Barack Obama Writing a New Chapter in American History in Oregon

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Sun May-11-08 02:40 PM
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Barack Obama Writing a New Chapter in American History in Oregon

Edited on Sun May-11-08 03:02 PM by bigtree

BEND, Oregon -- Speaking with reporters in Bend, Ore. after touring PV Powered Plant, Obama brushed aside suggestions that the fall campaign may be largely about his race, liberalism or patriotism.

"In a contest between myself and John McCain," he said, "there is going to be a very clear choice on policy that I don't think is going to have to do with ideology and who theoretically is more liberal or who's more conservative. I think it is going to have to do with who has a plan to provide relief to people when it comes to their gas prices, who has a real plan to make sure that everybody has health insurance, who's got a real plan to deal with college affordability."

"So rather than an abstract set of questions about, 'Is he too liberal, is he too conservative, how do voters handle an African American, et cetera,' I think this is going to be a very concrete contest around very specific plans for how we improve the lives of Americans and our vision for the future," he said.

Obama said he realizes he must continue introducing himself to millions of Americans who do not know him well, and acknowledged that some question his patriotism because he no longer wears a lapel flag pin.

He said the test of patriotism "is whether we are true to the ideals and values upon which this country was founded," and willing to fight for them "even when it's politically inconvenient."

He was also asked what he made of an introductory speech by his supporter Rep. Peter DeFazio in Albany, Ore., the day before, in which DeFazio harshly criticized McCain's past involvement in the Keating Five scandal -- two of whose participants have endorsed Obama. Asked if he thought that Keating Five scandal was fair game as a campaign topic, Obama said that he thought that it was fair for others to raise but suggested that he would not be raising it unless asked about it. (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/10/obama_passes_clinton_in_superd.html?hpid=sec-politics)

The fact was, he said, he himself was facing questions about topics of less validity, like the recent expression of support he got from a Hamas leader.

DeFazio "obviously delivered a speech that wasn't my speech," Obama said, adding that he didn't object to the speech. "I don't think there is any doubt that John McCain's public record for an issue that he has apologized for and written about is not germane to the presidency. I was just asked previously about a whole host if issues and association that were a lot more flimsy than John McCain's relationship to the Keating Five. So I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that and me having to answer questions about it."

Barack Obama spoke to a packed, cheering crowd at Bend's Summit High School Saturday, addressing a variety of issues and imploring his audience to help him "turn the page" and write a new chapter in U.S. history.

"How's it goin', Bend?" Obama said as he took the stage in an open-collar white shirt and rolled-up sleeves, pacing slowly back and forth as he touched on all the issues and took several questions from the audience over an hour-long span.

"I am so thrilled to be east of the mountains in Central Oregon," Obama said. "You guys have some pretty real estate out here. I want to stick around. Who's gonna teach me fishin'?"

Obama spoke grandly of how he believed Americans were "tired of politics that tear the country down," but instead want politicians who "lift people up."

"I was convinced the American people were tired of spin and PR," he said. "They wanted someone who would talk straight," and "remind them of what we hold in common. We are Americans. When we come together ... there's no dream we cannot achieve, no destiny we cannot fulfill.'

After all that campaigning and talking and shaking hands and kissing babies, "I'm here to report our bet paid off," Obama said. "People are standing up, saying we want to write a new chapter. And now, Oregon, it is your turn to stand up and say, it's time for a change."

The Illinois Democrat said he would put a higher tax on companies that pollute and use the money to invest in wind, solar, geothermal and other alternatives to oil. He said he wouldn't rule out nuclear energy as a future source of power, if problems of waste storage and safety can be resolved.

Individuals, he said, must take responsibility as well.

"We can't all be driving Chevy Suburbans at eight miles per gallon," Obama said. "That's no slight against Chevys," he quickly added, "because I want us to drive American-made cars" -- but they need to be built to get better gas mileage.

�I decided to run because the state of this country required a different kind of politics,� he said Friday night at Oregon State University. �The challenges we face had outstripped our broken policies.�

His list of those challenges began with the country�s involvement in two wars � one Obama said �we had to fight� in Afghanistan against those who had killed Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, and one �that we should never have waged ... that has not made us more safer,� in Iraq.

He then turned to what he called �a different kind of struggle � people here at home trying to hold on to the American dream� in a time when wages and family incomes have declined despite a period of economic growth. He talked about the rising cost of food and gasoline, unemployment, record bankruptcies and foreclosures, millions without health insurance.

�I decided that we can�t afford to wait to deal with global warming, with the health care situation, with the war,� he said. �I was betting on you and people like you all over the country. I was absolutely convinced that people are decent and hard-working and willing to sacrifice for future generations. I believed they were tired of politics that were about tearing one another down. I believe they wanted to remember that we are Americans with common dreams and hopes, and that if all of us could come together, there is nothing we couldn�t accomplish.�

The crowd, already roaring, went wild when he continued, declaring: �Here we are. My bet has paid off. We�re ready to turn the page and write a new chapter in American history, and we are going to bring this election to a close right here in Oregon.