Wisconsin for Obama

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  • I’m voting for Barack Obama in the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday. Some great orators are all cadence and cant. Obama gives us content, conviction and commitment. 20,000 people waited patiently in the sub-zero wind chill outside the Kohl Center tonight for up to an hour in order to get a seat to hear Barack Obama’s message of hope. It was worth it. Obama has a vision and the personal integrity to realize that vision.

    Here’s a transcript of the speech he delivered:

    Today, the change we seek swept through the Chesapeake and over the Potomac.

    We won the state of Maryland. We won the Commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington D.C., this movement won’t stop until there’s change in Washington. And tonight, we’re on our way.

    But we know how much farther we have to go.

    We know it takes more than one night – or even one election – to overcome decades of money and the influence; bitter partisanship and petty bickering that’s shut you out, let you down and told you to settle.

    We know our road will not be easy.

    But we also know that at this moment the cynics can no longer say our hope is false.

    We have now won east and west, north and south, and across the heartland of this country we love. We have given young people a reason to believe, and brought folks back to the polls who want to believe again. And we are bringing together Democrats and Independents and Republicans; blacks and whites; Latinos and Asians; small states and big states; Red States and Blue States into a United States of America.

    This is the new American majority. This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up. And in this election, your voices will be heard.

    Because at a time when so many people are struggling to keep up with soaring costs in a sluggish economy, we know that the status quo in Washington just won’t do. Not this time. Not this year. We can’t keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result – because it’s a game that ordinary Americans are losing.

    It’s a game where lobbyists write check after check and Exxon turns record profits, while you pay the price at the pump, and our planet is put at risk. That’s what happens when lobbyists set the agenda, and that’s why they won’t drown out your voices anymore when I am President of the United States of America

    It’s a game where trade deals like NAFTA ship jobs overseas and force parents to compete with their teenagers to work for minimum wage at Wal-Mart. That’s what happens when the American worker doesn’t have a voice at the negotiating table, when leaders change their positions on trade with the politics of the moment, and that’s why we need a President who will listen to Main Street – not just Wall Street; a President who will stand with workers not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard.

    It’s a game where Democrats and Republicans fail to come together year after year after year, while another mother goes without health care for her sick child. That’s why we have to put an end to the division and distraction in Washington, so that we can unite this nation around a common purpose, a higher purpose.

    It’s a game where the only way for Democrats to look tough on national security is by talking, and acting and voting like Bush-McCain Republicans, while our troops are sent to fight tour after tour of duty in a war that should’ve never been authorized and should’ve never been waged. That’s what happens when we use 9/11 to scare up votes, and that’s why we need to do more than end a war – we need to end the mindset that got us into war.

    That’s the choice in this primary. It’s about whether we choose to play the game, or whether we choose to end it; it’s change that polls well, or change we can believe in; it’s the past versus the future. And when I’m the Democratic nominee for President – that will be the choice in November.

    John McCain is an American hero. We honor his service to our nation. But his priorities don’t address the real problems of the American people, because they are bound to the failed policies of the past.

    George Bush won’t be on the ballot this November, but his war and his tax cuts for the wealthy will.

    When I am the nominee, I will offer a clear choice. John McCain won’t be able to say that I ever supported this war in Iraq, because I opposed it from the beginning. Senator McCain said the other day that we might be mired for a hundred years in Iraq, which is reason enough to not give him four years in the White House.

    If we had chosen a different path, the right path, we could have finished the job in Afghanistan, and put more resources into the fight against bin Laden; and instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Baghdad, we could have put that money into our schools and hospitals, our road and bridges – and that’s what the American people need us to do right now.

    And I admired Senator McCain when he stood up and said that it offended his “conscience” to support the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in a time of war; that he couldn’t support a tax cut where “so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate.” But somewhere along the road to the Republican nomination, the Straight Talk Express lost its wheels, because now he’s all for them.

    Well I’m not. We can’t keep spending money that we don’t have in a war that we shouldn’t have fought. We can’t keep mortgaging our children’s future on a mountain of debt. We can’t keep driving a wider and wider gap between the few who are rich and the rest who struggle to keep pace. It’s time to turn the page.

    We need a new direction in this country. Everywhere I go, I meet Americans who can’t wait another day for change. They’re not just showing up to hear a speech – they need to know that politics can make a difference in their lives, that it’s not too late to reclaim the American Dream.

