Southside needs more than Obama's hope

In his visits to the mill towns of rural America and the Rust Belt's faded factories, Barack Obama has drawn throngs of anxious people eager to hear from someone promising economic revival.

His trip to Martinsville was no different. The city is ground zero in a low-skill manufacturing region that's been decimated in the last decade. Obama held an invitation-only meeting with residents who have lost jobs to outsourcing, including 400 layoffs at a furniture plant announced last month.

Obama's message resonates with the men and women on the losing end of globalization. He blames free trade policies and the Bush administration for their troubles, and he criticizes agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he pledges to renegotiate.

It would be unfair to accuse Obama of pandering, because his political stump speeches reflect his voting record in the U.S. Senate. However, he would better serve Martinsville residents by offering them an honest assessment of what he can do to help them prosper in a global economy that cannot and should not be fenced in by protectionist policies.

Obama's companion on his trip to Martinsville, Senate candidate Mark Warner, should serve as a valuable guide and a model for offering realistic help instead of false hopes. Warner believes in free trade and has never backtracked on his embrace of globalization, but Southsiders view him as an ally who did not forget them when he was elected governor. When the Pillowtex plant closed in 2003, Warner was there in person to mobilize unemployment assistance and arrange for federal retraining grants.

With his numerous visits, he kept a spotlight on the region that helped spur investment, jobs and ideas to help it adapt to, and better compete in, a demanding global economy. He also secured funding for Martinsville's New College Institute, just now getting off the ground, which offers college degrees through partnerships with state universities, such as Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, Longwood and Radford.

Warner's opponent in the Senate race, former Gov. Jim Gilmore, has never recovered politically from the grudge left behind by his refusal to support increased unemployment assistance when the Tultex textile plant closed in 2000. Yet, that criticism obscures an enduring benefit Gilmore's administration left: He earmarked half of the proceeds from an historic U.S. settlement with tobacco companies for economic development in Southside and Southwest.

That deal has generated $432 million for more than 900 revitalization projects, including the installation of 1,600 miles of fiber-optic cable for high-speed Internet access, a communications backbone that will be essential to the area's eventual return to health.

Despite all of those efforts, economic gloom persists in Southside. Martinsville had the highest unemployment rate in the state in June, at 11.4 percent. Population continues to decline in the region, wages lag behind the rest of the state and education levels are unacceptably low.

A review panel led by former Gov. Gerald Baliles recently urged state leaders to funnel a larger portion of aid into education initiatives, emphasizing that a healthy economy rests primarily on the presence of a well-trained workforce. The report would be a worthwhile read for Obama as well. It calls for increased financial aid and career counseling, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math. It also urges more programs for adults to obtain a General Education Diploma and new job skills.

Real salvation for Southside Virginia cannot come from the revival of an old economy dependant on tobacco, knitting mills and wood furniture. The region must find its niche in the new global economy. That's the kind of change Obama should be preaching in Martinsville.