I Don’t Hate America!

Let me just say that I am very impressed by a recent showing of Obama supporters at the Rochester area Obama meeting last Tuesday. Due to the fact that I am so busy I have not had the chance to post since that time. I along with other MN Students for Barack Obama (WSU Chapter) drove to Rochester to gather with other supporters. Our meeting included special guest Chris Miller, Obama’s Midwest Campaign Director. We sparked some great discussion, and at least in Rochester I can already tell it will have very strong Obama support. I was very surprised to hear that other bloggers at the event knew of me and of IDHA! Who woulda thought? Well here are the Obama points for this week! Enjoy ~Ian
Weekly Talking Points
August 6 – August 12, 2007

Barack Obama Schedule: Last Wednesday, Barack Obama delivered an address on “The War We Need to Win” in Washington, D.C. Saturday, he participated in the YearlyKos Presidential Leadership Forum in Chicago, where he made it clear that lobbyists and special interests would not control Washington under an Obama presidency. That night, he addressed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. He was greeted by hundreds of supporters in Park City, Utah on Sunday, before heading to Elko, Nevada for a rural issues town hall meeting. This Tuesday, Barack Obama will host a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago before participating in the AFL-CIO Working Families Presidential Candidates Forum. He’ll take part in The Human Rights Campaign Forum this Thursday in Los Angeles.

Michelle Obama Schedule: On the heels of her husband’s successful trip to Elko, Nevada, Michelle Obama heads to Reno on Thursday to meet local supporters and activists to kick off a Women for Obama chapter at a midday event that’s free and open to the public.

The War We Need to Win: Last Wednesday, Senator Obama outlined a smart, muscular national security strategy in an address to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His five-point comprehensive strategy to fight terrorism includes: getting out of Iraq and onto the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan, developing the capabilities and partnerships we need to take out the terrorists and their most deadly weapons, engaging the world to dry up support for terror and extremism, restoring our values, and securing our homeland. National security experts agreed, and pundits called it “precisely right.”

Barack on Diplomacy: Barack Obama is the best candidate to end the Bush-Cheney foreign policy of not engaging our adversaries. He believes that a strong nation should never be afraid to negotiate. Anthony Lake, former National Security Advisor under President Clinton, agrees with Obama, as do security experts from the military and the State Department, and the recent Obama for Commander in Chief Tour further highlighted what makes Senator Obama the best person to be our next Commander in Chief.

On Lobbyists: On Saturday at the YearlyKos Presidential Leadership Forum, the differences between the candidates could not have been more clear. Barack Obama refuses to take campaign donations from federal lobbyists because he believes the power they wield is one of the main reasons we haven’t made progress on some of the biggest challenges we face. People who don’t think lobbyists have too much influence in Washington have probably been in Washington too long. The new Obama campaign signs say it all: “Not paid for by PAC or federal lobbyist money.”

Recent Developments: Last week, the Senate passed tough ethics reform that was similar to what Senators Barack Obama and Russ Feingold proposed earlier this year. The bill will force lobbyists to tell us who they’re raising money from and who in Congress they’re giving it to. Senator Obama also helped push through the Military Family Job Protection Act, extending family medical leave job protections for up to one year for family members caring for wounded returning service members. And he also helped push through three pieces of legislation to enhance American competitiveness by investing in women and underrepresented minorities. Last week, Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to reward corporations that invest in American jobs and take care of their employees by ensuring decent wages, health care, and a secure retirement.

New Ad in Iowa: A new ad is up on the Iowa airwaves showing that Barack Obama is the best candidate to change the ways of Washington.

Iraq: Barack Obama knows that the time for us to ask how we were going to get out of Iraq was before we went in. He opposed the Iraq war before it was popular to do, and he introduced a plan that would have ended the war by commencing a phased redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq with the goal of redeploying all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that U.S. forces will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunnis and Shi’a to come to the table and find peace.

Fundraising: In a record-breaking outpouring of grassroots support, more than 258,000 donors – 154,000 in the second quarter alone – have joined Barack Obama’s movement for change. The campaign raised $31.6 million in primary funds for a total of $32.9 million in the second quarter – all of it without accepting any money from PACs or Washington lobbyists. $10.3 million was raised online, with 90% of all online donations in amounts of $100 or less and 50% of all online donations in amounts of $25 or less.

Web: Senator Obama is running a different kind of campaign, empowering people with the tools to take organizing into their own hands. The result: more people are more deeply involved than ever before. Since the website was launched in February, more than 5,000 grassroots groups have been created, and more than 70,000 people have created profiles on my.barackobama.com.

Biography: Senator Obama moved to Illinois over two decades ago with little money and no family connections, getting a job for $12,000 a year as a community organizer in some of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. Later, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, became a civil rights lawyer, and taught constitutional law before winning a seat in the Illinois State Senate.

As a State Senator, he joined both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education and the strongest ethics reform in Illinois in 25 years. After a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
In the U.S. Senate, Obama has worked with the Republican leader of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Lugar, to pass a law that would secure and destroy some of the world’s deadliest weapons. He has also helped lead the fight for the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate, and found common ground on issues including energy policy, helping push through a provision that will offer tax credits to gas stations for installing refueling pumps with E85 – a blend of 85 percent clean-burning, domestically grown ethanol and 15 percent petroleum gasoline.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Obama, Ian G., Bush, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.