PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA PROMISES 

HE'LL RESTORE AMERICAN DREAM

By Lisa J. Wolf

September 20, 2008

Wednesday, September 17^th, the traveling national press flew in with Barack Obama on his Change We  Can Believe In jet and bussed over to a rally event at the Elko park where some 1500 people had stood in long lines from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m  to be metal-detected and wait in a cordoned-off area under the trees for the Democratic Presidential candidate. Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes and reporters from the New York Times and the Las Vegas Review Journal and the Elko Free Press mingled in the press pool amidst huge network cameras and ‘on-line’ laptops transmitting copy and images instantly.

On his third visit to Elko, Obama called himself an “honorary Elkonian” and mentioning “the attack which took place on the U.S. embassy in Yemen” which he “strongly condemn[ed]”, concluded the attack “reminds us we have to root out and destroy international terrorist organizations.” While acknowledging the United States is in the “midst of two wars,” Obama focused his words “on the economy because the events of this week show that the stakes in this election could not be clearer” as “we are in the midst of the most serious financial crisis in generations” as “three of America’s five largest investment banks have failed or sold off in distress” and “AIG, the biggest insurer, has now been taken over by the federal government. The housing market is in a shambles and Monday brought the worst losses on Wall Street since September 11^th.”

“Everywhere you look,” said Obama, “the economic news is troubling; but for so many Americans this really isn’t news at all: 600 000 workers have lost their jobs since January. Home values are falling. I don’t need to tell you folks in Elko that your paychecks don’t go as far as they used to. It has never been harder to save, retire or buy gas, buy groceries. Put it on the credit card and they’ll raise your rates.”

Obama said, “It feels as if the dream that so many generations fought for is slowly slipping away” but he has “every confidence that we can steer ourselves out” since “that is who we are; that’s what we’ve always done as Americans; but the one thing I also know is this: we can’t steer ourselves out of this crisis by heading in the same direction.”

Obama said, John McCain’s “first response was to stand up and repeat the line” that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong.’ His campaign must have realized this wasn’t the smartest thing to say on the day of a financial meltdown; so they sent him back a few hours later to clean up his mess; but it sounds like he got a little carried away because yesterday John McCain actually said when he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, the ‘old boy’s network in Washington.’ I’m not making this up. This is somebody who’s been in Congress for 26 years; who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign, and now he tells us that he’s the one who’s going to take on ‘the old boy’s network.’”

Obama joked, “In the McCain campaign, that’s called a ‘staff meeting.’ Then John McCain went on to say how angry he was at the greedy corporate interests on Wall Street. He is so angry that he wants to punish them with $200 billion worth of tax cuts” and “if they’re not careful, he’ll give them even more tax cuts for shipping our jobs overseas.”

Obama questioned whether McCain gets “these lines from” lobbyists or Phil Gramm, “the architect of some of the deregulation in Washington that’s caused this mess on Wall Street; who also happens to be the architect of John McCain’s economic plan and one of his chief advisors. You’ll remember Phil Gramm. He’s the guy who said we were just going through a mental recession and called the United States a nation of ‘whiners.’”

Obama noted “John McCain’s big solution to the crisis we’re facing is, get ready for this, a commission,” code for “’we’ll get back to you later.’” Obama said, “We don’t need a commission to figure out what happened: too many in Washington and Wall Street weren’t watching the store” as “CEO’s got greedy, lobbyists got their way” and “politicians sat on their hands until it was too late. We don’t need a commission to tell us how we got into this mess. We need a president who will lead us out of this mess.”

Obama said, “John McCain doesn’t offer real solutions” and characterized as “pretense that somehow he’s going to take them on when he hasn’t taken them on in 26 years.” Obama doesn’t “fault Senator McCain for all the problems we’re facing right now; but I do fault the economic philosophy he’s followed for the last 26 years…that says, ‘We should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down’…that says ‘even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise.’”

Obama told those assembled, “I am running for President of the United States because the dreams of the American people must not be endangered anymore” and called to strengthen the “fundamental promise that made this country great: that America’s a place where you can make it if you try; and everyone’s got a chance at their dreams. I know I wouldn’t be standing here today without that promise we must keep once more.”

