Barack Obama

  

Senator Obama's in St. Paul, Minnesota: "The end of one historic journey... the beginning of another

by Sam Graham-FelsenTuesday, June 03, 2008 at 07:30 PM

 

 

 

This is your movement. Build it.

 

Senator Obama delivered the following remarks (as prepared) in St. Paul, Minnesota tonight...

 

 

 

Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end.

Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois.  Thousands of miles have been traveled.  Millions of voices have been heard.  And because of what you said – because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America.  Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I want to thank every American who stood with us over the course of this campaign – through the good days and the bad; from the snows of Cedar Rapids to the sunshine of Sioux Falls.  And tonight I also want to thank the men and woman who took this journey with me as fellow candidates for President.

At this defining moment for our nation, we should be proud that our party put forth one of the most talented, qualified field of individuals ever to run for this office.  I have not just competed with them as rivals, I have learned from them as friends, as public servants, and as patriots who love America and are willing to work tirelessly to make this country better.  They are leaders of this party, and leaders that America will turn to for years to come.

 

That is particularly true for the candidate who has traveled further on this journey than anyone else.  Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she’s a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she’s a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight. 

 

We’ve certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months.  But as someone who’s shared a stage with her many times, I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning – even in the face of tough odds – is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago; what sent her to work at the Children’s Defense Fund and made her fight for health care as First Lady; what led her to the United States Senate and fueled her barrier-breaking campaign for the presidency – an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be.  And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory.  When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen.  Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

 

There are those who say that this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided.  Well I say that because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their ballot for the very first time.  There are Independents and Republicans who understand that this election isn’t just about the party in charge of Washington, it’s about the need to change Washington.   There are young people, and African-Americans, and Latinos, and women of all ages who have voted in numbers that have broken records and inspired a nation. 

 

All of you chose to support a candidate you believe in deeply.  But at the end of the day, we aren’t the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard.  You didn’t do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else.  You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – we cannot afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing.  We owe our children a better future.  We owe our country a better future.  And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say – let us begin the work together.  Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.

 

In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda.  They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically.  I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine.  My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.

 

Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.

 

It’s not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush ninety-five percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.

 

It’s not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs, or insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of college – policies that have lowered the real incomes of the average American family, widened the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and left our children with a mountain of debt.    

 

And it’s not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians – a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn’t making the American people any safer. 

 

So I’ll say this – there are many words to describe John McCain’s attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush’s policies as bipartisan and new.  But change is not one of them. 

 

Change is a foreign policy that doesn’t begin and end with a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.  I won’t stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what’s not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years – especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored. 

 

We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in - but start leaving we must.  It’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future.  It’s time to rebuild our military and give our veterans the care they need and the benefits they deserve when they come home.  It’s time to refocus our efforts on al Qaeda’s leadership and Afghanistan, and rally the world against the common threats of the 21st century – terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.  That’s what change is.   

 

Change is realizing that meeting today’s threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy – tough, direct diplomacy where the President of the United States isn’t afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for.  We must once again have the courage and conviction to lead the free world. That is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Truman, and Kennedy.  That’s what the American people want.  That’s what change is. 

 

Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who created it.  It’s understanding that the struggles facing working families can’t be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs, but by giving a the middle-class a tax break, and investing in our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming how we use energy, and improving our schools, and renewing our commitment to science and innovation.  It’s understanding that fiscal responsibility and shared prosperity can go hand-in-hand, as they did when Bill Clinton was President.    

 

John McCain has spent a lot of time talking about trips to Iraq in the last few weeks, but maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy – cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota – he’d understand the kind of change that people are looking for. 

 

Maybe if he went to Iowa and met the student who works the night shift after a full day of class and still can’t pay the medical bills for a sister who’s ill, he’d understand that she can’t afford four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and wealthy.  She needs us to pass health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it and brings down premiums for every family who needs it.  That’s the change we need. 

 

Maybe if he went to Pennsylvania and met the man who lost his job but can’t even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one, he’d understand that we can’t afford four more years of our addiction to oil from dictators.  That man needs us to pass an energy policy that works with automakers to raise fuel standards, and makes corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future – an energy policy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.  That’s the change we need.

 

And maybe if he spent some time in the schools of South Carolina or St. Paul or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans, he’d understand that we can’t afford to leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind; that we owe it to our children to invest in early childhood education; to recruit an army of new teachers and give them better pay and more support; to finally decide that in this global economy, the chance to get a college education should not be a privilege for the wealthy few, but the birthright of every American.  That’s the change we need in America.  That’s why I’m running for President. 

 

The other side will come here in September and offer a very different set of policies and positions, and that is a debate I look forward to.  It is a debate the American people deserve.  But what you don’t deserve is another election that’s governed by fear, and innuendo, and division.  What you won’t hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon – that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize.  Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first.  We are always Americans first. 

