(Picture: Schumer and Paterson share a moment at the podium.)
Schumer addressed the crowd first, talking about the farm bill that President Bush will veto after the House and Senate passes the legislation. Schumer said that agriculture was a mission of his and discussed upstate's role in farming. He talked about how he ran in 1998 and he visited western New York and discovered how important of an issue farming was for the people in this area of upstate, as well as many other areas too.
Schumer hinted that there would be enough votes in both houses of Congress to override Bush's veto of the farm bill, but he didn't come out and guarantee that because of uncertainty in the House.
Schumer did outline what is contained in the farm bill before leaving for Washington D.C. You can hear his outline in the video below.
Governor Paterson spoke after Schumer's departure and took questions for about an hour (or more), in my estimation. I do have videos of Paterson speaking and Paterson answering a few of the questions, but those will be up later on today.
The overall event was terrific. According to a few people I spoke to, some of the sentiment was that Paterson and Schumer, who are both from downstate, don't know anything about farming. The claim was that, essentially, New York City Democrats don't know anything about agriculture. I think Schumer proved them wrong (and surprised them) with his introduction. Schumer will admit that when he first entered office, he knew nothing about farming. But he made it an issue of his that he really does care about and one that he focuses on. He has made several trips upstate to educate himself on the issues of agriculture and that showed yesterday.
Paterson, too, showed his knowledge about key agricultural issues and his willingness to listen. Paterson won over a lot of people by just standing there for the length of time he did and listening to the questions farmers had. It was an impressive showing and it was great to see Governor Paterson in Batavia.
Again, Schumer sums up the farm bill in the video below and I will have more video from yesterday's event up later.
(Picture: Schumer and Paterson share a moment at the podium.)
