Arkansas Democratic Spokesperson On Obama’s “Southern Strategy”

Democratic Party of Arkansas spokesperson Candace Martin was on KARN newsradio this morning from the DNC in Charlotte and had the difficult task of promoting the re-election of President Obama in a state he is likely to lose by double digits.

After spending several minutes with host Bob Steel going on and on about how great President Clinton’s speech was, co-host Gina Martin finally injected some questions about this year’s nominee.

“The President and his campaign have a very deliberative plan regarding the South,” said Martin when asked if Obama had given up on Arkansas. “We are here in North Carolina  and that is a true testament to that Southern strategy that they are working on. In the state of Arkansas and in every state in the country, the President has opened a statewide office which shows he has a commitment not to one state, but to all fifty states to show that he wants to concentrate on each one of us to move us forward.”

She went on to offer praise for Obama ahead of his acceptance speech saying, “President Obama is an incredibly dynamic and gifted speaker in addition to doing actual work and carrying out an agenda and putting forth policies that will get our economy back on track… making sure that we are helping businesses succeed and giving them the tools that they need to grow – not only for larger industries to attract economic development, but also to grow small businesses as well.”

Never mind if that agenda does not have support in Arkansas or if those policies have not worked in the last four years.  Martin admits the economy is bad, but puts the blame on President Bush not Obama.

“There is no doubt that we are still among the worst recession that we have seen since the Great Depression because of the dangerous policies that the Bush Administration left us with,” she said.  “That includes not only the very large debt, but also, like I mentioned earlier, the job losses we were facing under his administration. Those things can be righted and we need to continue the progress with President Obama to see that that happens and that is exactly what he is working to do.”