Published: April 12, 2008 11:27 pm            

MARK BENNETT: Indiana matters: But where have the politicians been the past four decades?

TERRE HAUTE — While listening to Barack Obama’s closing words, I realized the rarity of my experience.

I’ve seen and heard, in person, the next president of the United States. I’m not referring to just Obama, who may well become that person. In February, at an Indianapolis office building, I saw Republican Sen. John McCain give an increasingly conservative blueprint for his presidential aspirations. In March, I watched Sen. Hillary Clinton work the crowds inside and outside Terre Haute’s Saratoga Restaurant, pitching herself for the Democratic Party nomination. Friday night inside a jammed Terre Haute North High School gym, Obama told me, and 2,700 other Hauteans, how his presidency would change America.

As Obama’s speech ended, he told the throng, “I will spend every day I’m in the White House thinking about you, and hearing your voices.”

One of these three people will replace George Bush in November, thank goodness. Each (McCain to a far lesser degree) got a chance to meet and hear Hoosiers’ voices.

Unfortunately, that circumstance is a fluke. I felt unappreciative, maybe downright selfish when that thought ran through my mind later Friday. Usually, it’s the other way around. I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy. Bitterness belongs in strong coffee and good beer, for me. Life’s too short for self-induced ulcers.

But the euphoria surrounding visits to Terre Haute and our neighboring Indiana towns by presidential candidates, their spouses, children, advisers and supportive Hollywood actors pushes me to pose a potentially cranky question …

Where the heck have they been the past four decades?

Plenty of my fellow Hauteans and Hoosiers have, sincerely, asked me, “Isn’t it great that we matter this time?”

Why, yes, it is. And isn’t it sad that it took a perfect storm of a campaign to lure the Democratic frontrunners here? If their party’s race had produced a clear frontrunner in mid-February, just as the Republicans’ did, this town wouldn’t have seen a stumping candidate unless their campaign bus blew a radiator hose near the I-70 exit.

Except for scattered fundraising stops and some sporadic campaign visits, both parties have largely taken Indiana for granted since the 1960s. Our primary is traditionally an afterthought because of its late May date. As for our role in the general elections, the Republicans accurately presume they’ll win our electoral votes, and, thus, the Democrats write us off as an unwinnable red state. So why would they bother with Indiana?

Now, though, Obama, Clinton and their entourages are everywhere.

The first visit to Indiana of 2008 by the Democrats produced a telling comment, when Clinton decided to kick off her Hoosier campaign in the The Saratoga. As her host, Sen. Evan Bayh, explained, Clinton chose that eatery in hopes of meeting “some regular” Hoosiers.

Regular Hoosiers.

With apologies to residents of the other 49 wonderful states, our national leaders would be wise to seek out and listen to “regular Hoosiers” on a regular basis.

Who are regular Hoosiers?

People who can handle hard work. Indiana leads the nation in manufacturing, in terms of job numbers and factories.

We’ve got the most productive workers in the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry, according to the Milliken Institute’s statistics.

Our farmers grow the fourth-largest amount of soybeans and the fifth-largest amount of corn in the nation.

Hoosier colleges and universities train 336,000 students every year in a state with a population of 6.1 million.

Indiana is the state that has sent to Iraq its largest deployment of National Guard troops since World War II.

We’re the home of statesmen the rest of the country turns to for pragmatic advice, leadership and voices of reason, such as former congressman Lee Hamilton and Sen. Richard Lugar. What if President Bush had listened in the summer of 2007, when Lugar told the U.S. Senate, “The costs and risks of continuing down the current path [in Iraq] outweigh the potential benefits that might be achieved”? What if the White House took the advice of Hamilton and the Iraq Study Group to insist upon greater accountability from the Iraqi government?

We grow talent here, too, from author Kurt Vonnegut to social justice icon Eugene Debs, television great David Letterman, NASCAR ace Tony Stewart, and basketball heroes John Wooden, Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson. If Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain sat down and chatted with Coach Wooden for an hour, that would be the most meaningful 60 minutes of their entire campaigns. Guaranteed.

Yes, the chance to see, hear and meet Sens. Obama and Clinton, as well as former President Bill Clinton, is a fascinating opportunity for all of us in Indiana. President Clinton, pulling up with his motorcade to see his wife’s fire-damaged local headquarters on South Third Street on Friday morning, provided a surreal experience for a few surprised onlookers. A crowd of nearly 1,000 in the parking lot behind the Saratoga cheered Hillary and Bayh. And more than 2,000 Hauteans, many awestruck supporters, listened to Obama speak.

The candidates are taking time to learn about our difficulties here, such as our highly productive work force ranking a lowly 44th in the U.S. in personal income growth. Incomes here average $33,616 per capita — 13 percent below the national average.

They are committing so much time and effort to us for obvious reasons. The Democratic candidates are locked in a rare, close duel for the party’s presidential nomination, and they need our votes, this time. By contrast, McCain has the Republican nomination sewn up, even if Indiana somehow miraculously gave all of its GOP primary votes to persistent longshot Ron Paul. That’s why McCain isn’t canvassing the state like the Democrats.

Unless America adopts a new primary system, with a rotation giving each region of the country a turn to cast early votes, this captivating moment in Indiana politics will become just one of those stories we tell our grandkids. Scrapbook material.

“Remember back in ’08, when we mattered?”

Todd Nation, a Terre Haute city councilman, opened Friday’s Obama event by telling the crowd, “This is a time we’re never going to forget. We’re standing in the path of history.” He’s right.

You have to wonder when presidential history will pass this way again, if ever. Friday’s crowd included an amazing number of young people, from elementary to college ages. Will they be grandparents the next time a presidential hopeful does some homework on their state’s situation and pays us a visit?

In their visits, McCain, Clinton and Obama all acknowledged the high stakes young Americans have in this election. Obama nailed that point best. He addressed skepticism as to how the nation could fund some of his plans for education, rejuvenating the nation’s infrastructure and health care — all topics that specifically touch the youthful. “If we can spend $10 billion a month in Iraq, we can spend [instead] $10 billion a month right here in America rebuilding our economy,” he said.

Hoosiers, young and old, deserve to be heard, and they haven’t taken the state’s rare chance for granted. People in coffee shops, schools, bars and workplaces are talking about the issues. We’ve registered to vote in record numbers in many of the state’s counties. When a candidate comes to a town, people find a way to get there. Likewise, Indiana — the Crossroads of America — has plenty of two-way streets, and politicians who want to be our president should find their way here more often.

For now, we should savor our 15 minutes of fame, before life gets back to normal.



Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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