Back to higher rhetoric and the overarching themes that marked the start of Obama's candidacy:
Obama Offers Closing Argument
Updated 3:25 p.m.
By Robert Barnes
CANTON, Ohio -- Barack Obama made a "closing argument" to the American people that sounded a lot like the opening argument he offered nearly two years ago, putting forth a broad and optimistic message that emphasized the economy, downplayed partisan politics and promised this election can "change the world."
"In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo," Obama told a roused, capacity audience at the Canton Civic Center.
"In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history."
It was not happenstance that Obama began the final front of his campaign in this state. A victory here, where President Bush locked up his reelection four years ago, is crucial to Republican John McCain's electoral strategy.
The candidates both are campaigning here and in neighboring Pennsylvania today.
Obama's speech amounted to a 30-minute compilation of the themes he has accentuated throughout what has been the longest presidential campaign in American history. It is a message meant to inspire those who have not always participated in the electoral process, and one that calls for personal responsibility and awareness that government should not try to solve "all our problems."
Obama's remarks were studiously nonpartisan -- he mentioned Democrats and Republicans four times, and then only to dismiss their importance. By contrast, he mentioned "change" 18 times and "hope" half as many times as that.
"Hope! That's what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough," Obama said to cheers and applause. "What led them to say, 'Maybe I can't go to college, but if I save a little bit each week my child can go to college. Maybe I can't have my own business -- but if I work really hard my child can open one of her own.'"
But the speech was also tough on McCain, with Obama saying the senator from Arizona doesn't have the ability to lead in a time of economic crisis.
"After 21 months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he'd do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy," Obama said.
"Senator McCain says that we can't spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is embracing the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years."
Obama said one of the biggest failures of the Bush administration was squandering the country's good will and sense of community.
"That's what's been lost these last eight years -- our sense of common purpose; our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we need to restore right now."
He added: "The question in this election is not 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' We all know the answer to that. The real question is, 'Will this country be better off four years from now?'"
After the speech in Ohio, Obama heads to Pittsburgh for his first campaign stop in more than 10 days in a state that voted Democratic in 2004. It is the largest Democratic state that McCain is seriously contesting.
But Obama plans to keep McCain on defense, with stops this week in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, red states that the Obama campaign believes it has a strong chance to flip.
Posted at 10:25 AM ET on Oct 27, 2008 |
