Best In Black:
A night to remember Page C1
Rihanna Teen star…victim…then bigger star Page D1
POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
November 2-8, 2016
michiganchronicle.com
Volume 80 – Number 8
Up close and personal with
Tim Kaine By Roz Edward Managing Editor
Tim Kaine walked into the Taylor fire station on Sunday, Oct. 30, full of enthusiasm and vigor, his hand extended to offer a heartfelt Midwestern handshake to as many of the Clinton/Kaine supporters gathered there as he could. He introduced himself simply as “Tim.” Although this grueling last leg of the political campaign trail had taken a toll on his voice, he remained committed to assuring and answering the questions of supporters. Hillary Clinton’s choice to serve as her vice president, and the Democratic senator from Virginia, is an affable, confident and earnest man. He’s kind of like the guy next door who offers to rake your leaves in the fall, or better yet, shovel your driveway in the winter. The heralded civil rights attorney is a proud product of his
WHAT’S INSIDE
Why Proposal B is so important See page C-7
Midwestern upbringing, full of that salt-of-the-earth charm who doesn’t boast about his long list of accomplishments, choosing instead to focus his comments on the plight of the average American. Kaine is not by any means the non-descript, meek guy from Virginia that some have tried to portray him as. He is acutely aware of the issues, introspective and extraordinarily well-informed on what matters to voters in Wayne County and Michigan. Following UAW Region 1A Director Rory L. Gamble’s passionate introduction, Kaine began his 45-minute speech by thanking Wayne County Executive Warren Evans for being a key player in making sure Detroiters were informed and prepared to bring the Clinton-Kaine dream to fruition. “We are in Wayne County and your exec, Warren Evans,
has really done a super job with this campaign,” he said. And while a small contingent of Trump supporters gathered just outside the rally, inside political dignitaries told Clinton-Kaine campaign supporters that the upcoming election would be one of the most important in history. “I usually don’t call a race the big one unless I’m on the ballot,” quipped Sen. Debbie Stabenow. "But I feel like everything is on the ballot here. My children, my grandbabies, Taylor, Detroit, Michigan and everything we care about is on the ballot.” Kaine, bolstered by the show of love from working class union members and political elites, took his queue and launched into issues from voter suppression to prison reform to the email debacle, without breaking stride or barely even taking a breath.
“I know most of you were surprised, stunned and puzzled last week when the FBI put out a letter on Friday, months after concluding an extensive, massive, multilevel investigation, that there would be no further investigation, that 11 days before the election this gets introduced as a distraction,” he said. Kaine urged supporters to remain focused on the campaign and the election, adding that FBI Director James Comey’s bizarre decision to reignite the email controversy fire had re-energized Clinton-Kaine supporters who were suspicious and outraged by his deplorable tactics. Sen. Kaine granted the Michigan Chronicle an exclusive interview during his stop in the metro area and the candidate was nothing less than candid. On the email debacle “There are two protocols in the justice department. One,
VOTE
you don’t talk about pending investigations, and second, you don’t release information that could be politically sensitive right before an election. It’s unprecedented. Why would you violate two pretty clear Justice Department protocols?” The effect on the campaign “In the three areas of data that we can quantify, we are seeing tremendous energy and enthusiasm. For the first time in history more than 200 million people in the country are registered to vote right now, and more than 50 million of them are under age 34. So we are not going to get distracted by this, we are just going to power through and make the comparison between what a Hillary Clinton presidency would look like and what a Donald Trump presidency would look like.”
Proudest accomplishment
See TIM
KAINE page A-6
The Michigan Chronicle Like most of you, we will be absolutely thrilled when this election is over, but we should all be fully aware that it’s not over yet. And until it’s over, none of us can afford to ease up on the gas. This is shaping up to be the most significant presidential election of modern times, and when you stir in the local issues that are at stake here in Detroit and the surrounding region, there is zero excuse not to make it to the polls and vote if you have not already done so. Nationally, despite all the recent sound and fury surrounding Hillary Clinton’s emails, hacked or otherwise, the choice is still as clear as it ever was to anyone paying attention. Donald Trump is not Mitt Romney nor is he John McCain, the two most recent Republican candidates for the presidency who lost (definitively) to President Barack Obama. Both Romney and McCain were legitimate choices, even if they were clearly the wrong choices. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the nation. Not only is Hillary Clinton not a threat to the nation, she is easily the most qualified candidate to seek the presidency in more than half a century. And if there’s anything this country needs right now, it’s qualified leadership. It’s a choice between madness and reason. Simple as that. Locally, Detroiters will be weighing in on three extremely important issues: choosing seven representatives to advocate for the education of their children as members of the Detroit School Board; whether or not to approve a millage to fund a much-needed regional mass transportation system; and which version of a proposed
$1.00
See VOTE page A-6