Impact of Coalgate

The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch site publishes comments from Mark Carey, the President of the Ohio Coal Association on the impact of Obama's "I will bankrupt coal comments".

Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America's coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.

These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like 'I haven't been some coal booster' and 'if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them' are extraordinarily misguided.

Whether or not you agree with Obama or not, the fact remains is that this is how the people invested in coal are reacting. Carrying Ohio and Pennsylvania would be key in many scenarios that give McCain an electoral college victory tomorrow. For McCain, the surfacing of Obama's comments couldn't have come at a better time. Carey doesn't pull any punches.

It's evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state's voters.

Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short- sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation's coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to 'bankrupt' our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.

This theme of different messages to different audiences keeps reoccurring. To Obama supporters, it isn't an issue. They either write it off as "something all politicians do" or welcome it as a much needed snow job on those ignorant red necks from some of those states in the middle. But the reaction in middle America is quite different. Saving your anti-coal comments for interviews in San Francisco doesn't play well with blue collar workers in western Pennsylvania.

Tomorrow, those workers get to respond at the ballot box.