Posted on 02/11/2007 10:04:04 AM PST by Breyean
AXcess News) Washington - Standing before voters on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln served for eight years before becoming President of the United States, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said he saw the nation needing an inspirational leader who could save the union - stating that he was that man - during his official launch of his Democratic presidential campaign.
Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, said just as Lincoln saved the union, fighting a bloody civil war, so America would need an inspirational leader after George Bush's presidency.
Sen. Obama was speaking at his first stop after officially announcing his candidacy for President of the United States in the up coming 2008 presidential election as a Democrat party candidate.
Obama opened by saying, "when a child turns to violence, there's a hole in his heart no government could ever fill." The Democratic presidential candidate's statement came in describing his brief experience as a politician using a grass roots approach to tie local community and economic reactions to decisions made by Washington's elite when he first moved to Illinois and worked as a community organizer for a group of churches. It was there, Obama said, that he learned how politicians overlooked the needs of Americans.
"In the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States," Obama declared.
Invoking the spirit of Abraham Lincoln's presidency, Obama called for like change in Washington and greater cooperation between political parties, calling America a union divided whose citizens were ready for change.
"Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more - and it is time for our generation to answer that call.
"For that is our unyielding faith - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.
"That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people - as Americans," said Obama.
During Obama's 24-minute speech, he referred to "his generation", being a 45-year-old lawmaker who inferred that his closest Democratic Party competitor for the Presidential nomination by his party, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was out of touch with the younger voters of America - the post baby boomer generation.
Unlike Clinton, the Democrat Senator from New York, Obama says the war in Iraq might have been avoided through stronger diplomacy and that the existing administration has continually avoided dealing with problems that are affecting Americans, such as health care, education, stagnant wages and the environment.
"For the last six years we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel are an illusion," Obama stated. "we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants."
In continually reminding Americans that it will be up to them to change America's future, Obama said, "Let us be the generation that reshapes our nation," in referencing the economy, our schools, communities and government.
"Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here," Obama said.
Sen. Obama returned to his invocation of President Lincoln during the conclusion of his speech surrounding his presidential campaign when he said that "This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change."
"As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, Obama stated, he was heard to say: 'Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought to battle through.'"
"That is our purpose here today.
"That's why I'm in this race," Obama proclaimed.
Plus the last line, "That's why I'm in this race," Obama proclaimed.", fits in really well with his 1/22 Meet the Press statement:
SEN. OBAMA: "I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if you get asked enough, sooner or later you get weary and you start looking for new ways of saying things. But my thinking has not changed. MR. RUSSERT: So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008? SEN. OBAMA: I will not."
what, no 'mega-barfer' ??
save the union from what?
And we thought John Kerry was an egomaniac ...
Abraham Hussein Osama er Obama?
Just what we need, another Freakin' Marxist Messiah!
Sheesh!
Apperently from itself.
If this socialism and government promoting nanny has even a gnat's a$$ of a chance to become POTUS, we are far beyond just worrying about losing our way of life and sovereignty.
What is Freddie applying for an intern position under Obama's desk?
Yes, what I said after your posting. ; )
A legend in his own mind. He was once a child, ....therefore qualified to lead the world. Typical liberal mindset.
Which union, the AFL-CIO?
I still believe that the Clintonoids are propping this guy up to (a) deflect from Hillary and (b) make him a natural VP option -- remember that he has no pre-established constituency or people loyal to him.
I think Insight was not supposed to reveal that the negative stuff came from the Hillary camp. Insight, unlike the NYT, knows when it's being used.
Bob Dole should come out and say, "Mr. Obama, I knew President Lincoln, President Lincoln was a friend of mine,..."
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