I saw Barack Obama yesterday in St. Louis with 100,000 others. He was GREAT! The crowd was even better. All sorts of Americans. White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, young, old, men, women, kids, gay folks and straight folks. The diversity that makes us strong as a nation.
Today Barack is in North Carolina. In thanking Colin Powell for his endorsement, he provided a rejection of the McCain/Palin policy of "pro-American parts" of this nation and the divisive tactics they chose:
today, I am beyond honored and deeply humbled to have the support of General Colin Powell.
General Powell has defended this nation bravely, and he has embodied our highest ideals through his long and distinguished public service. He and his wife Alma have inspired millions of young people to serve their communities and their country through their tireless commitment and trailblazing American story. And he knows, as we do, that this is a moment where we all need to come together as one nation – young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Republican and Democrat.
In contrast to McCain and Palin's hate, Obama offers an America based on patriotism in which we all belong and we all work together.
The whole speech is available at the link, and I just want to focus on this key part. Some is his basic stump speech that I heard yesterday and have seen on You Tube. But there's a very important part of his speech in whihc he expresses the core of what the Democratic Party is about.
Let's talk work, wealth and "socialism."
Now, my opponent has made his choice. Senator McCain’s campaign actually said a couple of weeks ago that they were going to launch a series of attacks on my character because, they said, "if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose." And that’s one promise John McCain has kept. He’s been on the attack.
Lately, he and Governor Palin have actually accused me of – get this – socialism. John McCain just repeated the charge again this morning. And you know why? Because I want to give a tax cut to the middle class – a tax cut to 95% of American workers. These are folks who work hard every single day and get payroll taxes taken out of their paycheck every single week. These are the teachers and janitors who work in our schools. They’re the cops and firefighters who keep us safe. They’re the waitresses who work double shifts, the cashiers at Wal-Mart, the plumbers fighting for the American Dream.
John McCain thinks that giving these Americans a break is socialism. Well I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that.
Barack in Fayetteville: "We all need to come together as one nation"
This is so key. It's American to give people opportunity. For too long Republicans like McCain have turned the American Dream upside down, and they have convinced people like "Joe the Plumber" that there is something wrong with work.
Obama takes it to McCain for his welfare for corporations plan:
If John McCain wants to talk about redistributing wealth to those who don’t need it and don’t deserve it, let’s talk about the $700,000 tax cut he wants to give Fortune 500 CEOs, who’ve been making out like bandits – some of them literally. Let’s talk about the $300 billion he wants to give to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess. Let’s talk about the $4 billion he wants to give oil companies like Exxon-Mobil or the $200 billion he wants to give the biggest corporations in America. Let’s talk about the 100 million middle-class Americans who John McCain doesn’t want to give a single dime of tax relief. Don’t tell me that CEOs and oil companies deserve a tax break before the men and women who are working overtime day after day and still can’t pay the bills. That’s not right, and that’s not change.
Barack in Fayetteville: "We all need to come together as one nation"
It's not right! Basic right and wrong. Nothing fancy or "socialistic" here. It's not right. People know it.
Now tax cuts are not my favorite policy, but they are a way to get money to working people in a recession and that's what Obama will do:
I promise you this – not only will the middle class get a tax cut under my plan, but if you make less than $250,000 a year – which includes 98 percent of small business owners – you won’t see your taxes increase one single dime. Not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes – nothing. That is my commitment to you.
Barack in Fayetteville: "We all need to come together as one nation"
Here's the most important point to me:
Here’s the truth, North Carolina. This debate – and this election – comes down to what we value. In the America I know, we don’t just value wealth, we value the work and workers who create it.
Barack in Fayetteville: "We all need to come together as one nation"
That's what John Edwards was talking about. It's where we are so off track. We need to value work and workers.
It's time for a new way.
For the last eight years, we have tried it John McCain’s way. We have tried it George Bush’s way. We’ve given more and more to those with the most and hoped that prosperity would trickle down to everyone else. And guess what? It didn’t. So it’s time try something new. It’s time to grow this economy from the bottom-up. It’s time to invest in the middle-class again.
Obama calls out McCain for the same old scare tactics.
North Carolina, the other side trots out this attack every year, in every election. It’s a scare tactic. It’s the oldest trick in the book. And it’s what you do when you are out of ideas, out of touch, and running out of time.
Well not this year. Not this time. I can take a few more weeks of John McCain’s attacks, but the American people can’t take four more years of the same failed policies and the same failed politics. And that’s why I’m running for President of the United States.
Not this year. Not this time.
It's our turn.