Obama Tries Small - Group Politics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 13, 2007
Filed at 8:18 p.m. ET
HANOVER, N.H. (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Barack Obama opted for small, intimate campaign events on Monday -- and was warned by a friendly voter to avoid public spats with his Democratic rivals.
Obama spoke to eight voters -- and three times as many newspeople -- invited to a New Hampshire restaurant during the morning. He later spoke to a small group of business people in Keene.
''We've been blessed to have some terrific crowds at these town hall meetings, but most of the time I'm doing most of the talking and not doing enough listening,'' Obama said in Hanover.
The Illinois senator sounded a familiar theme throughout the day, that he is an outsider to Washington and to politics as usual.
''Well, look, I'm all ready doing battle with the Old Guard,'' he said. ''Let me tell you, they didn't expect me. They didn't see me coming. Everybody is still trying to figure out, what is this guy named Barack Obama? Forty-six years old, black guy. We didn't plan on him,'' he said at a twilight rally in Nashua.
By and large, however, his day was spent away from his typical, burgeoning crowds. He huddled with only a few voters. He asked a medical student about health care and a businessman about medical insurance, and quizzed a recent college grad on the job market. It was the type of intimacy he's found nearly impossible to enjoy during his campaign -- and the variety New Hampshire voters demand.
But Maggie North of Claremont told him he risks becoming part of the usual political scene if he keeps being drawn into well-publicized disputes with rivals. He and chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton have jabbed at each other over foreign policy, the war on terrorism and the use of nuclear weapons.
''You can be it,'' she said. ''But you've got to stop -- excuse me for being blunt -- you've got to stop getting involved in the way people are fighting each other, chewing you up a little more.''
''That's what you do when you run for president,'' Obama responded, getting a laugh.
North, who is considering an Obama endorsement and backed Howard Dean in 2004, praised Obama as someone fresh, but said she worried that he was hurting himself.
Obama said infighting among the candidates is part of the process.
''Some of that's OK, it thickens your skin,'' Obama said. ''... Putting you through the paces like that is part of the hazing that's required for the job.''
Amber Wilkerson, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman, said Obama's characterization of the presidential campaign shows he's unfit to lead.
''Unfortunately for Barack Obama, this campaign is not a fraternity hazing ritual, and Americans are not going to elect a rookie politician who has ditched his 'politics of hope' mantra and gone on the attack now that he's dropping in the polls,'' Wilkerson said.
North cautioned Obama against being too predictable.
''What happens when you engage in that is you become like everybody else,'' she said.
Obama repeated his criticism of lobbyists, calling them the enemy and saying their donations are corrupt.
''If they're spending a billion dollars on lobbying over 10 years -- they're averaging $100 million a year -- that carries weight in Washington. The congressmen will deny it, but they're not spending it just to provide good information,'' he said.
While Obama doesn't accept money directly from federal lobbyists, he is not above benefiting from the broader lobbying community. He accepts money from firms that have lobbying operations and has tapped the networks of lobbyists' friends and co-workers. Obama, a former state senator from Illinois, has long accepted money from state lobbyists. One of them, Jim Demers, a lobbyist from Concord, N.H., attended an Obama event in Keene later and is a top adviser to the campaign.
At that 350-person rally, Obama returned to those themes.
''Don't let people tell you we can't solve our problems. Cynicism is our enemy. Don't let them convince you that it's too far gone, that Washington is too corrupt,'' Obama said to cheers. ''Listen, there are problems in Washington but there are not problems we can't fix as citizens of the United States.''
During a twilight rally in a Nashua park, Obama told almost 800 people the answer to health care -- like many policies -- is to reduce lobbyists' power.
''What's missing is not the plan, it's the sense of urgency and the willingness to take on special interests,'' Obama said. ''It's not just enough to change political parties. For us to make those big changes, we're going to need all of you to be engaged.'' |
