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'Those Are The Facts': Obama Sounds Out New Message, Riffs, Refrains in Kansas City Speech
August 26, 2008 1:57 PM
Sounding out themes for his convention speech and teeing off fresh economic news from a U.S. Census Bureau report, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., stood in a Kansas City, Mo., airplane hangar this afternoon to decry how his Republican opponent is deaf to the economic struggles of the American people.
"The truth is, this economy is not working for average Americans," Obama said to the crowd of roughly 150 union members and 100 local Obama activists sitting in an American Airlines Overhaul Base that has been the site of many job cutbacks in recent years.
"I'm just going to remind everyone here, this election is not about me, it’s about you," Obama said. "It’s about who is going to be fighting for you, who is going to be listening to you, who has been, for the last 20 years, standing side-by-side with you. Making sure that unions can organize, making sure that people who don’t have health insurance can get health insurance, making sure that kids can go to college who couldn’t go before. Who has a track record of fighting for you?"
Obama told voters in this swing state that they "need somebody who, every single day, 'gets it,' and understands that you’re not looking for a handout. That you are willing to work as hard as you can to create a better future for your children. All you want is just an American government that is on your side, that is making things a little easier, that is giving you a few more handles to climb up that ... ladder of success -- that is what I want to provide as your president."
Obama seemed to be previewing new riffs and refrains -- perhaps ones he will use Thursday night when he accepts his party's nomination for president.
"Over the last eight years, you’ve been falling behind," Obama said, easing into an oratorical pattern. "Over the last eight years, your lives are less secure; over the last eight years, you are more likely to have lost your health insurance; over the last eight years, you are more likely to not be able to save; over the last eight years, your home values have started to drop."
He concluded, "That’s the track record, those are the facts. And John McCain is not promising to do anything different than George Bush did. So, if you think that the last eight years have been good, then you need to go ahead and vote for John McCain. But if you think that we need to change this country fundamentally, then I think that you need to get involved in this campaign and help us bring about the kind of change that America’s looking for."
As the roar of nearby jets taking off and landing filled the air, Obama cited numbers from today's "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007" report, indicating that "816,000 new people fell into poverty in 2007, including 500,0000 more children."
The official poverty rate in 2007 for the U.S. was 12.5 percent, which the census says is not statistically different from 2006, though it does constitute an increase in the number of people who have fallen into poverty -- 37.3 million people in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in poverty in 2006.
The census statistics showed that 1.3 million more Americans have health insurance this year than had it last year, largely because of the increase in those who have joined the ranks of Medicare and Medicaid. But Obama chose to, instead, focus on the millions more uninsured since Bush took office, instead of the increase in the number of those insured since 2006.
"Under this president," Obama said, "seven million Americans are newly uninsured."
"Those are the statistics," said the Democrat. "Those are the facts."
He mentioned other bleak economic news, including home foreclosures and sinking property values, rising gas prices and grocery prices -- "eggs are up 20 percent," he said, "bread is up 30 percent" -- as well as anticipated home heating oil price increases.
"You'd think both parties would be scrambling to come up with a way of how do we come up with a new direction," Obama said. "But that's not what John McCain's doing."
Obama ran through a number of statements McCain has made in which he praised the fundamentals of the U.S. economy, as well as McCain's apparent inability to say how many homes he owns. He also referenced the comments of McCain economic adviser, former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, saying the U.S. was in a "mental recession" and had become "sort of a nation of whiners."
"This is the guy who's got the inside track to be secretary of the Treasury!" Obama said of Gramm.
"I don't think John McCain says these things because he's a bad person," Obama said. "I just don't think he gets it ... I think he is out of touch. I don't think he understands what ordinary Americans are going through. But I do, and that's why I'm running for president."
-- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller
August 26, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (376)
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and if OBama IS a citizen, why did he travel to Pakistan when he was around twenty... with a foreign (Indonesian?) passport?
The passport was that of a country which doesn't acknowledge dual citizenship... so how could Obama have gotten one if he weren't a citizen of that country?
hmmmmm?
Posted by: hmmmmm | Aug 27, 2008 1:32:35 AM
Ryan:
"but the biggest recipients of its largess has been the private schools McCain children attended (and only while they were attending)".
________________-
This is an out and out lie!
