Passengers on Obama’s DC Train Ride Reinforce the Winning Campaign Theme

[firedupdem]

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000003011802

Appealing to the middle class and voters struggling against challenging economic circumstances was a central plank in President-elect Barack Obama ’s winning coalition. The Obama team continues to emphasize that theme with a carefully assembled group of passengers joining him and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on a ceremonial train ride from Philadelphia to the nation’s capital to kick off inauguration weekend.

The guests are drawn heavily from swing states in the Midwest and Mountain West that Obama carried in the election, such as Indiana, Ohio, Nevada and New Mexico. And they represent more than just the geographic diversity of Obama’s political coalition. There is an Army gunner, a lesbian, a single mom, a Mexican immigrant, a Teamsters Union member and a registered Republican, among others.

snip

The inaugural committee says the 18 people it selected are “ordinary Americans” who “represent the vast diversity and different life experiences of the Americans who make up our great country.”

The most familiar figure among the guests on the train may be Lilly Ledbetter, the Goodyear Tire worker from Alabama whose lawsuit against wage discrimination — narrowly thwarted by the Supreme Court in 2007 on the basis of a statutory time limitation — has made her a symbolic figure in the fight over equal pay for women. Ledbetter campaigned for Obama, and her name is attached to a bill passed by the House last week that would make it easier for workers to bring wage discrimination suits. The Senate expects to vote on that legislation next week.

[polmaven]

1. I hope a relative of

Captain Sullenburger is the engineer on the train!