Video below.
primary and caucus schedulemore than 18,000 people and 3,000 waiting outside to get in. obama was outside meeting with them before he went in.
words from seattle governor chris gregoire:
"i've come here today to announce my endorsement of the next president of the united states, barack obama."
obama comes out while U2 plays
live on cnn.
caucus tomorrow 1pm in washington.
his comments:
obama: answers the "you're too young" question. "the fierce urgency of now."
"there's such a thing as being too late."
"people working harder for less."
"it's harder to save. it's harder to retire."
joked about his distant relationship to dick cheney. he calls him "my cousin."
on healthcare: he emphasized prevention. "a healthcare system not a disease care system."
i think the most exciting thing he ever says in these speeches is that he'll listen. we've had a president who is clueless and hasn't listened -- to anyone. i believe obama will listen because that is his leadership style.
he says he believes in the free market, entrenprenuership and capitalism. but when ceos are making more in 10 minutes that workers are making in a year, something is out of balance.
he will roll back bush tax cuts on the top 1%. seniors who make less than $50k, no income tax.
"we know what needs to be done we just don't have the leadership to do it."
he wants to bring back arts, music, science to education.
$4,000 college tuition credit for every student every year but students have to be involved in national service. (love this idea)
an energy plan built around saving the planet. he noted a local company, which makes energy efficient homes, pays great wages.
charge polluters for greenhouse gases and invest that money in solar, wind, biodiesel...
raise fuel efficiency standards on cars.
he made that proposal in detroit. "i told them they had to change their ways. i have to say the room was really quiet."
a leader will be honest he says.
as commander in chief my job is to keep you safe. training and equipping, proper rotations.
no more homeless veterans, no more waiting in line to get into the VA.
we have to use our military wisely. "the war in iraq was unwise."
he will end the war in 2009. bring the troops home.
end the mindset that started the war. talked about meeting with leaders we detest. clinton said it would be irresponsible. you have to negotiate with adversaries.
JFK said "we should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate."
a break in the speech when a woman in the front nearly faints -- obama calls for a chair and a path and an emt.
lead on climate change, end genocide in darfur, in addition to stopping terrorists.
lead in helping poor countries, observing human rights, close guantanamo, restore habeus corpus,
he has taught the constitution, believes it and will obey it.
"there are a whole lot of folks out there telling you you shouldn't believe."
washington says: "we need to season and stew him a little bit more and boil the hope out of him and maybe he'll be ready 20 years from now."
another criticism of him: he may be too nice to go up against the republicans.
we can reach out and find common ground. if you know who you are then you don't have to be afraid.
he's looking forward to a debate with john mccain. "i think it will be fun."
another criticism: he's a talker but not a doer. he talks about hope all the time.
he talks of hope out of necessity. he was raised on love, education and hope.
hope is not blind optimism. hope is just the opposite. he knows how hard it will be to make all the necessary changes.
9-11 used to scare up votes. we're told to fear immigrants, gay people, each other.
