Obama reprises call for change and unity
CANTON, Ohio - With one week to go and momentum on his side, Senator Barack Obama delivered his closing argument to voters yesterday, returning to the sweeping themes of change and conciliation that have driven his candidacy from the start.
Obama, in a high-energy appearance in this northeastern Ohio city, sought to remind supporters of the gravity of next week's election, saying the outcome will determine whether the economy will create "bottom-up" prosperity, families will see healthcare relief, and America will finally commit to renewable energy. He implored the raucous crowd to maintain its intensity right up until the polls close.
"That's how we've come so far, how we've come so close - because of you," Obama told a crowd of 4,900 at the Canton Civic Center. "We cannot let up for one day or one minute or one second in this last week. Not now. Not when there's so much at stake."
Obama, who enters the final week of campaign ing with a comfortable lead in most national and battleground state polls over Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, added little new yesterday to his overall message, instead devoting a good part of his speech to recounting the journey he has taken over the last 21 months, from an underdog Democratic hopeful to a man on the brink of history.
But advisers say that was partly the point: Obama, unlike McCain, has kept a largely consistent message throughout the presidential campaign, they say, and what he wants to do in the final days is simply reinforce it with fresh energy.
In many ways, Obama's closing argument completes a circle he began drawing with his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech in Boston, where he burst onto the national stage with his call for the country to bridge the "red state-blue state" rifts permeating American politics.
"In one week," he said yesterday, "you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope."
Obama's appeals for unity have helped him attract enough independents and Republicans to put him in position to win traditionally Republican states such as Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia. But at the same time, Obama has engaged in partisanship himself, using tens of millions of dollars in TV ads attacking what he calls the failed Republican policies of the last eight years.
Yesterday, in Canton and at a later rally in Pittsburgh, he continued his tough assaults on McCain, again tagging him as just another Republican who will follow in the footsteps of President Bush.
"When it comes to the economy - when it comes to the central issue of this election, the central issue for working families all across this region - he don't get it," Obama told about 16,000 people at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. "Because the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with George Bush every step of the way, voting for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he said he opposed . . . voting for the Bush budgets that spent us into debt."
Obama asserted that America, over the eight years of Bush's presidency, had suffered in ways that go well beyond the economy.
"What's also been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play - each of us have responsibilities to work hard to look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to look out for each other, our fellow citizens," he said. "That's what we need to restore right now."
Voters at Obama's rallies were buoyant.
"The sky's the limit," said Paul Heard, a 46-year-old from Canton who works at a community center. "He was talking real," added Heard's wife, Lara, 41. "He was talking to the people."
Then John Stone, a white photographer from Canton, popped his head between the Heards, who are black. "Unity over division," he said.
In his Canton speech, Obama asked voters to consider their future. "The question in this election is not, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' " Obama said, referring to Republican Ronald Reagan's winning indictment of President Jimmy Carter in 1980. "We all know the answer to that. The real question is, 'Will this country be better off four years from now?' "
And yet the Illinois senator, as he has begun to do in his campaign speeches, also sought to lower expectations for what his administration might accomplish early on.
"The cost of this economic crisis, the cost of the war in Iraq, means that Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending on things we can afford to do without," he said, though he did not name any. He urged voters not to believe what he said were false choices presented to them by his opponent in this election, such as protectionism versus unfettered free trade.
"We don't have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq," he said.
Obama's campaign stops yesterday in Ohio and Pennsylvania reflected how important the two states are to winning next Tuesday. Tomorrow night in Orlando, Fla., Obama will campaign with former president Bill Clinton for the first time, in a state many observers questioned whether Obama could win but where current polls show him with a slight edge. His campaign also plans to air a highly unusual 30-minute infomercial tomorrow night on major TV networks.
"Canton, don't believe for a second this election is over. Don't think for a minute that power concedes," Obama said yesterday. "We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does depend on it."
And then, in case anyone missed the message, he tacked on another plea after dispensing with the requisite thank-yous and God bless America: "Let's get to work."
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 