Page 8A — MONDAY, September 1, 2008 Columbia Missourian

McCain: Experience, war in Iraq top issues

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McCain chose Palin, it was not until
Lisic went to the rally that she realized
that was not the case for everyone.
“I heard quite a few people today
say that they were unsure of who they
were voting for until McCain chose
Palin,” she said.
Another crowd member, ­ Randall
Rosales, 19, also relates to Palin.
“She reminds me of my mom, who
is a strong working woman who would
fight for me,” he said.
Rosales sees Palin as a strong politi-
cian who can relate to working-class
Americans and the average American
family.
A student at St. Louis University,
Rosales went to the rally with a few
friends who planned to meet up with
the SLU College Republicans, a group
of about 20 students.
The SLU College Republicans were
among many groups at the rally, includ-
ing Missouri Women for John McCain,
Democrats for John McCain, Sports-
men for John McCain, Americans of
Faith for John McCain and Veterans
for John McCain. Each group had
tables set up with information about Supporters
its cause. of Sen. John
Although the crowd was made up McCain
of a diverse group of people, most cheer
agreed on several issues as of high during
importance.
Alaska
Experience was a key issue to many
people in the crowd who felt the Dem-
Gov. Sarah
Palin’s
ocratic nominee, Barack Obama, is
lacking. speech in
O’Fallon.
Among other issues important to
McCain’s supporters at the rally JOSHUA A.
were the war in Iraq and national
BICKEL
Missourian
security.
John Estill, a 38-year-old veteran,
is among the people who feel strongly
about these issues.
“I feel I can relate to McCain on
personal level because of his military
experience,” Estill said. “I find it hard
to relate to Obama, just because he
hasn’t been there.”
Although the people felt passion-
ately about the candidates and the
issues, the final chant of the night was
not for John McCain or Sarah Palin,
but “Open the gates!” The crowd was
ready to head home and get out of the
heat but was not allowed to leave until
McCain was back on the bus.

Obama: Gives hope of future success to many others

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to integrated Ridgeway Elemen-
tary.
Naylor and her husband
expressed what many of
Columbia’s black residents say
they’re feeling at this historic
moment: pride and joy. From
the older generation who grew
up in segregated schools to the
younger generation who have
been excited by Obama’s mes-
sage, many have been enthused
by a black man with sound poli-
cies, they say.
Lavita Higgs, a 28-year-old
student and excited supporter
of Obama, said she didn’t think
she’d ever see a black man
reach as high an achievement
as Obama has. Higgs watched
Obama’s acceptance speech
with two friends, including Tau-
sha Hall, 28. The watch party of
three mimicked the enthusiasm
of the 84,000 who packed Inves-
co Field at Mile High on Thurs-
day night for Obama’s speech.
Hall and friends cheered “like
it was a basketball game,” with
occasional chants of “change,
change we can believe in.”
They sat glued to the televi-
sion hanging on his every word,
excited not only for the change
Obama promised, but for the
change he represented to them.
“I can tell my kids, ‘just
because you’re black, it doesn’t
mean you can’t be president,’”
Hall said. “It’s something that
can be done.”
Exactly 45 years before
Obama’s acceptance speech,
Martin Luther King Jr. deliv-
ered his famed “I Have a
Dream” speech at Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C.
King, too, called for a change
on that day, Aug. 28. He hoped
for a country that didn’t judge
based on race but on character.
“We have been gradually
trying to reach the fulfillment
of that dream,” said Arvarh
Strickland, the first black pro-
fessor at MU. “This nomination
has been a giant step in that
direction.”
Strickland, 78, like King,
grew up in Mississippi. Strick-
land also attended and taught at
segregated schools.
“When all of this started to
happen, it was just basically
unbelievable to me,” he said.
William Robertson, 73, a
retired MU professor who pre-
viously worked with troubled
youth in Chicago, also watched
Obama’s speech but with appre-
hension.
“I was praying every min-
ute of the time that something
didn’t happen to him,” he said.
“I wanted it to go well, and I
also wanted him to come out
alive.”
Eliot Battle, 83, also experi-
enced segregated schools. He
was the assistant principal at
Douglass School for four years
before integration. His eyes
welled up listening to Obama,
he said.
“I never would have thought
that I would have the oppor-
tunity to see such a thing take
place,” he said.
Barber Mike Hill, 41, said he
thinks Obama, as a presidential
candidate, has transcended the
issue of race to be a candidate
for all people.
“What I like about the whole
presidential race is it’s not about
race,” Hill said outside Unitee
Barber Shop in north Colum-
bia. “It’s about who’s the better
candidate, and I think Barack
would be a better-suited presi-
dent.”
“It’s like the dream. I think
(Martin Luther King’s) dream
has been fulfilled, even though
he’s not here to see it.”
And Naylor, like Hill and
many other black residents, said
she is not voting for Obama just
because of the color of his skin.
“It’s his policy that draws me
to him,” Naylor said. “He is the More
voices
only person I think who can
make a difference in the way
the country is going.”
She said she has confidence in
Obama’s diplomacy skills. She
also thinks Obama’s economic
plan is suited to help those strug- “I’ve never voted, but I’m voting
gling in the waning economy.
In his speech, Obama prom-
this year because of Obama.”
ised to cut taxes for 95 percent Vicki Freelon
of working families. He also
proposed to invest $150 billion
over 10 years in wind and solar
power and biofuels to reduce “The majority of blacks
dependence on foreign oil.
Hall, a homemaker and moth- I know are pulling for
er of three, worries about the
rising cost of living. She has him.”
never voted, but she’s ready to Dennis Coats
now.
“I think it’s important more
now than ever for me and my
children,” she said.
Naylor thinks Obama’s suc-
cess is inspirational and hopes it “I don’t see it so much as an
will resonate with black youth.
“It gives young black males
issue of black and white as much
an opportunity to look at some- as an issue of good integrity and
one that is successful and looks
like them,” Naylor said. “I think relating to the common people.”
it builds self-esteem and makes Mike Hill
you think anything is possible.”

