Pauley vouching for Obama today
Former NBC journalist will host panels in Michigan City, Chesterton.

INDIANAPOLIS - Jane Pauley, a supporter of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and former co-host of NBC's Today and Dateline, is scheduled to stop in Michigan City this afternoon.

Pauley also will moderate "Change We Need" panel discussions in Chesterton, West Lafayette and South Bend on the "economic challenges" and the U.S. presidential candidate's plan to rebuild the economy.

Purdue University economics professor David Hummels will join Pauley. He is also a member of the Obama-Biden Economic Advisory Group. Local officials will also be on hand for each forum.

Pauley, a native of Indiana, will stop by the Michigan City at the Campaign for Change Office. There, she is kicking off a phone bank.

Pauley worked for 13 years as on NBC's Today.

The "Change We Need" Economic Forum schedule is 12:30 p.m. in Chesterton at USW 6787, 1100 N. Max Mochal Highway and at 2:30 p.m., the phone bank kickoff with Pauley will take place in Michigan City at Campaign for Change Office, 1916 E. U.S. 20.

Reporting for Obama
Hoosier Jane Pauley spends time in Michigan City promoting Dem. nominee.

TRAIL CREEK - Although millions of Americans remember her as a journalist and one of the hosts of NBC's "The Today Show" from 1976 to 1989, Jane Pauley said few people remember her term as governor.

That was in 1967, between her junior and senior years in high school in Indianapolis, when she was governor of Hoosier Girls State for a few days. The native Hoosier spoke of that time as she talked to volunteers and backers of Barack Obama's presidential campaign on Monday.

In Trail Creek, she spoke to about 40 volunteers at the Obama Campaign for Change headquarters in Evergreen Plaza. Her appearance coincided with the kickoff of the Obama phone bank at the headquarters.

Pauley also appeared in Burns Harbor at the United Steel Workers of America Local 6787. She was scheduled to speak in South Bend and West Lafayette, where she was to address economic issues.

After her stint with "The Today Show," Pauley also worked on NBC's "Dateline" program and hosted her own talk show, also on NBC.

Joking aside, Pauley said it wasn't difficult to switch from journalist to political activist.

"I've been out of television for long enough now," she said. "I would never have (worked for a candidate) when I was a journalist," she said.

Pauley said when she last visited NBC, she had to get a visitor's pass just like everyone else. "And they spelled my name incorrectly."

Like nearly everyone, Pauley says she is occasionally angered by the media and political reporting.

"Sometimes I go home and throw shoes at the television," she confessed.

About the campaign, she said, "I did volunteer. The Obama camp did not seek me out."

Pauley says she grew up in a middle-class family. Her dad was a traveling salesman and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. It was a time, she said, when it was possible to put two daughters through Indiana University with no loans.

She is disappointed with Indiana's high drop-out rate. A Rand study, she said, found that Indiana ranks 30th among the states for enlistments in the Armed Forces. That's not because Hoosier young people are less patriotic than are other Americans.

They simply cannot meet the qualifications. Too many young people lack a high school diploma or its equivalent, she said.

"I was the beneficiary of a good education," she said, pointing out that she was growing up during a time in which the Russian Sputnik inspired nearly all Americans to place renewed emphasis on education.

She also touched on the recent economic meltdown.

"What happened on Wall Street we can liken to a Category 5 hurricane," Pauley said.

She quoted Republican presidential candidate John McCain who said fundamentals of the economy were strong, an observation she called "180-degrees catastrophically wrong."

At this point, she said, "Wall Street just doesn't exist."



Contact Deborah Sederberg at dsederberg@thenewsdispatch.com.