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Hope, change and other policies

• Published January 16, 2008

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People get hope and change. Tax structures and health care mandates not so much.

Such was the message last night to Thurston County Democrats, who met to discuss issues ahead of their presidential caucuses Feb. 9. In a straw poll, John Edwards beat Obama, 34.75 percent to 30.5 percent among 141 people.

Edwards may have won out – and this is just our impression – because for a few people he was a surrogate vote for Dennis Kucinich, who got 17 votes.

But the interesting part of the night was listening to die-hard Democrats learn to talk about their issues as they related to their values. Interestingly, this came naturally to the couple Obama fans we spoke with.

“I do think Obama is the hope for the future,” said Debby Pattin, who is heading Obama’s campaign in the county.

The Obama message – hope, change – helped him win in Iowa’s caucuses because it spoke to people on an emotional level, University of Washington Professor David Domke told the crowd.

Hillary Clinton is well versed in policy, but she didn’t show as much personality until just before she won in New Hampshire, he added.

“We laugh at George Bush because he talks about freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom. Well, seven years later maybe we’ve had enough. But four years into his presidency, the country hadn’t had enough,” he said.

At the domestic and foreign policy table, the connection to values was fairly easy to make. When some one said the “politics of fear” have dominated since 9-11, a woman offered, “The opposite of fear is courage.”

“Torture is un-American, right? It’s not about them, it’s about us, and how we feel about our own laws,” Domke advised.

But this was a tougher job at the less popular labor-themed group.

“I’m not saying that it’s right, but the public perception ahs been that unions are not good for you,” said Dawn Jones of Olympia.

Others agreed, saying the poor public perception of unions is rooted in the 1980s, and the Reagan-era idea that your own self-interest is counter to unionism. But they struggled to attach a value to it. “Opportunity" was suggested.