Submitted by Ohio Daily Blog on Wed, 08/27/2008 - 19:02.
Earlier today I sat down with Sen. Sherrod Brown for a quick chat before the convention proceedings began, to get his sense of how things are going on the third day of the convention and to look forward to the evening's events.
YDS: Last night was Hillary Clinton's big speech. I'm curious to get your reaction to the speech and where you think things stand now in the Ohio delegation on Obama supporters and Clinton supporters and how they are working together.
SB: I think there's total unity in Ohio. There's disappointment, certainly, from several Hillary delegates, but people know that there's a great difference between Barack Obama and John McCain. Barack Obama will follow almost identical policies to what Hillary Clinton would have followed if she were nominated and elected president, and the important thing is that the country not continue as it has been going. The high gas prices are the result of eight years of Bush energy policies, and high food prices are the result of Bush economics. The fact that we are less safe is the result of Bush foreign policy. And John McCain has been right on board with all of those policies and wants to continue them.
YDS: What did you think of Hillary's speech?
SB: Well, I thought Hillary's speech was uplifting. She did everything that she needed to do. And she is a good warrior, a good trooper, and a total team player. I think she is going to be very helpful in Ohio, a place that she won. She'll be helpful everywhere in the nation, actually.
YDS: Now, the theme tonight is national security, securing our nation, and tonight we're going to hear from Bill Clinton and Joe Biden. I wonder what you're hoping to hear and looking forward to hearing tonight?
SB: I think we'll see two things from Joe Biden. I don't really know what we'll hear from Bill Clinton but I'm sure it will be good. I think what we'll hear from Joe Biden is he'll lay out his experience and his thoughts about foreign policy. I think he's better qualified on foreign policy than perhaps anyone in the country. Second we'll hear about Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is a lot like Canton, a lot like Mansfield. That means that we are going to hear about Joe Biden and his hard-scrabble upbringing. We'll hear about kitchen table issues, middle class issues, because he knows that the middle class is struggling and it's the backbone of the American economy,
YDS: Your friend Bob van de Velde told me the story of how he gave you a lift home from your very first convention back when you were a state representative, and as I recall he said that you hitch-hiked from the freeway exit back into Mansfield.
SB: (laughs) I had forgotten that.
YDS: So you have a long view on Democratic conventions. How do you rank this one?
SB: Well, my first convention was in 1976, when I was a 23-year-old state legislator. I stayed with a friend, a woman and her husband. I don't remember a lot of the convention except that I only got onto the floor once and into the gallery twice. But it was tremendously exciting, we nominated Jimmy Carter. I've been to every convention since, except one when I had a really tough congressional race and I missed the convention because I knew that the votes were not here, they were at home.
But this one is ... the history of this one is exciting. And a majority of American voters are going to do something that they've never done, they're going to vote for an African-American for the highest office in the land. And an awful lot of Ohioans and other Americans have never voted for an African-American for any high office, period.
This is going to be something this year.
YDS: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
SB: Thank you!
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