WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Change has been the catch-word of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign since it began 15 months ago, and today he reiterated that message before a sold-out and energized crowd at
UNCW's Trask Coliseum.
"We can't afford four more years of George Bush," he said to thunderous applause, standing before a large banner with the words "Change We can Believe In."
"We can't afford four years of John McCain."
In his first campaign stop in Southeastern North Carolina, Obama received his loudest applause when he stridently reiterated his opposition to the ongoing war in Iraq.
"I voted against it in 2002," he said, the rumble of the applause already starting, "I will bring it to an end in 2009."
Obama received strong support from the audience when he promoted his plans to invest in a "green and clean" economy and promote fuel-efficient vehicles, breaking the country's reliance on foreign oil. He also criticized those who questioned where the money for such an initiative would come from.
"If we can spend that money in Iraq, we can spend that money right here," Obama said.
Obama took time to
discuss the economy.
"Everywhere you go people feel like the American dream is slowly slipping away," Obama told a Wilmington crowd. "We just went through the first economic expansion since World War II. The average family income actually went down over the last seven years."
Obama's new populist message started with a direct appeal to the people, saying that in this race he is not against running against Hillary Clinton, but rather running against the very things that have made people's lives hard. (
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/obama-pushes-ne.html)
"I didn't get in this race, to run against Sen. Clinton. I ran to run against unemployment. I ran to run against lack of educational opportunity. I ran to run against lack of health care, and substandard housing and a war that we should not have been fought. That's why I'm running," Obama said and then repeated again, "I'm not running against Sen. Clinton."
"I noticed over the last several weeks, I told this to my team, you know we are starting to sound like other folks - starting to run the same negative stuff. And it shows you that none of us are immune from this kind of politics. But the problem is that it doesn't help you. Having politicians bickering back and forth doesn't help you. Having them worry about superdelegates doesn't help you."
"This election is not about me. It's not about Sen. Clinton. It's not about John McCain. It's about you. It's about your struggles, your hopes, your dreams."
Taking heat on the issue of elitism, Obama reminded people that, although he had attended Columbia and Harvard, his family, like them, were still struggling to pay bills, "When my mom came of age, there were student loan programs that she could access so even if she was raising her kids she could go to school and there were scholarships so that she could send her son and her daughter to some of the finest schools in the world, even though there were times when she was on food stamps."
Obama's argument continued saying that his past struggles drove him to run, "When people ask me about why I'm doing this, what my values are, I try to explain to them it's about that history in my own family - how I've seen this country open up opportunity for people who are willing to work hard."
Barack Obama defended his commitment to patriotic ideals this afternoon, telling a town hall meeting in North Carolina that "I always have the flag in my heart." (
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/obama_flag_always_in_my_heart.html)
Obama offered an affirmation of his devotion to America in response to an audience member at a town hall meeting in Wilmington, N.C. She asked the Illinois senator what she should tell a family member concerned Obama's patriotism because the senator does not typically wear a flag pin on his lapel, as some politicians do, as well as fictitious reports on the Internet that he refuses to salute the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance.
"Sometimes I wear a flag pin, sometimes I don't," Obama responded. "But I always have the flag in my heart and in my head, when I am running for president and when I am not running for president."
"This is the only country in which I could even be standing here, coming from where I came. Right? A lot of people have that same story," he said..
"That's what makes me a patriot," Obama continued. "This campaign is about America and it's about the American people, and whether or not we're going to continue to live up to those values and ideals that say everybody is worthy, everybody is deserving of respect, every single individual, we are all created equal.".
"What I think is unpatriotic is when I see trade agreements that are designed only from the point of view of corporate profits and aren't designed to think about what happened to those textile workers that have been laid off here in North Carolina. That makes me angry," he added.
"When I hear people questioning my patriotism, I'm not worried about people criticizing me. That's what I signed up for when I ran for president. But when I see that being use to distract voters from those unpatriotic acts that are making it harder for the American people to live out the American Dream, that makes me angry," Obama continued.
Obama
called on (a) woman after delivering his stump speech to a crowd he estimated to be about five thousand people. It was either the third or fourth question he was taking from the audience. He said, "It's a young woman's turn," as he looked for the next raised hand.
He didn't call on a young woman, instead he picked an 82 year-old lady with a shock of white hair dressed in a blue jumper and green collared shirt.
"You captured my heart and I said that's the man for me from here on out." she said as the crowd immediately reacted to her strong, loud voice.
She continued with her left hand raised high, pointing at the Senator, "When you said 'yes, I will sit down with all my enemies,' We are going to sit around a table, we are going to work this thing out like sensible people and not that we just go around and shoot everyone up who we don't agree with...Sir, that's wasn't naiveté, that was wisdom, born on high!"
When it became quiet again, the woman expressed concern about the supply of drinkable water. "And I wondered if you and your wise advisors are working on that, and what's one specific thing you can tell that you are doing?" Before Obama could answer, she added, "I thank you sir, you better be President. You've got to be President!"
From what I could tell, watching the live feed of the event, most everyone in the auditorium stood up after that. And Barack Obama walked toward the woman, hugged and kissed her, and then announced, "That's my Running Mate."
(video clip:
http://www.wxii12.com/news/16036927/detail.html#)
Today in North Carolina, before a crowd the campaign estimated at 5,000, Sen. Obama spoke about Americans who were working harder and harder to get by, who were struggling to pay for food and college. He said many people felt like the American dream was slipping away, echoing the kinds of lines Clinton often uses on the stump. He also said that when he talks about the need to change the way politics is done in Washington, he is "being very specific.” It’s another favorite line of his rival's -- one she uses to paint him as more rhetoric than action, a criticism he has increasingly sought to address in his stump speech. (
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/28/953473.aspx)
In a bid to connect with voters, Obama talked about his work as a community organizer and ended his remarks with a slice out of his life story, focusing on being raised by a single mother and about his grandfather who was from a small town in Kansas “"right smack dab in the middle of the Midwest.”
Obama hit back at McCain for criticizing him for opposing a gas-tax holiday the Arizona senator has proposed. "He had the gall yesterday to tell me that obviously because I didn’t agree with his plan I must not be sympathetic to poor people,” Obama said. “That’s what he said. This is at the same time that he is proposing hundreds of billion of dollars of more tax breaks for corporate interests, to the wealthiest Americans. And he doesn’t explain how it is that we are going to replace the Highway Trust Fund. That’s where your gasoline tax goes to rebuild roads and bridges and put people to back to work right here in North Carolina. So but, you see, here’s the thing: That’s typical of how Washington works.”
Obama also addressed the negative tone the race had taken in recent weeks . . .
"Sometimes we get sucked into this whole negative thing,” he told the crowd. "You know people throw elbows at you, you start feeling like ‘Oh, I gotta throw an elbow back.’ So I noticed over the last several weeks, I told this to my team, you know, we -- we -- we’re starting to sound like other folks, starting to run the same negative stuff. You know, And -- and -- and it shows, you know, that none of us are immune from this kind of politics. But the problem is that it doesn’t help you.”
Obama promised to focus on voters for the next nine days and the months between now and November and even over the next nine years, to laughter and applause.
related today:
Barack Obama: Adjust tax rules, encourage savings, trim waste
The Charlotte Observer | April 28, 2008
http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/599908.htmlObama Links Broad Ideas to Economic Specifics
The Washington Post | April 28, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042702064_pf.html
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