People keep talking about change, Raimondo says, and he’s the one who knows how to make change happen. He points to his leadership in a management buyout of Behlen in the 1980s amid two years of $7 million losses as evidence.
"You talk about change. We had to totally change production in some business units and change the market that product went into. We had to change cultures."
"We don’t talk change, we do it," Raimondo says.
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Raimondo gets serious when he talks about people struggling with economic downturn and farmers in western Nebraska who are disappointed in Washington.
"If we’re going to help working people, we’ve got to take the squeeze off small and medium-sized businesses," Raimondo says.
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"Mike’s Washington experience is not going to be an asset with the changes in Washington," Raimondo says. "I just believe with a passion that my experience is what we need."
On health care, Raimondo says a national health care plan — such as expanding Medicare to let people buy in at subsidized levels — needs to be considered.
"Portability is so important. People don’t need to worry about pre-existing conditions when they change jobs," Raimondo says.
Insurance companies are finally realizing they need to be part of the solution, he says.
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"I probably won’t satisfy the far right or left," says Raimondo, who supports Democrat Barack Obama. "It’s the in-between."
