Obama's appeal to a new generation in Pennsylvania

bigtree

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Sat Mar-29-08 08:49 AM
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Obama's appeal to a new generation in Pennsylvania

Edited on Sat Mar-29-08 08:51 AM by bigtree

title from The Swamp: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/obamas_appeal_to_a_new_generat.html

PITTSBURGH -- Barack Obama�s voice rang out across the cold, depleted expanse of lawn connecting the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall to the broad, busy avenue below. Audible for blocks in any direction, the familiar cadence drew curious onlookers away from their daily routines and up the Hall�s wide staircase.

Those who approached were met with an odd sight: Hundreds of people huddled around a pair of loudspeakers, apparently mesmerized by a disembodied voice. These hardy souls, blowing into cups of coffee, shoulders hunched against the chill, were just a few of the people who couldn�t get tickets to see Obama in person. University students, administrative staff, restaurant employees, retail workers, faculty members -- they were all settling for the next best thing.

This was an overwhelmingly pro-Obama crowd, cheering vociferously for his pledges to improve health care coverage, his tuition offset/community service plan, and for this jab at the Patriot Act: �You�ll have a President who taught the Constitution, who knows the Constitution, and who�ll obey the Constitution.�

Sen. Obama, making his first Pittsburgh appearance in the contest to win Pennsylvania's Democratic primary, packed about 2,500 fans into an auditorium in Oakland and drew roars of applause when he talked about ending the war in Iraq.

"We cannot wait to bring this war in Iraq to an end," Obama told a capacity crowd during the rally at Soldiers & Sailors Military Museum and Memorial. "We cannot wait. That's why I'm running for president."

The crowd, chanting "O-ba-ma!" and "Yes-we-can!," greeted Obama and Sen. Bob Casey, a Scranton Democrat, with a prolonged standing ovation until Obama asked for the audience to sit down.

Borrowing a quote from Abraham Lincoln, Casey said Obama appeals to the "better angels of our nature" and will unify Americans. "This campaign is a chance for America to chart a new course and go down a different path -- a path of a new kind of politics and, finally, a path of hope and healing," he said.

Casey called Obama of Illinois the "one person uniquely qualified to lead us in this direction."

"He has the kind of judgment that is steady in the eye of the storm -- the kind of leader who is ready to be commander and chief of the United States," Casey said.

At a town hall event at a local high school gymnasium, Obama praised George H.W. Bush�father of the president�for the way he handled the Persian Gulf War: with a large coalition and carefully defined objectives.

"The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush's father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan, and it is George Bush that's been naive and it's people like John McCain and, unfortunately, some Democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world," he said.

In his speech Friday night, the Illinois senator charged that Clinton, for all her criticism of the current President Bush, has too often gone along with his decisions.

"I do think that Sen. Clinton would understand that George Bush's policies have failed, but in many ways she has been captive to the same politics that led her to vote for authorizing the war in Iraq," he said. "Since 9/11 the conventional wisdom has been that you've got to look tough on foreign policy by voting and acting like the Republicans, and I disagree with that."

Obama himself challenged Clinton's argument that her experience in government would make her a better candidate in November against McCain.

"If the contest between McCain and the Democratic nominee is who's been there longer, John McCain wins!" he said to laughter from the crowd.

"If the argument is who is going to pursue a foreign policy like George Bush's, then John McCain wins. If that's the criteria for being tough, if that's the criteria for answering the 3 o'clock phone call after you voted for the war in Iraq and you went along with George Bush's policies when it came to Iran and not talking to leaders that we don't like, then John McCain wins that fight."