Obama: When American workers hear McCain talk about 'country first' it’s fair to ask- which country?

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Fri Sep-12-08 11:00 AM
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Obama: When American workers hear McCain talk about 'country first' it’s fair to ask- which country?

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
37th Grand Lodge Convention
Friday, September 12, 2008

{snip}

As we speak this morning, your brothers and sisters in Washington State , Oregon and Kansas are preparing for a new day’s shift on the picket line. And even though I can’t be with them or with you today – I stand with you.

I stand with you because what you’re fighting for isn’t unreasonable – what you’re fighting for is a fair shot at the American dream. It’s the idea that your government shouldn’t stand idly by while your job is shipped overseas. That your family should have health care when you get sick. That you should be able to put your kids through college even if you’re not rich. And that after a lifetime of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity and security.

But for the past eight years, we’ve had an administration in Washington that hasn’t seen it this way. They sat back and watched as the corporate lobbyists they cozied up to wrote our laws and put their clients’ interests ahead of what’s fair for the American people. They looked the other way as working families watched their incomes fall, their bills soar, their homes foreclosed, and their savings vanish. They shrugged as more than 3.6 million manufacturing jobs were lost and more than 40,000 factories shuttered up; as too many American workers saw a lifetime of labor rewarded with a pink slip and a dumped pension as their job moves offshore.

Now, I know John McCain is casting himself as an agent of change. But I’m having a little trouble squaring this with his declaration that we’ve made “great progress economically” over the past eight years. Or his boast that he’s voted with President Bush over 90% of the time. Or his assertion that overall, the American people are better off now than they were when George W. Bush came into office.

John McCain just doesn’t get it.

Just ask your brothers and sisters at Boeing. Because while it was right for the Pentagon to cancel competition yesterday for the next generation of tankers, it was wrong for John McCain to reward two of the Washington lobbyists who worked against Boeing with jobs on his campaign.

Just ask the Machinists in Pennsylvania who build Harley-Davidsons. Because John McCain didn’t just oppose the requirement that the government buy American-made motorcycles, he called Buy American provisions “disgraceful.” Just ask the workers across this country who have seen their jobs outsourced. The very companies that shipped their jobs overseas have been rewarded with billions of dollars in tax breaks that John McCain supports and plans to continue.

So when American workers hear John McCain talk about putting country first, it’s fair to ask – which country?

John McCain has said a few things about working families, but he hasn’t said how he’ll actually work for our families. Not one real proposal about how he’ll create jobs to replace those lost on his party’s watch, fix the economy they’ve ruined, or help you build a better life for your family. America’s workers can’t afford four more years that look exactly like the last eight.

It’s time to bring about the change this country so desperately needs. Machinists, let me tell you exactly what that change is. Change is a President who does everything in his power to create and defend American jobs . . .

transcript of full speech: http://www.goiam.org/uploadedFiles/09_12_2008_Obama_Remarks.pdf