Take a deep breath.  The tanker deal is a nasty mess, McCain looks less like a hero in that fight and more a tool of Northrop-Grumman. And years into this, DOD is several billion and years away from new flying machines. No, it ain't over.

  [Oh, is there a way to eliminate a space between paragraphs when replying, here?]

  But my latest anecdotal evidence gathering junket (a blue collar bar in N. Indiana) provided a rank 'n' file quote: "Nobody who had to bargain for their wage or has a clue what unions have done for this country could support McCain." (I then got a lecture on the "good works" of unions going back to the 30's)

  The person quoted was also a veteran, 50+, white & a guy. When I told him of my un-scientific polling over the past several months (which revealed anti-Obama bias) he claimed "...most of those guys haven't even voted in a long time. Those who do won't admit that they switched to Republicans long ago. But eight years of Bush woke people up and they realize McCain won't be helping the working man."

  Yeah, we'll see...but I don't know if what the president of one union said is any more or less important than my conversations with people punching the clock.  From what I'm hearing and seeing? Obama has a good chance with the "hard working white" voters but the most fertile turf for converting them may not be the factory floor or union hall. Pull up a chair in a tavern, ask what the GOP will do for unions & you'll find few hourly workers who aren't ripe to set bias aside for this election. Oh, it might be good to feign interest in fishing, be up on the latest sports rivalry and not cower when someone ponders if the part-time waitress has 'real' tits...

Judis has been wrong about almost everything since January 4th. If he thinks this matters, it must not.

The New Republic notes the Machinists Union isn't onbard the Hope and Change Express. In the Machinists Union, a predominately blue-collar union, the impression continues to grow that Senator Barack Obama could care less about folks like us. At the plant

  Exurban League wrote "In the Machinists Union, a predominately blue-collar union, the impression continues to grow that Senator Barack Obama could care less about folks like us. At the plant"

  But the Machinists Union (and most others) can't count on the GOP to go to bat for the unions as Republicans have been opposed to nearly every union position. Seems to be a case of wrong-way impressions if anyone thinks McCain is the guy who cares.

  Barack Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Barack Obama believes that employees in many non-unionized sectors should have the right to work together to build stronger and safer workplaces. Barack Obama opposes proposals to roll back protections now granted to workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Barack Obama opposes a national “right to work” bill that would limit union membership.Barack Obama supports the worker protections under the Davis-Bacon Act, which ensures local prevailing wages are paid on federal construction projects and transit employee collective bargaining protections. Barack Obama has fought the Bush NLRB’s efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a co-sponsor of the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act, which will overturn the NLRB's “Kentucky River” trilogy of decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and professional workers as “supervisors” who are not protected by federal labor law. Obama will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.

  What McCain-GOP positions have furthered and will strengthen the cause of unions?  For a century or so they've been anything but a friend.

"Our members feel the economy squeezing their family finances for every last dime, every single week"

So his solution is more ot the same with McCain? As Michael pointed out, this guy hasn't bothered to look up what Obama stands for, he just wants Obama to come and kiss his ring. Doubtless he was a Hillary suppoter still feeling bitter. In one sense it would love for McCain to win as we can then watch what is left of his union whittle away to nothing as the Supreme Court strikes down every Union protection left in America. Then let the idiot say "present" to an empty Union hall the day before it closes, and see who cares at that point.

I'm not saying that the Machinists union is representative, but I do think that Obama has to do more to show he understands the fears of blue collar workers in vulnerable industries (and I'm an Obama supporter).  Living in Michigan, I realize that he may be right to have told the Detroit Econ. Club that the Big 3 should have be building more fuel efficient cars, but it also has a ring of "look, I'm sorry you guys are suffering but I told you so."  He could make the same point, more positively, by talking about ways he would help (research grants) the U.S. industry to transition.

good ol Judis. you don't even have to read the byline.

Oh, good grief. Don't shoot the messenger. IAM's leadership is foolishly holding a grudge dating back to Obama's failure to save an Illinois plant that no elected official could possibly have saved. But that's not John Judis's fault, and I don't read his post as endorsing their views. This is fresh news that I wasn't reading anywhere else.

The IAM knows that they're going to get zero sympathy from the Republicans, who hate unions and want to destroy them. But unions aren't going to get the kind of short-term, chauvinistic "industrial policy" that they dream of from the Democrats either. At least, I hope not, because protectionism, by whatever name, will weaken economic growth in the U.S. We haven't provided job protection for the tens of millions of telephone operators, stenographers, secretaries, and store clerks who have lost their jobs over the past decades. Why should we tax ourselves to help out a few thousand muscle-flexing self-anointed tough guys who want a free ride?

not actually questioning Judis's material, just noticing that he always* finds a bad-news-for-Obama angle or piece of news. maybe a little selection bias on his part?

*okay, I admit he had a post last week that wasn't all bad-news-for-Obama

Do union members really think Obama is worse than McCain? If so, they are idiots. The GOP isn't a friend of unions ,so the IAM should take what it can get. And anyway, Airbus planes will be manufactured by their union brothers, so what's the big deal? (Snark, snark.)