"Economic Choices 2008" - Battelground Pennsylvania
Tuesday, October 21, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: In this election year, the traditional talk about red and blue states is being colored by dramatic developments; the financial crisis and economic downturn are scrambling the political map. To find out how, tonight we begin a three-part look at some battleground states. Washington bureau chief Darren Gersh takes us to Pennsylvania to see how voters are evaluating their economic choices just two weeks before the election.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Dave Garretson's office rolls through some of the most beautiful countryside you've ever seen.
DAVE GARRETSON, OWNER, BEECHWOOD ORCHARDS: That's one of the original trees my grandfather planted, that chestnut tree.
GERSH: By the standards of corporate farming, this fruit farm is a small operation. It's been helped this year by rising fuel and shipping costs, which have taken some of the shine off apples from China and Washington state. Ask Garretson about the economy and he says he's doing all right, but he's not feeling great about it.
GARRETSON: I don't think anybody's happy. The only thing people are a little bit happy about is that gas prices have come down. I imagine people will lose jobs. It's just not a good situation.
GERSH: If you come to Garretson's land on the fourth of July, you'd be able to see the fireworks at Gettysburg. This is the heart of Republican Pennsylvania, the kind of rural county John McCain must win if he hopes to take the state. This is a pretty traditional community. Not many people here got carried away building big homes or speculating on Wall Street. But even here, the economy is a concern. And the question is not so much whether they want change, but who they trust to bring about that change. While Garretson is worried Obama may be too inexperienced, this farmer now seems to be leaning Democratic.
GARRETSON: I think people are more undecided than they've ever been - I don't think, I'd say almost everywhere. I just don't think that people will vote as straight party as they used to. There's a lot of thought. Nobody is sure what to do.
GERSH: We were in Pennsylvania as the crisis on Wall Street seemed to hit its peak, but we didn't find any panic here, just anger. At the 7-11 down the road from Garretson's farm, McCain is leading in the cup poll, but he is behind with Lillian Vagus.
LILLIAN VAGUS, OBAMA SUPPORTER: You know the Dow Jones is going down and I believe that a lot of it is because of deregulation. And that I blame on the Republicans, for the most part.
GERSH: Lillian's sister Sharon Weaver is visiting from Illinois. She says she just doesn't trust her home-state senator, so she's going for McCain.
SHARON WEAVER, MCCAIN SUPPORTER: And by the way, the economy may be bad, but my investments have remained steady clear across. I haven't lost anything yet. Yet!
GERSH: Like most voters here, Richard Price is a Republican. He works as a surveyor. He's seen the construction industry take a hit. And he's not happy with McCain.
RICHARD PRICE, OBAMA SUPPORTER: I just think it's just time for a change in Washington and I think Obama would give us a better chance for a change than somebody who's worked so closely with the Bush administration for eight years.
GERSH: You might expect, given everything that's happened on Wall Street and the recession that seems to be taking hold on Main Street, that voters would bypass angry and head straight for cynical. But Dave Garretson hasn't, even though his monthly IRA statement just arrived.
GARRETSON: Lose more money in a month than you make in a year, but it doesn't concern me. I have faith in the government. I have faith that something will get done; they'll bail it out. As a whole, I have faith.
GERSH: Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Biglerville, Pennsylvania.
GHARIB: Tomorrow, "Economic Choices" continues with a look at how the bailout is playing at a coffee house in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The FBI is investigating a series of threatening letters sent to branches of Chase bank in nine states. The letters contain some kind of white powder, which appears to be harmless. The Feds believe the letters were all sent from the same source in southern Texas. They were mailed to Chase branches in or near large cities, including Chicago, Dallas, New York, and Washington, DC.