    It’s a dream shared in big cities and small towns; across races, regions and religions – that if you work hard, you can support a family; that if you get sick, there will be health care you can afford; that you can retire with the dignity and security and respect that you have earned; that your kids can get a good education, and young people can go to college even if they’re not rich. That is our common hope. That is the American Dream.

    It’s the dream of the father who goes to work before dawn and lies awake at night wondering how he’s going to pay the bills. He needs us to restore fairness to our economy by putting a tax cut into the pockets of working people, and seniors, and struggling homeowners.

    It’s the dream of the woman who told me she works the night shift after a full day of college and still can’t afford health care for a sister who’s ill. She needs us to finally come together to make health care affordable and available for every American.

    It’s the dream of the senior I met who lost his pension when the company he gave his life to went bankrupt. He doesn’t need bankruptcy laws that protect banks and big lenders. He needs us to protect pensions, not CEO bonuses; and to do what it takes to make sure that the American people can count on Social Security today, tomorrow and forever.

    It’s the dream of the teacher who works at Dunkin Donuts after school just to make ends meet. She needs better pay, and more support, and the freedom to do more than just teach to the test. And if her students want to go on to college, they shouldn’t fear decades of debt. That’s why I’ll make college affordable with an annual $4,000 tax credit if you’re willing to do community service, or national service. We will invest in you, but we’ll ask you to invest in your country.

    That is our calling in this campaign. To reaffirm that fundamental belief – I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper – that makes us one people, and one nation. It’s time to stand up and reach for what’s possible, because together, people who love their country can change it.

    Now when I start talking like this, some folks tell me that I’ve got my head in the clouds. That I need a reality check. That we’re still offering false hope. But my own story tells me that in the United States of America, there has never been anything false about hope.

    I should not be here today. I was not born into money or status. I was born to a teenage mom in Hawaii, and my dad left us when I was two. But my family gave me love, they gave me education, and most of all they gave me hope – hope that in America, no dream is beyond our grasp if we reach for it, and fight for it, and work for it.

    Because hope is not blind optimism. I know how hard it will be to make these changes. I know this because I fought on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer to bring jobs to the jobless in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant. I’ve fought in the courts as a civil rights lawyer to make sure people weren’t denied their rights because of what they looked like or where they came from. I’ve fought in the legislature to take power away from lobbyists. I’ve won some of those fights, but I’ve lost some of them too. I’ve seen good legislation die because good intentions weren’t backed by a mandate for change.

    The politics of hope does not mean hoping things come easy. Because nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody, somewhere stood up when it was hard; stood up when they were told – no you can’t, and said yes we can.

    And where better to affirm our ideals than here in Wisconsin, where a century ago the progressive movement was born. It was rooted in the principle that the voices of the people can speak louder than special interests; that citizens can be connected to their government and to one another; and that all of us share a common destiny, an American Dream.

    Yes we can reclaim that dream.

    Yes we can heal this nation.

    The voices of the American people have carried us a great distance on this improbable journey, but we have much further to go. Now we carry our message to farms and factories across this state, and to the cities and small towns of Ohio, to the open plains deep in the heart of Texas, and all the way to Democratic National Convention in Denver; it’s the same message we had when we were up, and when were down; that out of many, we are one; that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; and that we can cast off our doubts and fears and cynicism because our dream will not be deferred; our future will not be denied; and our time for change has come.

    Posted in Politics
    6 comments on “Wisconsin for Obama
    1. man, that’s hawt. so you were there, frank? *shoots jealousy beams at frank, but not so many that his heart goes all wokka-wokka again*

    2. I was there. Just uploaded a bunch of snapshots to FlickR. They’re not that great, but they give you a sense of the full house at the Kohl Center, the support Obama has in Wisconsin (Governor, and mayors of Madison and Milwaukee have endorsed him).

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/fpaynter/

    3. tamarika says:

      I had a feeling you were there! As I watched it I murmured softly, Frank, are you there?

    4. Doug Alder says:

      what troubles me about Obama is that he really doesn’t deal in specifics.

      That’s why we have to put an end to the division and distraction in Washington, so that we can unite this nation around a common purpose, a higher purpose.

      Really? Just how do you plan to do that? That’s simply not a game the GOP plays. They do not, have not and will not compromise because they know they get their way, at least substantially so, if they don’t.

