Barack Obama pushes campaign into Clinton family turf

bigtree

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Wed Apr-02-08 08:04 AM
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Barack Obama pushes campaign into Clinton family turf

Edited on Wed Apr-02-08 08:13 AM by bigtree

Tuesday April 1, 2008

Barack Obama's White House campaign thrust deep into enemy territory Tuesday, with speeches in rival Hillary Clinton's family turf of northeastern Pennsylvania where she too aimed to woo support.

Amid their cat-and-mouse pursuit of the eastern state's Democratic voters, both candidates had back-to-back appearances slated for the sister cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, old coal-mining centers nestled along the Susquehanna River.

Nearing the end of his six-day tour of the state, Obama is pushing into the core of Clinton country in an uphill fight for a state strongly leaning for her as its April 22 primary approaches.

Obama downplayed the divisiveness of the tooth-and-nail fight with Clinton, stressing to supporters here that the Democrats' prime objective was to oust the Republicans from eight years at the White House helm.

"It's creating excitement and interest that will serve the Democrats very well," Obama said of the neck-and-neck race.

"If we stay focused on the fact that there are people out there that are counting on us to do something on health care, on the home mortgage issue, on the Iraq war, the Democrats will win."

Sen. Obama emerged from behind the massive American flag hanging from the rafters to a volley of cheers and screams from the more than 2,000 people in attendance, marking the start of a charged political day in Wilkes-Barre.

His remarks, laced with messages of change, were interspersed with cheers, a standing ovation and raucous chants of "yes we can" from the crowd..

Obama highlighted hot-button issues during his remarks, including the war in Iraq, the flagging economy, mortgage foreclosures, uninsured Americans, education and the national debt.

He fired on President Bush and politics of presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, saying the current administration has ignored the American people.

"Your voices have not been heard," Obama said.

Obama said McCain offered "four more years of the same George W. Bush policies that have gotten us into the pickle that we're in right now." He argued that McCain was most interested in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and trade agreements "that fail to look after American workers." McCain's response to the housing crisis, Obama said, "amounts to little more than standing on the sidelines and watching millions of Americans lose their homes."

Obama, speaking in Wilkes-Barre, said McCain's open-ended commitment to maintain a U.S. military presence in Iraq showed a lack of judgment.

"Sen. McCain is saying I don't understand national security," Obama said, "but he is the one who wants to keep tens of thousands of United States troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years, even though this war has not made us safer."

Having permanent bases in Iraq, Obama said, "may make sense for George Bush and John McCain, but it is the wrong thing to do."

Second-grader Michael LaCoste wants his own shot at becoming commander in chief.

The 8-year-old attended Barack Obama�s first appearance in Wilkes-Barre, Tuesday�s town hall meeting at Wilkes University, with his grandmother.

He asked what he needed to do to become president.

Obama cracked a smile and advised him to work hard by maintaining good grades, have a strong desire to help people and do what his grandmother tells him to do.

The exchange drew applause and cheers � one of the many highlights of the Illinois senator�s 69-minute address.

After speaking at Wilkes University on Tuesday, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama spoke with a Times-Shamrock Newspapers reporter about his campaign, financial support and Sen. Bob Casey Jr.'s endorsement.

"Look at how I spent my life, Obama told Times-Tribune reporter Borys Krawczeniuk, I started my career as a community organizer working for $12,000 a year for three-and-a-half years in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago, and helping steel workers who've been laid off. And so my career in public service has been consistent and it's always been devoted to fighting on behalf of folks who needed it."

"When I got out of Harvard Law School, I obviously had a lot of options, and instead of going with big corporate firms, I went to work with a civil rights group on behalf of people who had gotten a raw deal on the job. So there's a consistency, I think, that people can count on in our campaign," he said.

Reporter: What did Sen. Bob Casey tell you to expect in Pennsylvania, and what has your impression of the state been?

Obama: "Bob, I think, simply said that we've got good people here in Pennsylvania, and that was my expectation and that expectation has been borne out. I mean, people have responded with enormous graciousness and hospitality and people have been open to my argument that we've got to bring about change.

Now obviously there are a lot of people here who have fallen on hard times. But they're not that different from some of the communities that I went to organize when I first got out of college or downstate (Illinois) communities that see jobs shipped overseas.

There haven't been huge surprises other than the landscape, which is a lot prettier than I expected. What it has done is reinforce my belief that people are decent, they're hard-working, they're not looking for a handout from the government, but they have lost trust in government's ability to make sure that people can find steady work and look after their families.

Sen. Obama's Dunmore visit with photo galleries and video: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19444935&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6