Obama: Don't 'lecture' me on change
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is cheered as he speaks at a campaign rally today in Des Moines. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
DES MOINES -- Barack Obama had a pointed message this morning for his opponents in the Democratic primary race: Don't tell me what it takes to make change.
Delivering a newly freshened stump speech designed to sum up his case for the presidency, Obama sought to counter two distinct arguments that his rivals have used against him in the run-up to the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
The argument from John Edwards is that Obama lacks the toughness and the fight to truly change Washington. The argument from Hillary Clinton is that Obama is merely hoping for change and not tested enough to see it through. Obama, addressing several hundred supporters at a banquet hall in downtown Des Moines, today offered a forceful rebuttal, saying he didn't "need any lectures about how to bring about change."
But the battle over the next week, Obama said, will be about more than just the meaning of the word change. It will be, he said, about the meaning of hope.
"Some of my opponents appear scornful of the word. They think it speaks to naivete, passivity, and wishful thinking," Obama said. "But that's not what hope is. Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task before us, or the roadblocks that stand in our path ... I know this will be hard. I know it. But I also know this. I know that hope has been the guiding force behind the most important changes this country has ever made."
Obama accused Clinton, although not by name, of having it both ways in trying to run as the experienced Washington hand while promising to usher in what she calls "a new beginning."
"You can't at once argue that you're the master of a broken system in Washington and then offer yourself as the person to change it," he said. "You can't fall in line behind the conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and then offer yourself as the leader who's best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."
Clinton spokesman Phil Singer responded in a statement saying, "Now is not the time for political attacks, it's time to pick a president who can give us a new beginning in a time of war and a troubled economy. There are big stakes in this election - Iowans are going to pick the candidate best able to make the change we need starting on day one and that candidate is Hillary Clinton."
Obama said the high stakes were precisely why voters should look past the more conventional choices in this election and reach for something transformative.
"The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result," he said. "That's a risk we can't take. Not this year."
Obama never fails...to say nothing with hundreds of words.
Vapid, I believe, is the word.
Barack Obama channels John F Kennedy
Hillary Clinton channels Richard Nixon
Obvama and your handlers. PLEASE TAKE NOTE. Of the blog posted by DJS. If you want to reach the masses, SIMPLIFY. USE FEWER WORDS. USE SIMPLE SENTENCES. BE MORE DIRECT. AVOID USING COMPOUND/COMPLEX CONSTRUCTS IN YOUR SENTENCES.
Obvama and your handlers. PLEASE TAKE NOTE. Of the blog posted by DJS. If you want to reach the masses, SIMPLIFY. USE FEWER WORDS. USE SIMPLE SENTENCES. BE MORE DIRECT. AVOID USING COMPOUND/COMPLEX CONSTRUCTS IN YOUR SENTENCES.
Keep up the good work, Clinton trolls! I hope you all realize that the thousands of hateful, negative posts on every positive story about Obama are only hurting your candidate. She desperately needs voters in Iowa to perceive her as a warm, caring human being. You're not helping.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!
Obama has been an effective agent of change for 20 years. We are fortunate he is willing to put up with all the nonsense and nuisance of campaigning to bring his brand of change to the Presidency. He's tops when it comes to character, judgement, and vision. Obama /08 -- I can't wait -- he'll be GREAT.
OBAMA 2008!
Yes, Obama, take KazemWellWisher's advice... speak like George W Bush.
Go Obama Go !
You're just what we need. And FYI .... Obama is leading Mrs. Clinton in fundraising in Massachusetts. Gee, wonder why that is ?
DJS, you have the "V" word correct; however your ineptitude to decipher logic and common sense not with standing your inability to comprehend Obama’s vernacular or should I say colloquial speech leaves you representing the same word you attack him with "Vapid". It’s obvious due to your deficiency of intellect you’re unable to recognize Obama’s "Vivacious" and "Vigorous" speeches.
HILLARY has run the MOST NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN among the democrats...just a taste of what is to come in her presidency...provided she gets past OBAMA.... He is the only one who gives nightmares to Clintons and Clinton suckers. Imagine a kid who was nowhere in the scene a year ago scaring the sh..t out of mighty Clintons!!!!!....Two Clintons fighting one skinny kid...ha..ha...It was supposed to be Hillary's coronation????? The more Obama is on the campaign, the stronger he gets everyday. The longer Hillary stays, the dirtier it gets.
Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, therefore I say I support a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of the Clintons. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished and cast in vain. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition of “Politics as usual”.
Obama 08
Hillary Clinton will just be more of the same. She touts her "experience," (what experience?) but experience without Judgement is pointless--it's like education without learning. The whole point of experience is it's supposed to give you better judgement in real world situations.
If Hillary really had this vast experience she claims (but doesn't have) she wouldn't have voted for the Iraq war, she wouldn't have voted against a policy of NOT selling cluster bombs to countries that use them on civilians, she wouldn't have voted for Kyl-Lieberman.
