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Obama in Lynchburg
Senator Barack Obama spoke inside a packed gym at E.C. Glass High School Wednesday night.
CHET WHITE/THE NEWS & ADVANCE
GREETING THE CROWD: Sen. Barack Obama greets the crowd at E.C. Glass High School on Wednesday evening. The presumptive Democratic nominee appeared with Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., on his city stop.
The cheers that greeted presidential candidate Barack Obama in the E.C. Glass High School Wednesday night rivaled any basketball victory’s excitement, and they kept erupting as he talked about working-family budgets, tax breaks, energy, and negative TV ads.
A crowd packed with Obama loyalists cheered for a full minute before letting him get his first sentence out, explaining that he had taken a few extra minutes to shake hands with people outside who hadn’t been able to get into the gym.
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Click here for The News and Advance’s blog about Obama’s visit
In Martinsville, Obama touts populist themes
From Andrew Jackson to George H.W. Bush, Lynchburg played host
Later, Obama said in an interview that he came to Lynchburg because he believes “90 percent of success is showing up” and that people in Central Virginia, like the rest of America, are worried about economic issues. “If I can communicate the message that I’m going to fight for them, we might pick up some votes we might not otherwise get,” he said.
Obama told the crowd his 19-month campaign has taught him “Americans are anxious. They are worried about the present and about the future.”
Family incomes went up $6,000 during the Bill Clinton presidency, but they have since declined $1,000 during the Bush presidency, Obama said.
The solution, he said is “to bring about a fundamental change in Washington and restore the American dream, and that’s why I am running for president.”
His Republican opponent, John McCain, is offering the same tax breaks as President Bush, Obama said, breaks that benefited higher-income people and corporations but didn’t help middle-class families.
Obama said he would give middle-class families a $1,000 tax break.
Mark Peake, chairman of Lynchburg’s Republican Party, said he watched Obama’s speech online and the promise of a $1,000 tax break doesn’t impress him.
“I don’t think he’s being forthright with voters when he talks about taxes,” Peake said. “The biggest deception is the $1,000 rebate. It’s just an attempt to buy votes,” Peake said.
Obama said economic conditions don’t assure him of victory. “The Republican Party hasn’t been very good at governing, but they very good at running negative ads, so it is important that we make it clear what the choice is in this election.”
Obama urged the 2,000 or more in the gymnasium to canvass neighborhoods on his behalf, work phone banks and write checks to his campaign.
When Obama opened up the town-hall style meeting to questions from the audience, one of the questioners asked him, “Do you think you can win by taking the high road” in the face of negative TV ads.
“This is a challenge,” Obama said, and warned that anyone who goes into public service should “know ahead of time that people are going to lie about you.”
“For a year and a half, e-mails have been going out saying that I am a Muslim,” Obama said, despite the fact that he isn’t. “I believe in Jesus Christ as my savior,” he said.
“I’m saying that, not because there’s anything wrong with being a Muslim, but these e-mails are designed to feed into anti-Muslim sentiment. It’s a very cynical point,” Obama said.
In an interview question about his stand on abortion, Obama said he thought the best approach to reducing the number of abortions was education, including abstinence education.
“The criminalization of women or their doctors, I do not believe, will actually bring about the results that both evangelical voters and myself would like to see,” he said.
Obama said during his speech that nuclear energy should be part of U.S. energy policy, and he emphasized its safety aspects during the speech and in the interview.
He said the United States has lagged in dealing with nuclear waste and proposals to recycle used nuclear fuel don’t fully solve the problems.
“Really, the challenge is finding storage strategies that are safe and can give people confidence” in the ways leftover nuclear materials are handled, he said.
“Part of what we have to do is be honest with the American people, not do a sell job, but provide them with the information they need so they can feel comfident with nuclear power, even if it is located in their own communities,” he said.
“Sometimes people are scared of nuclear power because of misinformation, but part of it has to do with the fact we haven’t always been honest and straightforward about these issues.”
Before the speech, Obama met in a locker room with local officials, including Mayor Joan Foster, Vice Mayor Bert Dodson, City Councilmen Mike Gillette and Ceasor Johnson, Del. Valentine, former state Sen. Elliot Schewel and John Lawrence, chairman of the local Democratic party.
Dodson said, “He was very friendly. It was like seeing your neighbor walk by your front porch on a Saturday morning.”
Johnson said, “I think it’s just what was needed to assure people he’s the one we need as America begins this transition.”
Outside the gym, two pro-McCain demonstrators held a sign that read, “NOBama.”
One of them, Khristen Minter, 22, said Obama “doesn’t have any experience and doesn’t seem to know how to run a country.”
Reader Reactions
JOUXSTER..bush just gave away a billion dollars yesterday to georgia to rebuild what RUSSIA bomb away,,thats a billion for 4 million people,,thats 250,000$$ per person,,meanwhile we here in the states get ..what??600.00 stimulis check,,do you see the disparity YET!!thats our tax dollars at WORK for gobalization!!and why for ,,so those same corp am business that outsource us can rebuild their destroy factories to keep ,on outsoursingus !!
