DeFede Columns

Barack Obama Does Florida

After A Campaign Drought, Obama Returns To Florida

Obama's Messages Was In Competition With Visits From Clinton, McCain

Obama Goes One-On-One With Jim DeFede

MIAMI (CBS4) ― Florida, Barack.

Barack, Florida.

The past week felt like one long introduction between Florida voters and Barack Obama.

Call it The 2008 Barack Obama Re-Introduction Tour.

Obama hadn't campaigned in the state since August, so his trip this week was intended to give Obama a little face time with various groups who will be pivotal for him to win over if he hopes to compete in Florida.

On Wednesday he was with voters along the I-4 corridor. Thursday he was schmoozing in Boca Raton, attempting to allay the fears and concerns of Jewish voters. And Friday, he will addressed Hispanics with a speech before the Cuban American National Foundation before ending his Florida sojourn with one of his trademark mega-rallies in Broward intended to whip up the faithful.

Because of the pledge that both he and Hillary Clinton signed early in the race not to campaign in Florida, voters in the Sunshine state haven't had a chance to hear him address issues of particular interest to them.

On Thursday, I interviewed Obama and tried focusing on a few of those issues – a national catastrophic fund to lower the cost of insurance, off-shore drilling, and the home mortgage crisis.

 "I do support setting up a catastrophic insurance fund of some sort," Obama said, "because I think Florida homeowners need relief."

The question, of course, becomes, what does "of some sort" mean. Obama will need to flesh out the details of a plan, but it does mark a contrast with Sen. John McCain, who in January stated emphatically: "I do not support a national catastrophic insurance policy."
 
As the debate on a national cat fund continues, Obama said, "We have to first crack down on insurance companies using loopholes to avoid paying legitimate claims."

In talking about a cat fund, Obama maintained the federal government cannot assume or eliminate all of the risk for homeowners and insurance companies, but he said, "I think for homeowners and small businesses who are already located in Florida and through no fault of their own put in very difficult situations, I think it is important for us to recognize that the federal government has a role to play to make sure they can get the insurance and the protection they need."

In discussing rising gas prices, I noted that there are increasing calls to expand oil production in the United States by drilling in the Arctic as well as off the coast of Florida.
I asked him if he supported such efforts.

"I do not because I don't think we can solve our energy problems by drilling our way out of them," he said. "I think it is much more important for us to invest in alternative energy. It is more important for us to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars and make our economy more efficient as a whole we can save far more oil than we can ever drill out of the ground. And I don't want to see a situation where we see the incredible natural resource that is the Florida coastline potentially damaged."

(McCain has opposed drilling in ANWAR, but said he would be open to the idea of drilling of the Florida coast, but only if it was something the state supported. "I do believe that we should drill for it," McCain said earlier this year. "But I am a federalist and I believe in the rights of states to make those decisions." He went on to say he believes the federal government should offer incentives to states to drill off their coasts.)

Florida is ground zero in the home foreclosure crisis and Obama said the federal government does need to step in and help homeowners.

"I think the most important thing is for us to immediately help stabilize those who are still in their homes," he told me.

Obama has proposed creating a $10 billion home foreclosure prevention fund and allowing the federal government either purchase some loans from lenders or renegotiate existing loans between borrowers and lenders, moving folks away from the dangerous adjustable rate mortgages to fixed rate mortgages.

In those cases, he said, "both borrowers and lenders would have to give up something. Borrowers would have to give up potential capital gains if there was appreciation in the home. And lenders would have to reduce some of the principal to reflect reduced values in property."

"But I think it is important for us to get those negotiations going so we can save as many homes as possible," he added. "Moving forward I have put forward legislation in the past that focuses on predatory lending making sure we have better oversight and better regulation of the mortgage lending process so we don't get more people overextended as we they have in the past."

Finally, I asked Obama if he intended to seriously compete in Florida right through to November.

Some have suggested that because Clinton beat him so badly in the state's January 29 primary, and because he has not fared so well in other contests with older voters, Hispanic voters and Jewish voters – three staples of the Florida electorate – that he might concentrate his time and resources elsewhere in the final weeks and months of the campaign.

"We are going to compete very hard and we are going to win Florida," Obama said. "And we will turn that perception around by campaigning in Florida."

He said he understood that voters supported Clinton, because they were more familiar with her. "Obviously we didn't have the name recognition that was as high as others," he said. "But I would note that even with us not having campaigned in Florida we are in a dead heat with John McCain," he said, apparently referring to a Quinnipiac poll done earlier this year which showed McCain ahead of Obama in Florida 43-42.

"And as I work hard to get my record known in the months ahead," he said, "I'm confident we are going to do very well there."
 

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