Health: Hulshof willing to negotiate on details of health plan

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The math would work like
this:
n The state would pay $50
million from its general rev-
enues, attracting a match of an
estimated $82 million in federal
money, to subsidize the premi-
ums of low-income Missouri-
ans.
n An additional $23 million in
state tax incentives would go to
those Missourians a step high-
er on a yet-undefined income
scale.
n Participants would be
expected to pay about $11 mil-
lion in co-payments for their
health care.
n A user fee for HealthMAX
participants would generate
about $5 million.
That still leaves $419 mil-
lion to be covered somehow.
Hulshof’s campaign says the
bulk of that would come by
redirecting money the state
currently pays hospitals for
treating the uninsured. The
remainder would be covered
by expected growth in hospital
taxes.
As background: Hospitals
pay the state a tax equal to
about 5.5 percent of their net
revenues from patients, insur-
ers and the government-funded
Medicaid and Medicare pro-
grams. Last year, that amount-
ed to $864 million.
The state uses that to draw
down additional federal money
through the Medicaid pro-
gram. Last year, Missouri got
$1.2 billion.
Most of that pool of money is
then paid back to hospitals for
treating Medicaid patients or
the uninsured.
Last year, hospitals got $492
million for providing care to
the uninsured — money known
in government-talk as “dis-
proportionate share hospital”
money, or DSH payments.
Blunt sought to redirect $159
million of such money to his
Insure Missouri plan of govern-
ment-subsidized health insur-
ance. His plan also would have
directed an assumed growth
of $189 million in hospital tax
revenues to Insure Missouri.
Hulshof’s plan lacks such
specifics. But if Hulshof were
to bank on a similar tax growth
as Blunt did, he would be left
to redirect $230 million from
hospitals’ uninsured payments
to his new HealthMAX pro-
posal.
Daniel Landon, the Missouri
Hospital Association’s senior
vice president of governmental
relations, said Hulshof’s cam-
paign never discussed with the
organization how much money
it wants to redirect.
“Obviously, we are going to
be interested in ensuring that
as DSH payments are reduced,
there is a directly propor-
tional increase in the amount
of people who are covered by
insurance,” Landon said. “So
we don’t end up using all of our
uninsured money to cover a
small number of people.”
Hulshof projects that his
subsidies and tax incentives
could help provide insurance to
about 200,000 of the more than
700,000 Missourians now lack-
ing it. He hopes the program
would be such a good deal
that the remaining 500,000
would choose to buy insurance
through it on their own.
Nixon’s plan is geared at
restoring Medicaid coverage
to an estimated 110,000 who
lost it as a result of Republican
cuts in 2005 and at reversing
the benefit reductions made to
several hundred thousand oth-
ers. He also wants to give the
families of 150,000 children
without insurance the option of
being covered through a gov-
ernment-run health care pro-
gram.
But Nixon takes a different
approach from Hulshof. Nixon
proposes to spend $265 million
annually in general state rev-
enues, which would draw down
an additional $431 million in
federal Medicaid money. His
plan doesn’t depend on shifting
any of the uninsured payments
away from hospitals.
Republicans cast Nixon’s
plan as risky to taxpayers,
claiming its $265-million hit on
general revenues will become
unaffordable as it grows over
time.
By contrast, Hulshof’s plan
“is a little bit of a risky thing for
hospitals,” said Tim McBride,
a professor in Washington Uni-
versity’s School of Social Work,
who focuses his research on
economics and health policy
and has been an adviser for
Nixon’s campaign.
Hulshof spokesman Scott
Baker says his candidate, if
elected governor, is willing to
negotiate on the details of his
plan.
“This is a proposal that Ken-
ny’s putting forth to further
the discussion,” Baker said.
“That’s what a leader does —
puts out ideas and potential
solutions to the challenges, and
that’s what this is.”