No presidential candidate in history is more out of touch with South Carolina voters than the first-term liberal from Illinois and new Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

 

Over the course of presidential primary season, South Carolina voters met face-to-face with presidential candidates to discuss the issues most important to our state. But Obama neglected to listen to the needs of South Carolinians.

 

Obama cemented his celebrity status on a midsummer world tour. Jet-setting from Baghdad to Berlin, Obama struck priceless poses for paparazzi and played pickup basketball in areas of the world that would have been too dangerous to visit if his own efforts to cut funding for our men and women in uniform had been successful.

 

Obama can deny it, but the troop surge backed by John McCain and South Carolina’s Republican leadership has been successful. Violence is down in Iraq. The country is on track to security and stability. Obama may be proud to stand with radical anti-war liberals who have campaigned against America’s effort to win the war on terror. But men and women in uniform from South Carolina deserve a commander-in-chief like John McCain who is proud to stand with them in the fight to defeat radical Islamic terrorists.

 

As he crisscrossed the world on taxpayer-funded flights, Obama became insulated from the record high gas prices that are affecting South Carolina families and business. Republicans recognize the burden of skyrocketing fuel costs, and they have urged Democrats including Obama to find solutions to high gas prices. But time after time, Obama has said no. He opposed domestic oil drilling. He opposed nuclear energy development. He opposed almost every effort to expand energy production at home.

 

Instead of bringing together leaders from both parties this summer to bring down fuel costs, Obama told South Carolinians to check their tire pressure and get a tune-up before he went body surfing in Hawaii on a vacation. While Obama was on vacation, Republicans worked hard to find real solutions to energy costs. Despite Obama’s absence in leadership, gas prices have come down slightly, but there is still more work to be done -- if the Do-Nothing Democrat Congress will allow a vote on energy legislation this year.

 

Obama saw the American economy slow as he geared up to run for president. In South Carolina, he met small business owners and hardworking parents who asked for meaningful tax relief. Yet, Obama proposes to raise income taxes and payroll taxes and nearly double taxes on capital gains.

 

This year, Obama voted in favor of the Democrats’ FY 2009 budget, which would raise taxes for South Carolinians earning $42,000 or more – one of Obama’s more than 90 votes in favor of higher taxes in the U.S. Senate. Higher taxes equal less money in the pockets of South Carolina families to spend on goods and services throughout the state and less money to stimulate the economy.

 

Earlier this year, Obama insulted thousands of South Carolinians by claiming that working-class voters cling to their religion and guns to feel better when times get tough. If Obama had truly listened to voters he met in South Carolina, he would have known that hardworking South Carolina voters are guided by faith and believe deeply in individual liberty -- from the sanctity of every human life to the right to own firearms. If Obama is elected president, he would have the power to appoint activist judges who share his radical world view. Obama’s judicial appointees would have to pass the MoveOn.org litmus test of upholding abortion on-demand, gay marriage in America and strict gun control.

 

The reality is that Obama is a celebrity who as president will be the voice of elitists from Hollywood to the Hamptons rather than an advocate for hardworking voters from Summerville to Spartanburg. And South Carolina voters deserve better. Obama will follow in the footsteps of history’s other liberal, out-of-touch presidential hopefuls like Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis and John Kerry to landslide defeat in South Carolina.

 

Katon Dawson is chairman of the S.C. Republican Party.

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