by Kate Langenburg

Created on: November 18, 2008

On October 31, five days before the election, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell visited East Stroudsburg University to show his support for Barack Obama. He presented a spirited speech at a rally just inside the doors of the new Science and Technology Building.

Rendell, who has been Governor for five years, was accompanied by a clique of fellow democratic hopefuls, including state representatives Paul Kanjorski and John Siptroth. Besides the political group, families of the candidates were also in attendance to cheer on their party.

A turnout of about sixty Obama supporters, both young and old, stood by that afternoon as Governor Rendell presented his speech for change. He focused on many of the ongoing obstacles for Obama, such as taxes, redistributing wealth, being blamed for bringing Socialism to our country, and most importantly, what kind of good things he can bring to ESU students.

Governor Rendell dispelled the tax ideas of the McCain/Palin campaign, and promised Pennsylvania residents that everyone's taxes would not be raised by Obama. He reiterated Obama's tax plans, stating that the only people whose taxes would be raised are married couples who earn $250,000 or more per year and single people who earn $200,000 or more per year. Included in this plan, Obama would give tax cuts to every family that earns less than $250,000 per year.

Of course, the issue of redistributing wealth was then raised, towards which Rendell called Republicans "hypocritical" for not wanting it to happen. He spoke of similar redistribution that occurred in the eighties, under Republican President Ronald Reagan, and also of the graduated income tax, which was started by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s.

Senator John McCain was also mentioned as a "hypocrite" because of a statement he made in 2000. Rendell quoted the Republican as saying, "When you reach a certain comfort point in life, there's nothing wrong with having to pay a little more." The Pennsylvania Governor also made reference to his own wealth, and said that under the Bush tax cuts, his life hasn't changed at all.

Rendell dismissed the belief that Obama might bring Socialism to our country as well. He prompted the ESU community to remember back when both Medicare and Social Security were first introduced. He reiterated that many people called those ideas "socialist" at first because they were new and people were afraid of change.

Although he was obviously fed up with all the mudslinging that had

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