HEY JOUSTER/JOKER,,we aint to stupid to figure it out,,its just that1) why do it if you have other solutiopns like solar/wind,,2),,we went to war to drive up the oil prices so DICKCHANEY/BUSH could have a retirment fund,,now their oil wells of pre-government that were worthless are now worht billions so they retire nicely and have trust funds for their bush/chaney families. who will never have to fight in a war,,.i thought that you knew that,,,,,thats all politics is for is to get rich quick and forever,,look at clintons,,poor going in rich commin out,,regan /carter/the other bush..heck mccain got so many houses he dosent even know how many!! and he,s just a vet turn senator,,how ,s that,,we take the drug dealers illicit gains when r we gonna apply that to gov..i mean aint that how IRS bust people ,,when income dosent match what wealth you have ////??
Radon: natural odorless gas from decay of radium. Also occurs with mining uranium (due to radons heavy weight, it tends to settle in bottom of wash pools and bottom of mine shafts. So radon is there wether we do it or not correct? Cancer is there whether we do it or not correct? Energy is not there unless we mine uranium or we can send over 100,000 of our men and women to war for energy. 4,000 have died and yet you want to leave it alone. That our country’s problem.. leave it alone and let our politicians fix it. French, Canadians, and Aussies do a job of mining uranium and yet you are saying people here in Virginia are too stupid to figure out how to do it safely.
,,ROGERS 3 ..this is the what i have to say about your ?..on the west coast,and our desert states,,i would install solar panels and tie it into that electrical grid,in the central states i would install wind turbines,,and tie them into that grid,,the wind blows there all the time,,HOWEVER we do have a problem with tornadoes,,so i just might put in a nuke plant in torando alley,,it would be safe, BABCOCK & WILCOX has a nuclear reactor at mt.athos,,its underground,,encased in 30 ft thick walls,,and it glows a nice green,,i have seen it,,however it may have been decommisioned by now,,B&w;has a perfect track record,,its first nuclear sub,,401 g.washington to present day carriers are all nuke powered,,the nuke power navy fleet has a perfect record,,a few close calls but non fatal..our nuke carrier has so much thrust power that if the admiral were to go full power,,the carrier would rise out of the ocean and sink itself,,each carrier fleet has enough fire power to take out an entire continent,,one carrier can take out so.amer./one can take out nato/one seto/ two for all of asia,,one for mid east..we keep 7 active carrier fleets at all times for the seven continets,,we have 10-12 carrier fleets,,sorry getting off target,,now to the east coast ,,i would do all 3 types of energy,,solar,wind,nuke,,by doing this i do think that 10 nuke plants would be enough,,not McCain,s 40 ..and this is why..one if the solar/wind were to blow up or be hit/bomb by an all out war or a terrorist group,,the worst that could happen is 2/3 of the country would be without power,,now w/nuke the stakes are extremely high,,not only loss of power but radiation leaks,, a seceret,,now many years ago b&w;security was breached by RUSSIANS they were killed and nothing happened they breached the sewer lines going into the plant,,but why take that risk,,and keep in mind that after 9/11 b/w was and still is well guarded and has a no fly zone now..now FRANCE runs it country w/80 % nuke,,and have a strong presence in the usa via AREVIA,,and would love mccains 40 nukes and thats what mccain is pushing via FRENCH CONNECTION aka LOBBIST,,this is why OBAMA is against nukes,,we have lost our nuke edge because we were against it due to the big IF,,what if it fails or is attacked and that still stands true for today,,so we have no staff/workers to fill that 40 nuke plant order,,thus france would invade us w/5,000 nuke workers to build our nuke energy,,the problem and its a big one is that we need all the jobs we can get since corp.am has destroyed us and outsourced us,,w/gov.blessings,,so i would use nuke only as a last resort,,if its 8 fine,,if its 12 fine,,and in polotics you never ever say never!!OBAMA should always leave all doors open,,so 2 should mccain stop being BOUGHT by special interest,,but then how do you get 10 houses on a senators salary,,or get 250,000 improvements like alaska senator,,and he gets to keep his 112,000 yearly retirment from us taxpayers !!anyway back to the topic,,you see you cant just have all solar and trans it to the east coast..eack power line losses electricty,,so all the solar power sent to va. half or more would be lost,,until we get that SUPERCHIP thing going,,but the most important thing to do is ..list what each polotician says he,s gonna do and find the one most to what you would want,,i find myself agreeing more w/obama than mccain,,but whatever you do dont be a one person voter..like the religious right,,all you got to do is saw i ,m anti abortion ,,and you have hooked them !!when they should just say WWJD to each and everthing on the platforms ,,then they just might see the light and go,,gee wizz ,,the demo,,r for the masses,,hope this answers your ?