In the closing week going into Iowa Obama has cleared his throat and is making his case. The Clintons remain an old fight smart Democrats don't want to fight again. If this primary season is a referendum on Bill Clinton's third term I think the message will come in a week in Iowa. We are so ready to get out of the Bush -Clinton White House Swap.
Whatever Obama's weaknesses, hs greatest strength is that he is not a Clinton..
I suppose not being present for a vote in the Senate on funding for the Iraq War could,be called change.
I would rather have a candiate who knows her responsibiites as an elected representive.
R.A Webb, that's misinformation. He's been present for every Iraq funding bill. And on the last one she waited till he cast his vote and then just did whatever he did. Is that what you call leadership? Waiting for you're opponent to vote and copying?
GO GET EM OBAMA!!!!!!!!
Edwards empty rhetoric and Hilary's forked tounge Im a change agent who has been part of the system for 35 years needed to be rebuffed. And this is the perfect argument!
"You can't at once argue that you're the master of a broken system in Washington and then offer yourself as the person to change it"
Amen. Go Obama!
To #12/Nick
Wow lol, someone must have been bored - kudos to you though; who knew so many words beginning with "v" could be used for coherent sentences.
I also like Obama's argument - can't be the master of the old system and be the one to change it.
I can't wait until O! bama sits down with the powerful interests who have corrupted Washington the past several decades to "negotiate" some progressive policies for us. I'm sure they'll melt in his presence (like his fanboy supporters here) and just give away billions of dollars to him. They'll just be oh so awed by his soaring rhetoric.
And then they'll laugh him out of the room.
Barack Obama is the most naive presidential candidate I've seen in the past two decades. Or the most disingenuous. Probably the latter.
r
I can see there's a lot of debate about which candidate to support - and rightly so. While candidates might support this and that there is one thing that is absolutely inexorable - the Rule of 72. What, you may be saying, does compound interest have to do with elections? Well, at this particular moment our debt is $9,140,774,041,671.00. Assuming we completely eliminate deficit spending (and which candidate would do that, huh?) and a current t-bill rate of 5% this 9 trillion dollar debt will become an 18 trillion dollar debt in 72/5 or 14.4 years. The interest on our CURRENT debt is $457 BILLION dollars. In fifteen years the INTEREST part of the debt will be a TRILLION dollars. This is a surer enemy than all the IslamoFascists in existence. This is a greater threat to the sovereignty of the U.S. than any foreign invader. This surpasses any conceivable wedge issue by several orders of magnitude. To put it bluntly, OUR COUNTRY IS BLEEDING TO DEATH. Triage of a most urgent sort is needed here. It's as if a patient had arterial bleeding and the "doctors" were ordering expensive lab tests. There IS a REAL doctor who can perform this triage. Dr. Ron Paul truly represents Hope For America!
I want to thank 'Billary' (it is hard to know who the real candidate is here) for being such a great contrast between backward looking views on the major challenges of our time and Barack's forward looking solutions for our current problems.
I with the Obama campaign had been more aggressive about telling voters what his real qualifications are to be president. He has OUTSTANDING experience. Here are a few highlights...
- Graduated Magna Cum Laude, in the top 1% of his class at Harvard Law School. Majored in Constitutional Law
- Voted President of the Harvard Law Review - a very high honor
- Worked as Editor of a prestigous publication in N.Y. on International Trade and Finance.
- Worked for several years as a Civil Rights Attorney in Chicago.
- Worked for a number of years as a Community Political Organizer in Chicago.
- Was Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
- Served State Senator of Illinois for 8 years.
- Has been U.S. Senator for 3 years now.
** Has held ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICE for 11 years, 5 years LONGER than Hillary has.
** Is a self made man. Accomplished all of the above on his own, and doesn't owe his "c laim to fame" to his spouse !!!
To all the Billary supporters......ONE QUESTION. If Hillary has 35 years of experience and she REALLY is against Bush's policies why didn't she run AGAINST him in 2000 or 2004? OH, I forgot.... the Bush's and the Clinton's are FRIENDS!!!!! THAT'S WHY!!! Except when they pretend they are not such as during an election after they have decided over dinner whose TURN it is to live in the White House.
Support a self made person.
- as you would support the same in your own community.
Say No to Nepotism.
- as you would say No to Nepotism in your own community.
Say No to triangulated Iraq War green-light votes.
- as you have said no to Bush's botched war in your own community.
Say yes to a new brighter vision for America.
It's time to Rise and Shine again.
Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.
If Hilliary wins the Dem Nomination, I will vote Republican and hope for real change another 4 years.
CHANGE? A health plan which will not work - What new ideas? They all echo the clintons. Maybe in 8 years we'll see if he's seasoned.
CHANGE? A health plan which will not work - What new ideas? They all echo the clintons. Maybe in 8 years we'll see if he's seasoned.
Blah, Blah, Blah! Change, hope, unity, ............ can obliterate all the hard work, evidence, ...... or a lack of these elements in the past, present, a "hopeful" future. The greatest orator, preacher, hypnotist wins the heart and mind. That's done. We are all sheep. Done.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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