 

Despite what the good Senator from Arizona said tonight, I have seen people of differing views and opinions find common cause many times during my two decades in public life, and I have brought many together myself.  I’ve walked arm-in-arm with community leaders on the South Side of Chicago and watched tensions fade as black, white, and Latino fought together for good jobs and good schools.  I’ve sat across the table from law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform a criminal justice system that sent thirteen innocent people to death row.  And I’ve worked with friends in the other party to provide more children with health insurance and more working families with a tax break; to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure that the American people know where their tax dollars are being spent; and to reduce the influence of lobbyists who have all too often set the agenda in Washington. 

 

In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes.  And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again. 

 

So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union.

 

So it was for the Greatest Generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny, and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity. 

 

So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom’s cause. 

 

So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that’s better, and kinder, and more just.

 

And so it must be for us.  

 

America, this is our moment.  This is our time.  Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past.  Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face.  Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

 

The journey will be difficult.  The road will be long.  I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations.  But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people.  Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.  This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.  Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America. 

 

 

 

Obama will speak soon and you can watch his speech from St. Paul, Minnesota live here...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barack just sent out this email... 

 

Friend --

 

I'm about to take the stage in St. Paul and announce that we have won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

It's been a long journey, and we should all pause to thank Hillary Clinton, who made history in this campaign. Our party and our country are better off because of her.

I want to make sure you understand what's ahead of us. Earlier tonight, John McCain outlined a vision of America that's very different from ours -- a vision that continues the disastrous policies of George W. Bush.

But this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past and bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

It's going to take hard work, but thanks to you and millions of other donors and volunteers, no one has ever been more prepared for such a challenge.

Thank you for everything you've done to get us here. Let's keep making history.

Barack

 

 

 

CNN and MSNBC have announced that the Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Watch the video...

 

 

Let's take a moment to reflect on what we've built together. In the beginning, few thought this would be possible, but your faith in this campaign for change never wavered. Your remarkable outpouring of grassroots support has been absolutely pivotal to our success thusfar.

 

Let's celebrate tonight, but recognize that we have a tremendous challenge ahead of us. All of us will need to stay involved and give everything we have to this movement. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, but we're up for it.

 

Let's keep making history...

 

 

 

Meet Barack

Early Years

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.

 

Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.

 

It was there, at the University of Hawaii, where Barack's parents met. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America.

 

Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

 

 

The College Years

Remembering the values of empathy and service that his mother taught him, Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment.

 

The group had some success, but Barack had come to realize that in order to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a change in our laws and in our politics.

 

He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

 

 

Political Career

It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama's life - growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas - that have animated his political journey. Amid the partisanship and bickering of today's public debate, he still believes in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose - a politics that puts solving the challenges of everyday Americans ahead of partisan calculation and political gain.

 

In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

 

In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator. His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the lead voice in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style corruption in Congress.

 

As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. And knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's addiction to oil, he's working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars.

 

Whether it's the poverty exposed by Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or the role of faith in our politics, Barack Obama continues to speak out on the issues that will define America in the 21st century. But above all his accomplishments and experiences, he is most proud and grateful for his family. His wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, live on Chicago's South Side.

 

 

  

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Troy High School

Troy, MI | June 02, 2008

Wherever I go, I talk about how we need to bring about real change in this country. And few understand the need for change as well as folks here in Michigan. Because while we've been talking about a recession in this country for a few months now, Michigan has been living it for a very long time. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and workers and communities across this state have been struggling for years with the downturn that all of America is feeling today.

 

In fairness, some of these challenges are the product of larger forces beyond the control of government. But there is no doubt that the Bush economic policies have done little to help the working families of Michigan or build a better future for America.

That is, in large part, what this election in November will be all about. Because Senator McCain says we have made, and this is a quote, "great progress economically" these past eight year, and he promises more of the same.

 

Well, I couldn't disagree more. Since George Bush took office, we've gone through the first period of sustained economic growth since World War II in which the incomes of American workers have actually dropped. 7 million more Americans don't have health care. 1 million more Americans are out of work. Millions of families are facing foreclosure. You're working harder for less, and paying more for tuition, more for groceries, and more at the pump.

 

To me, this isn't "great progress." This is a cause for concern and an impetus for change.

 

Yet Senator McCain wants to double down on the Bush economic plan. Rather than reforming an unfair tax system and offering the middle class some relief, he's offering more tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy we just can't afford. Rather than making health care affordable for every American, like I've proposed, he's offering a health care plan that puts coverage at risk and that's designed for folks who are already healthy and able to afford health care at any price. And rather than standing up for robust trade that works for all Americans, as I do, he's supporting more trade deals that work for Wall Street, but not for Main Street.