JacksonPollack please.. stick with the issues. Age goes both ways with these two candidates. Neither are what our country needs. One promising a $1000 for your vote and another saying hey things are great! It’s not. As for Bush, he and Congress have turned the money printing press up to max. The new president needs to be concerned with my country now more than ever. We need to work our way to prosperity and our government needs to allow it to happen. To think that one man will suddenly make poverty disappear remember, there were citizens who voted on a promise of 40 acres and a mule.
snooper. You are saying that Senator Obama has never cast a vote while Senator? Have you checked that out, or are you lying to us? Are you like Jerome Corsi who just makes things up and publishes them - facts aren’t important? Are you a McCain supporter? Are you a fool?
I’m more concerned about McCain going to war with Russia than the terrorists (boogeyman) that Bush has scared us about for seven years. I’m more concerned about McCain sending our soldiers into Czechoslovakia, a country that no longer exists. I’m more concerned about McCain having a “senior moment” and instead of pushing the button on the coffee maker pushes the red button that sends nuclear missles to all the dangerous points of the world (like the dangerous area that McCain described as the Iraqi-Pakistani border).
We need a positive change in this country and Obama is that change we need to get us out of America’s “Dark Ages” (January 2001-January 2009).
And snooper . . . why does a simpleton always suggest that someone who doesn’t agree with him/her move to another country? I would never suggest that you move to another country; I would suggest that go to another state - the state of reality. Peace.
I (and the bank) own one house. I am grateful. So many people are having their houses taken because of Bush-onomics. The math that Freedom presents is accurate and jouxster wonders if Obama is going to use Visa or Mastercard to bail us out - the answer is neither - Bush and his toadies have pretty much maxed out those cards.
John McCain admitted in the spring that he knew very little about economics. He is set to put Phil Gramm in as his economics expert (the man who said that the economy is fine; Americans are just whiners). If anyone is going to pull us out of this duldrum economy, it isn’t going to be Senator Mccain.
As I said: I have one house. Many in our country have none. Senator McCain was asked how many houses he has - he doesn’t know; he has no idea and said that the reporter should check with his staff. At last count there are 7 or 8 McCain houses. If McCain can’t keep up with the simple questions in life, how can we expect him to manage the federal budget? Which presidential candidate is the one out of touch with the common man? It sure isn’t Senator Obama. Peace.
It’s funny to see how someone comments on McCain’s voting record when Obama’s is so clear. He really hasn’t voted on anything. Pretty good for someone who wants to lead the free world. I guess the writer of that comment wants Socialism brought to the US and to have terrorist freely running among us. Not to mention any of the working families of America giving even more to the slugs of society who choose not to work because we constantly give them handouts. Simple economics would tell you that if you tax income less, the more a person will work. Simply put, the more you make the more you keep. Those in society who are leeches and prefer to sit on their brains instead of using them in school or to think of new ways to improve society as a whole see the taxing of the working person as a benefit to them. I say cut out welfare for those able bodied people and put them to work and then they will start to say “lower the taxes”. If they still want Obama, why not move to Cuba or China and let the government take care of EVERYTHING.
Actually 151nmain your wrong on McInsane’s voting record according to the Congressional Quartely “McCAIN VOTES WITH BUSH
McCain Voted with the Bush Administration 89 Percent of the Time. Since President Bush took office, McCain has supported Bush’s positions 89 percent of the time. McCain’s support of Bush’s policies reached as high as 95 percent in 2007. [Congressional Quarterly Voting Study, 110th Congress]“ and patriot is also on to something.McCain’s stances on everything are nuts.He also believes that this economy is just great.McCain: Underpinnings of Economy are Strong. “I still believe our fundamental underpinnings of our economy are strong, but it’s obvious that we are facing challenges which will require actions such as the Federal Reserve took today.” [“Lou Dobbs Tonight,” CNN, 1/22/08]And since you most likely make lots of money in Lynchburg you enjoy his tax cuts.McCain Voted for Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Americans at the Expense of Working Families. McCain voted for a $60 billion tax cut bill benefiting families with incomes $100,000 or higher. The tax cuts would follow equally drastic cuts in spending on programs vital to working families. [S. 2020, Vote #26, 11/18/05]
And since you make such a great living in Lynchburg (OBTW According to the Census Bureau, adjusted for inflation, 1990 median household income was about $39,000 compared to 2006 median household income of $36,010.)
McCain: Global Economy Results in Outsourcing. “I’m not going to bring back a lot of these jobs. I can’t because with a global economy they’re headed the other way,” McCain said. [Technology Daily, 12/4/07]
So please before you tell some one about their ignorance please realise your own
Freedom- How does Obama’s anti-nuclear power stance stand with you? From what you’ve written in the past, It seems as if you’ve worked in that industry before.
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