Quantify the charity PERCENTAGE WISE
distributed by the McCains and the Obamas....... withOUT fibbing, and you will get a clear picture of generousity of money and self on the one hand, and of parsimoniousness on the other.
And it won't be the McCains who come up on the short end of generous!
Posted by: beware false prophets.... | Aug 27, 2008 1:27:15 AM
and a birth cert from his half-sister born in Kenya, suddenly turns up in a hospital in Hawaii.
Behold the Power of the Photoshop!
I've got Photoshop too, what do you need?
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 27, 2008 1:26:57 AM
In the most detailed examination yet of Senator John McCain’s eligibility to be president, a law professor at the University of Arizona has concluded that neither Mr. McCain’s birth in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone nor the fact that his parents were American citizens is enough to satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president must be a “natural-born citizen.”
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 1:25:34 AM
Any 47 y.o. whippersnapper too afraid
to confront old John McCain in town
hall meetings doesn't have the intes-
tinal fortitude to assume the chair
in the Oval Office. Ohbama's yellow
streak is eclipsed only by his hauteur.
Posted by: grizzly bare | Aug 27, 2008 1:19:28 AM
the hospital has already confimed his birth there
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 1:19:17 AM
"Barack Obama has already provided his birth Cert and the hospital has already confimed his birth there! What more do you need!
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 1:09:39 AM
___________________
that was the wrong birth certificate; it was presumed to be that of his half sister, and was noticeably altered!
Posted by: beware false prophets.... | Aug 27, 2008 1:14:56 AM
Current State Department policy reads: "Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth."[13] However, the State Department is of the opinion that this does not affect those who are born abroad to U.S. citizens and who otherwise meet the qualifications for statutory citizenship.[14]
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 1:12:41 AM
hfp,
Barack Obama has already provided his birth Cert and the hospital has already confimed his birth there! What more do you need!
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 1:09:39 AM
Night S Adams
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 1:05:59 AM
Willem if it's legitimate he will then show it to a Federal judge. Since he hasn't so far produced it and laid the issue to rest, it's a "where's there's smoke there's fire" issue.
But OBama's tanking on his own lack of merits alone.
Posted by: hfp | Aug 27, 2008 1:02:18 AM
Nah, been settled, no legal challenge for McCain whereas there IS one for Obama.
Posted by: hfp | Aug 27, 2008 1:00:26 AM
hfp: go to that WorldNetDaily website of Corsi, you and your ilk. Even THEY have acknowledged that the cert is ligit.
But keep beating that horse. It just shows how desperate the McCain campaign is.
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 27, 2008 12:57:20 AM
hfp,
Romney was the one who brought up the fact McCain cant be president.
It has been debated in the senate and even his own campaign has said should he win the election his ability to take the oath may face legal challange!
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 12:55:54 AM
Human and Willem--Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum
I'm leaving you to your delusions. Good night.
Posted by: S Adams | Aug 27, 2008 12:51:44 AM
S Adams, I'm glad you are suddenly realizing there is going to be a huge dilemma there for the Republicans and the Bush administration in particular.
I know that Republicans, when they are suddenly faced with a contradiction, just lash out incoherently to mask their panic.
I understand that.
When McCain would get elected, it would pose a huge problem for the Republicans. Legal scholars all agree that the issue has not been properly settled. When McCain is declared natural born, it automatically follows that GB is US Territory.
That's the reason McCain wants Guantanamo Bay closed. So he can be president. What do you think, is McCain willing to release ‘terrorists’ unto the American public, just for the sake of becoming President?
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 27, 2008 12:51:18 AM
human.......he has yet to prove he was born in the USA with a paper birth certificate, that's why there's a lawsuit to make him finally cough one up
Posted by: hfp | Aug 27, 2008 12:48:55 AM
barack was born in the USA making him a US citizen regardless of where his parrents were born
lucky for Barack his mum was American and his dad was here on a student visa!
Posted by: human | Aug 27, 2008 12:47:31 AM
There's a FEDERAL INJUNCTION LAWSUIT against Obama to prove he's a natural born citizen; nothing 'bout McCain though.
Posted by: hfp | Aug 27, 2008 12:47:22 AM
O-ver for MAObama
Just say "no" to socialists.
Socialism kills.
Nobody's swimming TO Cube.
Posted by: hfp | Aug 27, 2008 12:46:00 AM
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