Obama's road to the White House runs through the West, senators say

By Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 22, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Horace Greeley's "Go West" exhortation is taking on a political tinge on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Convention organizers have finished a 4 1/2-minute welcoming video to kick off the convention Monday night that will emphasize Western politicians, themes and landscapes.

Thursday morning, Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, explained how all roads to the White House must travel through the Western states.

"We have watched in our political careers the balance of power move west of the Mississippi," Reid said. "This election year is a perfect example of why that has happened. The road to the presidency is through the West."

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are targeting Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico as key swing states. It's the reason Democrats moved their caucuses in Nevada up to January and picked Denver to host their convention, Reid said.

The opening-night video will highlight the Democrats' inroads during the past four years, featuring politicians such as Salazar, said Mark Squier, executive producer for the DNC.

"What we attempt to do in the video is take a lot of successful Democrats here in the West and talk about their stories," Squier said. "We clearly have a great story to tell about problem-solving Democrats."

According to recent polls, McCain is neck-and-neck with Obama in Nevada and Colorado, with slight leads within the margins of error. But Salazar and Reid said McCain's lead will be short-lived.

In Colorado, McCain has benefited from millions of dollars of what Salazar called "slash-and- burn" television ads that are "distorting his record."

And even though McCain is from Arizona and Obama from the Midwest, Salazar and Reid maintained that the Democrat better reflects Western values.

"Barack Obama doesn't wear cowboy boots; he doesn't wear a cowboy hat, because it doesn't look right," Reid said. "But Barack Obama really identifies with people whether they are in Hawthorne, Nev., Elko, Nev., or Las Vegas."

Salazar said he believes two votes epitomize the candidates' different approaches to the West. McCain voted against the farm bill and tax credits for renewable energy, while Obama supported both.

"The question is which of the two is more in touch with the issues of the West. The verdict is easy that it's Barack Obama," Salazar said.

But Bill Riggs, regional press secretary for the Republican National Commmittee, said Obama's support of both pieces of legislation shows he is out of touch with Western voters.

"The Obama campaign doesn't like to reference their candidate's record, but it's fitting that they chose a bill loaded with wasteful pork-barrel spending to desperately repackage Obama's weak Washington leadership to Western voters," Riggs said.

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