Tales from the Trail

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Joe Sestak, accuses his Republican foe Pat Toomey of favoring China over hard-working Americans.

In a new website, the AFL-CIO pointedly tracks the loss of U.S. jobs to China and other cheap-labor countries.

With about a month to go more the Nov. 2 election, Democrats and their friends are pushing as a potentially pivotal issue the export of U.S. jobs.

They believe, or at least hope, it will resonate with American voters worried about the economy and their own financial futures.

A memo by consultants Stanley Greenberg and James Carville suggests Democrats could use concern about the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to help stage an “October surprise” and retain control of the House and Senate in next month’s election.

The head of the largest U.S. labor federation went to Alaska, “The Last Frontier,” to address local members Thursday and take on a self-proclaimed “Mama Grizzly” — Sarah Palin.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka mocked the former Alaska governor, a 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee who is seen as a conservative power broker and potential 2012 White House hopeful.

“Sometimes — about Sarah Palin — you just have to laugh. But it’s not really funny,” Trumka said.

In the immortal words of Marilyn Monroe (although not in quite the same tone of voice): Happy Birthday Mr. President.

Barack Obama is spending his 49th birthday away from his family, and by the sound of it is in need of a little bit of TLC. At an AFL-CIO event earlier today, his host union President Richard Trumka joked that they had wanted to give the president a cake, but the Secret Service nixed the idea.

“I’m a little disappointed there wasn’t a cake, though,” Obama said. “I’m going to have to talk to Secret Service.”

President Barack Obama turned 49 years old today, which gives him a whole year to contemplate the BIG ONE coming next.

His birthday horoscope (Leo) in The Washington Post was quite glowing and befitting a Nobel Peace Prize winner: “You have given your love to the loveless and befriended the friendless — the fantastic karma comes back to you this year.”

It’s the next bit we found  puzzling – “A dream job is on the horizon. Hard work this month brings the perfect offer by the end of September.” What are the stars trying to say? Is there a message in there to be applied to the November midterm elections?

President Barack Obama courts autoworkers in Ohio and union leaders in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Obama meets workers at a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and later addresses a convention of the AFL-CIO labor federation in Pittsburgh.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq for visits with U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders.

Back in Washington, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefs lawmakers on the war in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON – Hankering for a history lesson on the Bush presidency from a Democratic point of view? Then look for the “Bush Legacy Tour” bus, which will be visiting communities across the country from now until the November presidential elections. 

The liberal Americans United for Change activist group launched the national tour on Tuesday with much fanfare and a lunchtime barbeque in front of the AFL-CIO union building a block away from the White House.

It’s a 28-ton, 45-foot long, bio-diesel-powered museum on wheels featuring interactive exhibits “on the worst policy failures that grew out of the Bush/conservative agenda,” touts the group.