 

But understand, there's a reason the problems we face today are so much bigger than they were several years ago. A big part of it is that George Bush and John McCain have been so focused on pursuing a flawed and costly war in Iraq that they've lost sight of our mounting problems here at home. Instead of working to fix our economy and lift up hardworking families, they've fought to extend a war that's costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars without making us any safer -- a war that has strengthened our enemies and distracted us from the real battle with Osama bin Ladin in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Just to put this in perspective, for what taxpayers here in Oakland County have spent in Iraq, you could be providing health care for nearly 900,000 people, or offering more than 200,000 college scholarships for Michigan students, or hiring more than 30,000 elementary school teachers. And now it seems like all Senator McCain is talking about on the campaign trail is Iraq - instead of offering real solutions to the problems you face every day.

 

In fact, Senator McCain conceded not long ago that he didn't know much about the economy. That's not his interest. That's not his priority. But it will be mine.

 

I want to end a war that's costing America $10 billion a month and begin to make the critical investments we need to get our own country moving again.

 

That's the choice in this election. Are we going to continue the failed Bush-McCain economic policies and remain mired in an endless and costly conflict in Iraq, or will we change course, and focus on the problems that working families in Michigan and across America are facing every day?

 

I believe strongly that we are on the wrong path, and that we need new priorities and a new direction and that is why I'm running for President or the United States.

 

 

 

 

버락 오바마 (BARACK OBAMA)

아태 이민자에 대한 오바마 의원의 입장

 

A Strong Record of Support for Asian American and Pacific Islanders

아시아, 태평양계 이민자들을 위한 버락 오바마 의원의 지원 활동 내용

 

 

전국민의 실질적인 의료보험 대책: 미국에 거주하는 아시아계 이민자들중 약 240만명은 의료보험이 없습니다. 버락 오바마의원은 그의 첫 임기말에 모든 미국 국민들이 저렴하고도 충실한 내용의 실용적인 의료혜택을 받을수있는 의료대책 강화를위한 법안서명에 참여했읍니다. 버락 오바마의원의 의료 계획안은 미국 의료 시스템의 현대화와 질병예방의 장려, 그리고 공중보건의 강화로 일반 가정당 매년 $2,500 까지 의료비 절약에 도움을 주게 될것입니다.

 

인종분류조항과 차별정책 법안 폐지: 버락 오바마의원은 커뮤니티 활동가와 민권담당 변호사로서, 또한 여러형식의 인종차별에 대해 투쟁하기위해 선출된 대표자로서 그의 전문적인 능력을 발휘해왔읍니다. 버락 오바마의원은 일리노이즈주의 주상원 위원회에서 공공서류의 인종분류 조항 반대를위한 법안을 통과 시켰으며 또한 소수민족의 권리를 보호하기 위한 의미있는 정책들을 활성화 시키기 위해 그가 살아오며 겪어온 산 경험들을 계속 활용할것입니다.

 

이민정책의 개혁: 버락 오바마의원은 서류미비 이민자들을위해 합법적인 시민으로 살수있는 길을 제시하고 국경 강화와 이민국의 취약점을 보강 시킴으로써 미국의 이민정책을 새롭게 포괄적으로 재정비하기위해 앞장서왔읍니다. 버락 오바마의원은 대통령으로서 비 효율적인 이민정책으로인한 ?가족이별 방지?와 ?H1-B 비자의 보완?을 최우선적으로 다룰 포괄적인 이민 정책 개정을위해 힘쓸것입니다.

 

이민자 자녀를 위한 교육 투자 확대: 버락 오바마의원은 현 정부의 ?낙제 학생 방지법 (No Child Left Behind)?을 재정비하고 정책 추진을 위한 기금을 적절하게 책정 할 것입니다. 또한, 이중 언어 교육을 강력히 학교의 책임 소하에 둘것이며 대학 학자금 보조의 재 편성과 보조금 액수의 증액을위해 계속 노력해 나갈것입니다. 버락 오바마의원은 미국에서 성장한 서류 미비 학생들에게도 주 거주자와 같은 학비를 부과 하도록 한, 즉 비혜택 소수민 학생들의 교육과 발전, 그리고 그들의 안정을위한 ?드림법안?을 오래동안 지지해 왔습니다. 버락 오바마의원은 드림법안의 후원동료로서 드림법안이 통과되어 모든학생들이 저렴한 학비로 충실한 교육을 받을수 있기를 원하고 있읍니다.

 

스몰 비지니스에 대한 투자 및 지원: 아시아, 태평양계 이민자들은 110만 이상의 스몰 비지니스를 소유하고 있습니다. 버락 오바마의원은 연방정부가 소수 민족들이 운영하는 비지니스에 투자하거나 그들에게 기술적인 보조를 공급해주고 또한 융자에 차별을 줄이도록하는 정책을 지원할것입니다.

 

 

 

Learn More about Barack Obama and the AAPI Community at:

aapi.BarackObama.com

Speak up. Tell Barack your story at:

312-496-6614

 

 

 

http://www.barackobama.com