      As Ambassador Wilson said today

      Contrary to the myth of his campaign, 2024 is not the year for transcendental transformation. The task for the next administration will be to repair the damage done by eight years of radical rule. And the choice for Americans is clear: four more years of corrupt Republican rule, senseless wars, evisceration of the Constitution, emptying of the national treasury — or rebuilding our government and our national reputation, piece by piece. Obama’s overtures to Republicans, or “Obamacans” as the Senator calls them, is a substitute for true national unity based on a substantive program. His marginal appeals have marginally helped him in caucuses in Republican states that Democrats won’t win in the general election. But his vapid rhetoric will not withstand the winds of November. His efforts will be correctly seen by the Republican leadership as a sign of weakness to be exploited. While disaffected Democrats may long for comity in our politics after years of being harangued and belittled by the right wing echo chamber, the Rovians currently promoting Obama are looking to destroy him should he become the nominee. Obama’s claim to float uniquely above the fray and avoid polarization will be short-lived. He is no less mortal than any other Democrat — Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry — all untouched at the beginning of their campaigns and all mauled by the end. We should never forget recent history.

      As much as I dislike her I think he may be right and for this election Hillary may be the better choice.

    5. I was an early member of MoveOn, committed to influencing the round head bullies on the right to just get over the blow-job thing and Move On. Bill Clinton was just about everything I’d want in a President and I have little doubt that Hillary would or will perform as well or better in the office. But I disagree with Joe Wilson that “2008 is not the year for transcendental transformation. The task for the next administration will be to repair the damage done by eight years of radical rule.” If not now, when? Obama suggests that we can choose to play the game or end it. I want to end it. In the Wisconsin primary I’m letting idealism trump pragmatic analysis, the same kind of idealism that got John Kennedy elected.

      if Hillary Clinton is nominated, I will support her campaign and vote for her in November, but I hope Obama is nominated.

      Former Ambassador Wilson owes the Clintons a lot, and he and his wife, Valerie Plame, share the Clinton experience in being pwned by the radical right. That, I think, colors his support for Senator Clinton. His partisanship does the Democratic Party great harm, because it would be stupid indeed to undermine either candidate to the advantage of the other. But Wilson and his wife were and likely are covert operatives, so why should we listen to them, even if once they seemed to be on our side? The enemy of my enemy is the enemy of my enemy. Is Joe Wilson my friend, or the friend of any progressive idealist?

    6. Doug Alder says:

      Frank I think you will find Sara Robinson’s article tonight very interesting – http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2008/02/cult-of-obama.html (it’s not what you might think :)) I was particularly struck by her observation

      So if Obamamania doesn’t come close to making the cut as a “cult,” then just what the hell is going on there?

      What’s going on is that we’ve finally got a Democratic candidate who understands exactly how the Republicans did it. As I pointed out my very first week on this blog, the GOP didn’t come to power by talking about plans and policies; they did it by using strongly emotional appeals that grabbed people by the gut and didn’t let them go. Theirs was never a movement based on reason. It was, from the very beginning, a movement of hearts and souls. And it was that deep, emotionally sustaining commitment that drew people in so deeply that they were willing to give 25 years of their lives to bringing about the New World Order their leaders promised them. We may hate what they’ve accomplished — but we’re never going to be able to do better until we can inspire that same kind of passion for change.

      And Obama’s doing just that. He’s tapped into a deeply pressurized seam of repressed fury within the American electorate, and he’s giving it voice, a focus, and an outlet. Are the results scary? You bet: these people want change on a scale that much of the status quo should find terrifying. Are they unreasoning? The followers may be — but as long as their leader keeps a cool head, that’s not as much of a problem right now as we might think; and the heat will dissipate naturally in time. Is this kind of devotion even appropriate? You bet. You don’t get the kind of deep-level change we need without first exposing and channeling people’s deep discontent. Obama’s change talk may be too vague for most people’s tastes (including mine); but the fact is that if we’re serious about enacting a progressive agenda, rousing people’s deepest dreams and desires and mobilizing that energy is exactly how it’s going to happen. And Obama’s the first candidate we’ve had in a generation who really, truly gets this.

      I’m particularly glad, at this point in time, that I am not an American as I would have to vote and that would require me to choose between Clinton and Obama and I truly don’t know who would be best. All I do know is that either one will be better than McCain or any one else the GOP could sally forth with.

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