Obama speaking today at the League of United Latin American Citizens on immigrants. He said that Americans have nothing to fear from new comers, because they come in the hopes that in America you can make it if you try. (0:28)
Obama calls for a comprehensive immigration policy reform at the League of United Latin American Citizens conference. Obama says that he will do it on his first term as president of the United States. (0:43)
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spoke today at the League of United Latin American Citizens about the changes he would make in his first year as president, calling comprehensive immigration and health care reform his top priorities.
Obama said that the United States cannot afford the Bush economic policies that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will be following, but need to give tax breaks to ordinary working Americans, not outsource American jobs, solve the housing crisis and invest in infrastructure that will create jobs and make the U.S. competitive for the future in a global market.
America doesn’t need a government that will solve all their problems. Obama said that Latinos embody the spirit of the American dream and that America has nothing to fear from new comers because America was always a land of immigrants. Obama stressed the need to treat immigrants and new citizens equally so as not to create “two classes of citizens.”
Obama praised Latin Americans for their hard work and desire to live the American dream. He urged Latinos to register to vote and to become active in government at a grassroots level, so that the people will create a comprehensive government that works for all Americans, “a government that represents all not some.” Sen. Obama also spoke on how McCain changed views on immigration reform, creating a comprehensive plan but then failed to vote for it. America needs a president who is not going to walk away from comprehensive reforms if it becomes unpopular, Obama said, and that is his top priority in the first year of his presidency.
In a conference call, Todd Book, Ohio State House Assistant Minority Leader, and Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer discussed the effects of John McCain’s economic policies in Ohio and how Barack Obama’s tax cuts will satisfy Ohio voters.(15:00)
Echoing Barack Obama’s recent attack on John McCain’s economic policy, Todd Book and Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer agreed that a McCain White House would extend the failed Bush economics in southern Ohio. (more…)
The Obama campaign manager Davide Plouffe spoke about the goals and attitude of the Obama campaign as they look toward the fall campaign season. In looking over the electoral map of the 2004 campaign, Plouffe said that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will not hold much sway in the Kerry states. Obama is looking to have more of an offensive campaign and will be campaigning harder in Ohio and Florida then any presidential nominee in history, Plouffe said.
In New Mexico and Colorado the Obama campaign feels they have a significant lead and a big lead with Hispanic voters, 60 percent more saying they will vote democratically then in 2004, Plouffe said. The “west is a place of enormous opportunity for us,” Plouffe said, while the Midwest will be the battleground states. Many independent voters who self identify with democrats are growing and will be the votes that the campaign is fighting for.
The Obama campaign has several goals it is looking to focus on and accomplish my November: having a historically high African American turnout and a high turnout with voters under 40, register people to vote, help elect democrats down the ballot and to build grassroots organizations in every state. The state by state grassroots organizations will give the campaign a “persuasion army” to pull independents and others to vote for Obama.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) says she is looking forward to having Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) back in the Senate. Today was the first day that Sen. Clinton has been back to the Senate since suspending her presidential campaign on June 7, 2008. (0:16)
Robert Gibbs, the Communications Director of the Obama Campaign, held a conference call to discuss and highlight Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) supposed “week of pandering.” Gibbs said that McCain continually says one thing to one audience and a complete different thing to another audience. (more…)
Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a conference call with the Barack Obama campaign, that John McCain (R-Ariz.) has spent the week exhausting himself with a double talk dance and presenting new and opposite views on many of his policies.
Kerry outlined several positions that McCain has changed on over the past few weeks such as torture, offshore drilling, drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). McCain said that he would “be more than happy to examine that again” even though he previously said it wasn’t worth the time. Kerry said that the U.S. has only three percent of the world’s oil and John McCain used to know his stuff and argue is points well, but now “running for president has evidently provided an opportunity for double talk” or more of the Washington game at the expense of the interest of the American people.
Kerry said that before McCain can start debating with Obama, he needs to finish debating with himself. The fundamental distinction between Barack Obama and John McCain is that Obama understand that you can’t drill your way out of this crisis but that you need alternatives, Kerry said. McCain is offering the same Bush mentality that oil can solve every problem. The United States cannot have leadership that pretends there is a solution for getting more oil and gas through U.S. sources that will help the current crisis, the leadership need to be focusing on alternative energy solutions, he said.
St. Paul Minnesota Mayor, Chris Coleman agreed with Kerry’s remarks and said that McCain’s gas tax holiday is “the biggest gimmick McCain has put out there.” Whereas Obama has proposed significant and real steps towards a more secure future, McCain has only proposed more Washington gimmicks and flip flopping policies.
In a conference call from the Obama for America press office, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul, Minnesota discuss the effect of John McCain’s failed energy ideas for Minnesota and America. Kerry spoke about John McCain’s “double talk dance” and how he has changed his opinion on many issues over the past few weeks. Kerry says that Obama is offering the right issues for the American people in finding new alternatives for gas, whereas McCain is just following the Bush doctrine of digging for oil. (19:58)
