KJAM: Obama Supports Rural America

Rapid City Journal: and so does Clinton....

I saw the KJAM headline -- "Obama Supports Rural America" -- and thought I was reading my own blog. But nope, this was our paid local media, KJAM, posting what looked like a pro-Obama editorial. Actually, there's not a lot of boosterism, just a note on ag booster (and former Madisonian) Dallas Tonsager's support for Senator Obama. Tonsager and Dennis Wiese spoke at a forum Monday night in Rapid City to discuss Obama's ag policies. Both Tonsager and Wiese are former presidents of the South Dakota Farmer's Union; Tonsager also served as the USDA's South Dakota Director of Rural Development in the Clinton Administration. Both men are now ag policy advisors to the Obama campaign.

Of course, as Kevin Woster notes, there's not much difference between Obama and Clinton on ag policy:

Like Clinton, Obama supports the development of a permanent disaster-assistance program rather than the ad-hoc programs that critiques say can come too little too late, if at all. Both candidates also support the implementation of mandatory country-of-origin labeling on meat products, more aggressive development of alternative energy supplies, including corn-based ethanol as well as ethanol developed from other natural materials.

Clinton and Obama agree that farm payments should be targeted at family farms rather than large farm corporations, although Wiese said even payments to large farms have benefited rural economies.

“He (Obama) would not believe that the funds that have been spent have been wasted,” Wiese said [Kevin Woster, "Obama Campaign Reaches out to Rural South Dakota: Clinton Offers Similar Agriculture Agenda," Rapid City Journal, 2008.05.12].

So again, not much difference on substantive policy between Obama and Clinton... but, Dennis, Dennis, Dennis: maybe you had some big ranch operators in the audience, but did you really have to defend welfare for rich farmers? You don't help Obama by sounding like a Republican....

Update: But again, don't take my word for it. Read Obama's rural issues brief, then Clinton's rural agenda.