Obama makes bid for middle class

Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama delivers a policy speech today at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in Bettendorf, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

With more and more households feeling squeezed by the rising cost of living, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois told Iowans today that he understood their economic anxieties and would work to restore the "American dream" for middle-class families.

Drawing on his own family's experiences a generation ago, Obama said that Americans today were working harder for less, struggling to cover skyrocketing health care and energy costs, and increasingly unable to afford college for their children.

"As I see this every day on the campaign trail, I'm reminded of how unlikely it is that the dreams of my family could be realized today," Obama said at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in Bettendorf, Iowa, according to prepared remarks. "I don't accept this future."

Obama called for a series of remedies aimed at middle-class voters, an integral bloc of Democratic caucus-goers who will help decide the party's presidential nominee on Jan. 3. His speech, part of Obama's week-long push in Iowa, comes as all the Democratic candidates look to shore up their support in the state, which promises to play a pivotal role in the primary contest.

Obama's proposals, some of which he's already discussed in the campaign, include: a $1,000 tax cut for working families; an expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act; guaranteed paid sick days for American workers; a new $4,000 tax credit for higher education; and portable retirement accounts. Read more about the plan here. (See related plans from John Edwardshere and from Hillary Clinton here.)

In a phone interview after his speech, Obama dismissed polls suggesting that blue-collar voters prefer rival Hillary Clinton, saying she is simply better known.

"These aren't folks who are spending their time reading The New York Times or listening to the cable talk shows -- they've got better things to do," he said. "And so they're more likely to be familiar with Senator Clinton, the Clinton brand name, than they are with me. Now that they're paying attention, I think it's a great opportunity for us to show how I've been fighting for the issues that they care about for the last two decades."

Asked about Clinton's continued refusal to say whether she supports driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, Obama said: "I think Senator Clinton has picked up the old playbook from the 1990s, which says you try to avoid answering questions so you're not a target of attack in the general election from Republicans. That I don't believe is a recipe for bringing about real change."

Clinton's campaign accuses Obama of abandoning his commitment to run a hopeful, positive campaign.

All the Democratic candidates will gather in Des Moines Saturday for the huge Jefferson Jackson dinner (the "JJ" in caucus-speak), one of the party's biggest cattle calls. Asked about his strategy for winning Iowa, Obama touted his ground organization. "One of the advantages we have is, I think, that we have enormous intensity among our supporters," he said. "They really care deeply about this and are willing to volunteer [and] pound the pavement to get our folks to caucus for us. We feel good about where we are."