In what is being dubbed his closing argument, Barack Obama spoke to supporters in Canton, Ohio, about John McCain’s similarities to President Bush and why “it’s time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.”
Digital Journal — Barack Obama began his final week of campaigning across the U.S. by speaking to supporters in Canton, Ohio. His campaign called this speech his “closing argument,” an important speech striking the heart of this battleground state. John McCain also spoke at rallies in Dayton and Cleveland.
The focus of Obama’s Canton speech targeted the word that sparked his campaign — change. Obama used that word 21 times in his recent speech.
“It’s time for change. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States,” he said in his 35-minute talk.
Obama was quick to praise his rival, but equally as quick to associate it with the current president. “After 21 months and three debates, McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he’d do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy,” Obama said.
He went on to say: “It’s not change when John McCain wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO. It’s not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations or $4 billion to the oil companies or $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess.”
He implored Americans to look beyond the present economic doldrums to think how the coming Election Day will affect the future. He said, “The question in this election is not ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ We know the answer to that. The real question is, ‘Will this country be better off four years from now?'”
He sought to diffuse the partisan battles between Republicans and Democrats, a conflict that many people have criticized in light of attacks ads and in-fighting. He told the crowd, “Understand, if we want get through this crisis, we need to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right.”
In a summation statement, Obama also reiterated his economic plans, dropping his tax-cut figures and his prescription to create “five million new energy jobs over the next decade.”
He promised lower health-care premiums under his presidency, and said he would combat insurance companies who discriminate against Americans who are sick and need care most.
Obama also added a point about budgetary restrictions, a statement that could be a defensive move against McCain’s attack on his over-spending policies. He said, “As President, I will go through the federal budget, line-by-line, ending programs that we don’t need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.”
Obama didn’t miss an opportunity to take a shot at Sarah Palin, who recently was quoted as saying there are “pro-America” parts of the country, implying some areas are not “real.” It made headlines across the world, and gave the Democrats new fodder against the McCain-Palin campaign. On Monday, Obama said: “Because despite what our opponents may claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country. There is no city or town that is more pro-America than anywhere else – we are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots.”
In his final remarks, Obama encouraged supporters to keep working hard in this last week, saying the election is far from over. He said, “We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.”
