After going door to door in a morning Unity Walk in Concord surrounded by campaign workers from his former Democratic primary rivals, John Garamendi spent the late afternoon answering questions and talking to people in Concord’s Crossing area.
Just as the morning event featured Joan Buchanan cheering on the Democratic team, Garamendi was joined by Mark DeSaulnier in the evening that bolstered the wide spread support for Garamendi in the General Election.
When Garamendi was asked what were the salient differences between his campaign and Republican David Harmer, he quickly listed off:
1. The Republicans are the party of “no, no and more no”
2. They are trying everything they can to embarrass the President
3. Harmer wants to privatize Social Security
4. Harmer is opposed to public education and wrote a book about ending public education
5. Harmer’s idea of Gun Control is that you can own anything you want and mount a 50 caliber machine gun on your lawn
6. Harmer and the Repubicans are opposed to government health care
7. They want to extend the Bush Tax cuts
Education and Health Care dominated the questions of the evening with Garamendi making strong points on the need for further support, not cuts in Education.
He supports modification of No Child Left Behind to a system of meaningful action to keep kids in school.
Another issue that Garamendi addressed was oil, stating that California is the only place in the world that gives it away for free and that Texas uses the oil industry to help finance the University system.
On Iraq which he called “an unbelievable mistake,” Garamendi said withdrawal is proper and he supports the President there.
In Afghanistan, he hopes that the recent Taliban attack on the Pakistan Military Headquarters will be a turning point in getting the Pakistanis focused on destroying the Taliban on their side of the border, and that the issues there are tied up with whether the Afghan people will rise to the challenge of the Taliban.
