Obama's Easter Speech for Pennsylvanians
It is time for the resurrection of our nation's politics -- out of the mud, into the fresh air of issues, and out of a long, dark period in which personal attacks were used to crucify opponents.
I want to speak to everyone in Pennsylvania who is afraid that I don't have the right stuff to deliver the American dream of good jobs, affordable health care, better education, a smart foreign policy, and clean energy; to everyone who is afraid that I don't have enough substance; that I am naive about how "Washington" really works, how the world really works, and how to really get things done on Capital Hill and in the White House.
Pennsylvanians: It's important for you to know what you're getting with me... My opponent, and a lot of radio talk show hosts, have portrayed me (not only as naive) but as being deceitful, and insincere, and they've even portrayed my wife as unpatriotic when that's the farthest thing from the truth. If February was the silly season of campaigning, March will be duck-and-cover season. And I just want to warn you about what's (already) coming -- over the airwaves -- and hurled at you in political speeches: The Kitchen Sink.
Meanwhile, Easter is just around the corner. As a Christian, I will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And in that spirit, I offer a new politics -- a politics of hope, of honesty and dignity. It is time for the resurrection of our nation's politics -- out of the mud, into the fresh air of issues, and out of a long dark period in which personal attacks were used to crucify opponents.
I am running to offer you a choice. To leave behind the Attack-and-Rip-em-up OLD politics as usual. I'm offering you a choice, a NEW politics and a campaign that includes DISCUSSING the issues AND FIGHTING for principles, but does NOT include tearing the other guy to shreds... I'm offering you a choice that includes winning in November, but does not include the politics of personal destruction. If earnest people, like the people in Pennsylvania, are led, again, down-and-dirty and into the mud during this Democratic primary, then, neither candidate nor campaign will be in good standing, solutions will be out of our grasp, and we won't win in November against Republican policies that promise more war and less for the economy and society.
I am ready to get on with the serious work of fixing America's policies so we can secure our children's future -- but we cannot, as a country do this if we continue to tear our opponents down. WE need to work together to secure our children's future, and it won't be easy.
The one thing I KNOW is that it won't be easy. Another thing I know is that it will be impossible if we continue politics as usual, dividing people and demonizing people, who, if you really get down to it, love their families the same way we love ours and who want the best for their country. People are TIRED of the same old politics as usual. But, more than that, the new politics can deliver more of the American dream for your family. It will be impossible to REALLY change things in Washington if we have the same old people, carrying the same old baggage, fighting the same old war.
I think I am the best candidate to provide change in Washington, to work across the aisle to get things done, like I did in Illinois to provide children with health care and create ethics reform and in Washington with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to secure the loose nukes around the world so they don't fall into terrorist hands.
I think I am the best candidate to run in November, because Republicans don't hate me. There hasn't been a vast conspiracy against me. And I think I can win, like I've done in 29 states so far... blue states, and red states, among white voters in Iowa and black voters in Mississippi, Liberal and Conservative from Maryland to Montana.)
Easter is just around the corner. In that spirit, it is time to resurrect our nation's politics -- into the fresh air of real cooperation and deliberation.
Only in this fresh air can we hope to fix our nation's health care system, which is broken and leaves so may families bankrupt or stuck in jobs ill-suited for them because they "need the insurance".
We can only resurrect our nation's politics if we say no to lobbyists and that's why my campaign hasn't taken a dime from federal lobbyists or special interest PACs, unlike Senator Clinton, who said in 2007 that she will continue to take money from lobbyists whether we "like it or not", because, she doesn't believe they have any influence over her. WE are funded by over a million Americans who have given small donations of 25, 50 or a hundred dollars so that we are not beholden to lobbyists. We are not entering the White House or the Lincoln bedroom, owing any favors to any body!
Pennsylvanians need to decide. Business as usual? Duck-and-cover from the kitchen sink or a new politics of fresh air and resurrection?
You need to decide once and for all WHICH it is that you want. You can choose once and for all if negative ads are going to work, if you are going to follow the campaign that tears the other guy down, and divides our country.
I will give you that choice now and I will give it to you again in the general election against John McCain. It is up to you to decide. Do you want the past or the future. Do you want an attack dog or do you want a leader?
I know how to be an attack dog. I spent years on the South side of Chicago. (I may be skinny but I'm tough, too.) It is easy to be an attack dog, and it is easy to do what is politically expedient. But instead, I want to be a leader. Someone who makes the tough choices because they are right, not because they will be good for my political career. Like the time I stood up against an authorization to go to war in Iraq, when the vast majority of people were for it. When people were afraid and wanted to look tough. When I was about to run for the US Senate in Illinois and it would have been better for me politically to have gone along with the pack and the drumbeat for war.
Do you want someone who has the sound judgement to lead?
Do you want someone who will fight with integrity?
It is up to you.
Watch out for the kitchen sink. Personal attacks and negative ads may have worked in Ohio where the kitchen sink was hurled. But don't be fooled because what you see is what you get.
I am offering a choice which is more likely to bring the change you want and more likely to deliver the bipartisan politics in Washington that can get things done -- create new jobs, affordable health care, better education, and clean energy. We know what we get with politics as usual. Dog fighting and stalemate.
As the Easter celebration comes and goes this month and you head to the polls in April -- thousands of newly register Democrats looking for change and life-long Democrats proud to play a major role in the primary process this year -- remember that all America is watching you. All the world will be watching to see if you have risen above the petty politics of the past, and are ready to resurrect the politics of hope.
Thank You.
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Written for Barack Obama
Background: Years ago I worked for the Democrats creating TV and radio spots. I was active in the grassroots of the Dean for America campaign, and have produced political media for Liberal groups. Today I am a writer, editor and publisher on the web.
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Geri Weis-Corbley
Editor, Publisher
The Good News Network
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