Obama said speaking to “young veterans who come back from Iraq or Afghanistan” makes him think of his “grandfather who signed up after Pearl Harbor” during “World War II and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go back to college on the G.I. bill;” and reminds him of “the face of that young student I met who sleeps 3 hours before going back to school after working the night shift;” and  “about my mom, a single mom, who raised me and my sister on her own while she was working and earning her college degree, who once turned to food stamps, but still was able to send me to the best schools in the country.” Obama also remembered “all those men and women on the south side of Chicago I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the steel plant closed. Those are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped my life.”

“Unlike Senator McCain,” said Obama, “it didn’t take a crisis on Wall Street for me to realize how folks are living on Main Street.” Obama said he’d worked two years ago to bring the treasury secretary and every “stakeholder together” to address “the subprime mortgage crisis before it got worse” and “fought for a new regulatory framework to restore transparency and trust in our financial markets.”

Obama claimed he “didn’t wait until the day of the crisis to realize we had big problems on Wall Street” and proposes as President to implement “rules of the road that make competition fair and honest” with “regulatory oversight” rather than playing “a game where tails they win and heads you lose;” where “we are backing up their exorbitant risk.”

Obama said, “I want to make sure that we have a financial system that is working to fund small businesses in Elko; that’s working to make sure that people can buy a home; that young people can afford to go to college. That’s what the system should be all about.”

Obama said he’s “proposed a $50 billion economic plan that will save 1 million jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure by repairing our schools and helping our states and localities avoid damaging budget cuts. To help people stay in their homes, I’m going to change bankruptcy laws and take 10% off your mortgage interest rate” and will “institute a home score system that will help every consumer figure out whether or not they’ll be able to make the mortgage payment before they buy a house” and “restore opportunity for all Americans.” Obama wants to ensure that “if you get sick you won’t go bankrupt” and “your kids will get a good education and go to college.”

Obama said, "John McCain wants to continue the same economic policies that got us in this mess in the first place. Change isn’t just a slogan” but “means a tax code that doesn’t reward the writers…but the small businesses who deserve it.” Obama added, “I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas” and “will eliminate capital gains tax for small businesses and start-ups. That’s how we’ll grow our economy,” creating “high wage, high tech jobs for tomorrow.”

Obama claimed he “will cut taxes for 95% of all working families,” unlike McCain who’s “got a tax cut, too; it’s just for big corporations, including $4 million for Exxon Mobile and he leaves 100 million Americans without a single dime of tax relief.” Obama said, “If you make less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase one single dime.”

In addition Obama said he “will finally keep the promise of affordable and sensible health care for every single American. If you have health care, what my plan will do is lower your premiums. If you don’t have health care, you’ll be able to have the same kind of coverage as members of Congress” and Obama promised to “stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care most.”

Obama said, “I honestly know what’s in existing mining law” although his “opponent fumbled the last time he was asked” and “will make sure we maintain” mining while “looking at the new energy economy of the future” including “tap[ping] our natural gas reserves and invest[ing] in clean coal technology” while “our auto companies retool so the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.” Obama promised to “invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy,” creating “5 million new jobs that pay well and will not be outsourced and Nevada will be at the forefront.”

Regarding education, Obama said, “Now is the time to meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy” and “will make sure you can afford to go to college.” In addition, Obama promised to “protect Social Security” which McCain “wants to privatize.” Obama doesn’t want to see “four more years of an economic policy” to “find out more Americans slipped out of the middle class” with “children’s future mortgaged to debt.”

Rather, said Obama, “This election is our chance to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough. We can do this.’ It’s time for us to stand up and say, ‘Look we are going in a new direction and we have the confidence to know we can do this.” Obama called the crowd his “ambassadors” whom he needs “to make it happen” and called on people to “talk to your friends and your neighbors” and “to get in their face” and when someone says he’ll “raises your taxes, say, ‘No, he’s not. He’s going to lower them.’”