Posted on 02/19/2007 4:46:01 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LA JOLLA – Newly announced Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made his first campaign appearance in California yesterday, telling supporters he intends to withdraw American troops from Iraq by March 2008. He also subtly scolded rivals who voted to authorize President Bush to go to war.
“It's not going to be easy,” Obama told between 400 and 500 supporters at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla at a late afternoon fundraising reception. “There are no good options in Iraq at this point. There are only bad options or worse options. But the worst option is to continue to put our young men and women in the midst of what is essentially a sectarian civil war in which they cannot succeed.”
Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois, was an early and outspoken critic of the invasion of Iraq, but was not in the Senate when the war authorization passed in 2002. He obliquely chided Democratic rivals who voted for it.
“We have a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged,” he said.
Although all of the 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls assail the Bush administration's handling of the war and favor drawing down American troops, the initial authorization vote has become something of a litmus test for anti-war Democratic voters.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has called his vote for the war a mistake. By contrast, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said she would not have voted for the war if she had known how the Bush administration would handle it, but has not renounced the authorization vote.
Obama, who formally launched his presidential campaign last weekend, was in San Diego yesterday to begin a three-day, money-raising tour of California.
Today, he will be the featured attraction in San Francisco at a fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. Tomorrow, the entertainment troika of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen will host a fundraising event for him in Los Angeles.
Obama is just part of the passing parade of 2008 presidential candidates working the fundraising circuit in California.
With all of the major Democratic contenders – except Obama – scheduled to attend the first Democratic candidates forum Wednesday in Carson City, Nev., several are making fundraising detours into California while in the West.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is scheduled to be in San Francisco tomorrow with Clinton to follow Friday.
Last week, Edwards and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack were also in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Republican hopefuls are active, too. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani campaigned and raised money last weekend in Sacramento, the Bay Area and Central Valley. U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona is due in San Diego next month.
The charismatic Obama, who is seeking to become the first black president, has drawn huge crowds since announcing his candidacy a week ago in Springfield, Ill., at the Old State Capitol where Abraham Lincoln first condemned slavery nearly 150 years ago.
Since then, by his telling, he has drawn crowds in the thousands – as high as 7,000 in Ames, Iowa.
“I'm under no illusion that this is all about me,” he said. “This is really about something that is happening in the country. Everywhere we go, we're seeing these enormous crowds and this outpouring of interest, and it signals, I think, a fundamental shift in the country's attitude toward politics and its government.”
After hearing Obama's remarks yesterday, Mehdi Kazemzadeh, a retired computer specialist, was sold as was his son Ali, a real estate salesman.
“He's probably, after John Kennedy, the only politician I know who excites young people,” the elder Kazemzadeh said. “He excites me, and I'm 67.”
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, shakes hands with the Centennial High School students after making a speech at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. Obama railed against ``slash and burn'' politics in Washington in a brief stop in Nevada, his first since the Democrat declared his presidential ambitions. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Newly announced Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama made his first campaign appearance in
California Sunday at a fundraiser held at Birch Aquarium
in La Jolla.
Osama Obama is just a shallow strawman. The candidate and next President (puke) will be Hillary Clinton, I am very sorry to say.
I wonder how he's going to do that...
Now Jesse Jackson; he's da shizzle.
...to the lowest bidder?
'Nuff said.
Well, Illinois citizens are sure getting their representation. I'm sure that the state has highways that need some federal money to fix.
Obama is going to become an EXTREMELY powerful man.
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