-opening it ever since, but nothing really came out of it. Until now that is. The Wheeling CVB took out a loan and purchased the building, and hopes to have it open by September.

This ad is mainly targeted right here in Southeastern Ohio. It will be ran on country and Christian radio stations to target people outside the typical Democratic base.

One of the main points of the ad focuses on McCain’s claim that the way to avoid foreclosure is “working a second job, skipping a vacation”. I find two things really interesting about this.

1. John McCain is talking about second jobs even has he and his staff try to avoid his first job. You see, they think it could be inconvenient if McCain got caught up in any controversial moments in the Senate.
2. As a candidate of a party that claims to base itself on family values, it seems hypocritical that McCain seems hellbent on keeping families apart.  It’s hard enough for families to find time together when there’s only a single job in the equation.

You can find the script of the ad and associated documentation here. The ad itself is embedded below.

The DNC is also going after McCain with a television ad.

Applications are due by May1st.

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The New Leaders Program at the Center for Progressive Leadership is working to change the face of tomorrow’s political leadership by connecting 21-30 year old people of color, LGBT youth, and women to paid positions with progressive organizations. Applications are being accepted through May 1 for the 2008 New Leaders Fellowship Program in Ohio.

Learn more about the program and how to apply

The 2008 New Leaders Fellowship Program runs from June to November, and includes:

• Paid Position at a Leading Progressive Organization
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Leading progressive organizations that have hosted CPL New Leaders in the past include the Alliance for Justice, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress, Choice USA, Food and Water Watch, Human Rights Campaign, Progressive Majority, Service Employees International Union, Sierra Club, and many more. This will be the first year running the program in Ohio, so we’re working on finalizing the partner organizations now.

Apply online today

You can also visit our website to meet some of the past CPL New Leaders, as well as read what previous participants have said about the program, including:

“The progressive network of think tank scholars, community organizers, political leaders, and issue advocates is a vibrant and growing community, and the New Leaders Program placed me right in the middle of it.” - Eric Lee, read more

We also need help spreading the word about the New Leaders Fellowship Program. Please pass this email on to any people or lists that you think would be interested.

Thanks,
Gavin Leonard, Ohio State Director

PS – Don’t hesitate to call me if you’re interested and have more questions! 513.381.5680 at the office, or 513.266.1508 on my cell.

Watch the videos:

• Senator Clinton
• Senator Obama

I don’t have the Hillary speech sliced and diced yet, but it should be up this weekend.

“I’m extraordinarily thankful for the support I’ve received. Our effort to listen and respond to the needs of the people of 18th’s Congressional District continues to resonate.

“We have a long way to go in what is going to be a very tough race, but having nearly one million in the bank puts our campaign in a good position.”

– Rep. Zack Space

I haven’t heard anything about the Republican’s finances, but that pretty much says it all right there.

Both candidates spoke for about 45 minutes to an hour, including a short question & answer session. Obama spoke in the morning, with Clinton’s speech ending the days events around noon. A panel on trade filled the time between the two speeches. It was mentioned that John McCain was invited to attend, but declined. This was met with a round of laughter. McCain did manage to find time in his schedule to visit Pittsburgh today however, where he discussed other parts of the economy in front of a friendly audience.

Obama seemed to be the crowd favorite, receiving multiple standing ovations. He did take a few shots at Clinton and respond to claims of “elitism”, but he mostly stuck to the topic at hand.

Clinton’s speech started out on a bad note. She made an allegation that Obama had spent most of his speech attacking her was met with grumbles from the crowd and even some people shouting “no”. Clinton soon recovered though, when she moved on to policy issues. During the Q&A session she deflected a somewhat loaded question over her husbands support of NAFTA by saying that “As smart as my husband is, he does make mistakes”, cutting through tension and providing an opening for a more serious answer about renegotiating NAFTA.

I think both Obama and Clinton demonstrated that they both understand the plight of the American worker. Policy-wise, the aren’t all that different. They both promised to do a better job at enforcing our trade agreements in their current form and to work to renegotiate them to give American workers a level playing field.

It was said at one point that this event was organized in only 11 days, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell it by looking around. Things ran quickly and efficiently. I, the worlds biggest complainer, was greatly impressed.

I’m sure they’re be several other posts related to the forum posted over the next couple days as I review my recordings of the forum. You’ll be able to find all past and future posts on this topic here.

I’m not exactly sure how exactly I’ll cover the event, as my laptop is still down with a crashed hard drive (I’ve been too disgusted to fix it). I’ve got a creative solution that may allow me to restore limited functionality to it. Regardless of how that works out I’ll be trying to post updates to the OVP Twitter page (this is not my personal account, I don’t want to bombard people with unwanted messages. Follow OVP for these messages) and some iPhone photo’s to the OVP Flickr page. I’ve also added Twitter and Flickr badges to the sidebar to display some of the most recent updates.

Update: I’ve arrived at the convention center 90 minutes early.

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

You know what? That’s pretty damning stuff. But hold up, a little later I found a Politico article with the quote in context.

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

You know what? I reluctantly have to agree with him. I come from small town America, actually I live in a county that doesn’t even have a town. Our largest population center is classified as a village. I believe he makes a valid point, as much as I hate to admit it.

Nice try ORP, but I’m not buying it. You’ve flunked the integrity test and that’s why your candidates are getting the boot.