Washington...I’m asking you to believe in yours.”--Barack Obama

    When Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President, I thought no, no--it’s too soon. I thought he was overestimating his chances of success, and would end up being crushed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign juggernaut on the way to the nomination. I was wrong. Obama was right.

      America needs someone like Barack Obama to help us rise out of the dark ages of the Bush years, with its legacy of fear and division. To do that, we need someone that has not been jaded by too many years in Washington, someone not indebted to the same corporations that have wielded the reins of power in our government for too long. Someone like Barack Obama. 

• “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”--Barack Obama, Des Moines, IA, 11/10/07 [All quotes are Barack Obama]
  

• “...[I]nstead of meeting with lobbyists, it’s time to start meeting with some of the 45 million Americans with no health care. Instead of hitting up the big firms on K Street, it’s time to start visiting the workers on Main Street who are wondering how they’ll send their kids to college or whether their pension will be around when they retire. ...[I]f we hope to be real reformers, that’s the place we need to start.”--Podcast, 1/18/06
  

     It has been hard for average Americans to stay positive about our government when we are forced to sit on the sidelines and watch as the Bush Administration lurches from one self-created crisis to the next, using each as another excuse to ignore the Constitution, while drawing more and more power to itself. Now we have an opportunity to change that.

·        “The most important thing we can do right now is to reengage the American people in the process of governance. To get them excited and interested again in what works and what can work in our government, to make politics cool again and important again and relevant again.”--Wisconsin Democratic Party Founders Gala 2/16/08

     Barack Obama has carried his message of hope through 47 states, drawing record crowds wherever he goes and inspiring millions of people to register to vote for the first time. Hillary Clinton has responded to Obama’s popularity by mocking his eloquent speeches, saying that words don’t matter--it is results that count.

     If Hillary or anyone else needs proof of Obama’s ability to get results; they only need look at his presidential campaign. He started as a virtual unknown, and yet he took on the political machine that the Clinton’s have been building for two decades and beat it. Last summer, Hillary’s nomination was considered inevitable--now it is only a remote possibility.

·        “It’s true that speeches don’t solve all problems, but what is also true is if we cannot inspire the country to believe again, then it doesn’t matter how many policies and plans we have, and that is why I am running for president of the United States of America, ...because the American people want to believe in change again. Don’t tell me words don’t matter!”-- Wisconsin Democratic Party Founders Gala 2/16/08

      If you want to know specifics about what Barack Obama proposes to do about the many problems the Bush Administration has created and/or ignored, you will have to visit Obama’s web site (BarackObama.com), because the mainstream media is too busy discussing what Obama’s former pastor said this week, or why Obama doesn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel, or some other trivial crap that they try to pass off as news. 

• “...I find it hard to shake the feeling these days that our democracy has gone seriously awry. ...[W]hat’s troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics--the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our seeming inability to build a working consensus to tackle any big problem.”--The AUDACITY of HOPE, Crown Publishers, 2006
  

     Most Americans have had enough, and so has Barack Obama: 

• “...I’ve had enough of being told that we can find the money to give Paris Hilton more tax cuts, but we can’t find enough to protect our ports or our railroads....enough of the closed-door deals that give billions to the HMOs when we’re told that we can’t do a thing for the 45 million uninsured....enough of being told that we can’t afford body armor for our troops and health care for our veterans....enough of giving billions away to the oil companies when we’re told that we can’t invest in the renewable energy that will crate jobs and lower gas prices....enough of our kids going to schools where the rats outnumber the computers. ...enough of Katrina survivors living out of their cars and begging FEMA for trailers....enough of being told that all we can do about this is sit and wait and hope that the good fortune of a few trickles on down to everyone else in this country.”--Take Back America Conference, 6/14/06
  

     The Republicans have Controlled Congress for 12 of the past 14 years, and we are living with the result. This, along with eight years of George W. Bush has stirred a whole new generation of activists who are ready to change the way our government operates. That is why Barack Obama’s time has come. He understands what is happening in America.

·        “My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.”-- Rock Island, Illinois, 2/24/05

     So, politicians who are not ready to change the way they do the people’s business had better find a new line of work, because Barack Obama and a new Democratic Party is going to take back our government and return it to the people, where it belongs. 

• The time for our party’s identity crisis is over. Don’t let anyone tell you we don’t know what we stand for and don’t doubt it yourselves....So let it be said that we are the party of opportunity. ....we are the party that will guarantee every American an affordable, world-class, top-notch, life-long education....we are the party of affordable, accessible health care for all Americans. The party that won’t make Americans choose between a health care plan that bankrupts the government and one that bankrupts families. The party that won’t just throw a few tax breaks at families who can’t afford their insurance, but modernizes our health care system and gives every family a chance to buy insurance at a price they can afford.”--Emily’s List Annual Luncheon, Washington, DC, 5/11/06
  

     Can’t do it, you say? Then you should vote for Senator John McCan’t. You can count on him. He won’t change a thing.