This year, parents are a little nervous about what they're putting under the Christmas tree. Campaigning in Iowa, Obama discussed what he would do as president to ensure that toys are safe for kids:
"Now don't get me wrong, as president I will work with China to keep harmful toys off our shelves. But I'll also immediately take steps to ensure that all toys are independently tested before they reach our shores and I'll significantly increase penalties on companies that break the rules. The more toys we import from China, the more risk to our children. As president I will act with urgency to protect our children from being harmed by unsafe toys."
http://ap.google.com/...
With Obama, it's not just talk. Obama's track record of fighting for reforms that limit lobbyists influence and make government more open, democratic, and accountable backs up his rhetoric in ways that other candidates cannot claim. I've diaried before on Obama working to increase oversight of private government contractors. He had the foresight to be on top of that issue before it was in the news with the Blackwater shootings, just like he fought for veterans to get the treatment they more than deserve before that made big headlines.
I mention all of this because the cynical among us will say "Ohhhh, there goes Obama talking about toy safety just because it's Chrismas". With Obama, it's not just talk. This is an issue Obama has lead on since he's been in the US Congress.
Environmental Health
Since coming to Washington, Senator Obama has made the elimination of childhood lead poisoning one of his top priorities.
Over 400,000 children in the U.S. suffer from lead poisoning. Lead is a highly toxic substance that can produce a range of health problems in young children including IQ deficiencies, reading and learning disabilities, reduced attention spans, hyperactivity, and damage to the kidneys, brain and bone marrow. The most common source of lead exposure is lead paint in older housing.
During his first year in office, Senator Obama successfully fought to get the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish long-overdue rules for how contractors involved in the renovation and remodeling of homes should deal with lead paint hazards. To force the EPA to issue the rules, Senator Obama threatened to block the confirmation of an EPA official and passed an amendment to stop the EPA from delaying the rulemaking process. When the rules are eventually finalized, they will prevent 28,000 lead-related illnesses each year, resulting in an annual net economic benefit of more than $4 billion.
Lead is also present in many children's products. In 2003 and 2004, nearly 150 million pieces of toy jewelry were recalled because of toxic levels of lead. To address this problem, Senator Obama introduced the Lead-Free Toys Act to require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban any children's product containing lead.
In December 2006, Senator Obama released a report showing that a number of souvenirs purchased in the U.S. Capitol gift shops contained large amounts of lead. Those items were promptly removed from store shelves.
Senator Obama is also an original cosponsor of the Home Lead Safety Tax Credit Act, which would provide tax credits to property owners who eliminate or contain paint hazards in homes where low-income young children or women of child-bearing age live.
Recognizing that 30 years after the ban of lead in paint many of our children are still being exposed, Senator Obama also introduced the Lead Poisoning Reduction Act, which would help protect children from lead poisoning by requiring that all non-home-based child care facilities, including Head Start program locations and kindergarten classrooms, be lead-safe within five years. The legislation would also establish a $42.6 million grant program to help local communities pay to make these facilities safe.
He also introduced the Healthy Communities Act to identify and address problems in communities that are at high risk from environmental contaminants. In addition, recognizing the contribution of housing, parks, trails, roadways, and public transportation to healthy lifestyles, Senator Obama introduced the Healthy Places Act to assess and support improvements to the built environment.
http://obama.senate.gov/...
For those of you that might not have made up your minds who to support, I sincerely hope that you'll take a close look at Obama's track record in making a decision. You won't find a perfect candidate. Obama was right about the Iraq War from the start, but has received some legitimate criticism for not pursuing the most aggressive defunding legislative strategy and talking in terms of "getting out more responsibly than we got in". I think it's debatable whether the most aggressive defunding strategies would have worked in 05 or 06, but I would have liked Obama to have voted for the Kerry-Feingold Amendment. I disagree with those that infer from differences over strategy for bringing about withdrawal that Obama hasn't tried or wanted to bring it about, however.
He's also caught heat from Edwards partisans, despite his vastly superior League of Conservation Voters ratings, for having supported subsidies for converting coal to liquid fuel. Although partisans opposing Obama usually leave out the fact that he supported Tester's legislation tying subsidies to CO2 reductions, this particular position really tested me personally because I opposed both Bunning's really bad legislation and Tester's less bad legislation.
Imperfections notwithstanding, when I look at what Obama has done and what he's stood for from the very beginning as a community organizer I see a consistent track record not only of fighting for but delivering change. I support Obama primarily because he's worked throughout his career to limit lobbyist influence. Talking about it and taking personal pledges are one thing, but politics isn't going to change because one or two candidates are wealthy enough to fund their own campaigns. Obama delivered legislation when others didn't even bother to try. We know he's truly committed because he's done it. And this goes for issue after issue, from reforming the death penalty, to expanding health care for children, to limitting lobbyist influence, to oversight of contractors, to raising CAFE standards, and on and on Obama's track record speaks for itself. Obama gives me hope because he's worked, fought, and because he's won.