How Obama could win PA

I ran into an interesting essay at Counterpunch today that I thought I'd comment on, link here,

http://www.counterpunch.com/

entitled

        How Obama Could Seize Pennsylvania
The Clintons and Their Sordid Colombia Advocacy

written by Nikolas Kozloff. In the article Mr. Kozloff lists the Clinton family and staff that have ties to the Colombian government, in all its anti-union glory. The entire article is rather long and well researched, and I suggest you read it.

The list of Clinton staff with ties to Colombia is quite revealing. We've heard of Mark Penn, and Bill Clinton receiving money from the Colombian government for "services," but he also mentions another of the campaign staff,

Another top Clinton campaign aide  ­spokesman Howard Wolfson ­ is an owner of the Glover Park Group, to which the Colombian government pays a $40,000 per month retainer to lobby for the US-Colombia free trade agreement. In the wake of the scandal involving Penn, Clinton promoted Wolfson to take over the campaign's "strategic message" team.

In other words, Hillary's clarifications on Colombia notwithstanding, Glover Park Group has been arguing the same position on the free trade agreement as Penn (several other Glover Park employees have deep connections with the Clintons, including founding partner Joe Lockhart, who served as the White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Joel Johnson, who was a senior communications adviser in the Clinton White House)

The author then spends some time belaboring Bill Clinton for his ties to the Colombia regimes, past and present,

As President, Clinton went to bat for Andrés Pastrana, whose administration was equal to if not worse than the sordid Uribe regime when it came to protecting human rights. Clinton backed so-called Plan Colombia and approved $1.3 billion to the Andean nation while waiving human rights conditions. More than $900 million of the U.S. contribution went toward military and police equipment, including attack helicopters and other lethal aid, ostensibly in an effort to prosecute the drug war.

The point of all these revelations is that Obama is weakest in Western PA, the blue collar area hit hardest by globalization and offshoring production and also one of Hillary's strongholds. He also states that if Obama were to attack the Clinton campaign on these issues, it might well win the entire state for him.

It really is a good article, and I encourage you to read the whole thing. Also, thanks for reading this.