Barack Obama Electrified Crown in Clinton, Iowa

Obama electrifies Clinton crowd

By Danica Baker

The Clinton Herald

Herald Staff Writer

CLINTON — Hundreds of area residents packed the Clinton Community College auditorium and overflowed into a lecture hall to hear Sen. Barack Obama, D–Ill., speak on Saturday afternoon.

The standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 people hushed as Dr. Don Flory and his wife, Marcia, addressed the crowd, noting many had inquired as to how the couple was fortunate enough to have the front row seat.

“We’re here today because our youngest son is in the U.S. Army Infantry,” Marcia said to thunderous applause. “Thank you. We appreciate your support, as our troops do as well.”

She said her son, Zack, has served in the military for the past three years, but his tour was extended indefinitely because of the stop-loss policy. She remarked while the soldiers have state of the art equipment, there are many basic supplies they ask for, such as latex gloves because it is common for the soldiers while on patrol to have to handle victims bodies. Marcia said Zack has asked for binoculars “so he can see the snipers” and Nomex gloves and hoods as protection from fuel bombs and flash burns. She noted the community has been generous to supply drives, recently donating enough to send 20,000 pairs of latex gloves to soldiers overseas.

Don Flory added that as a machine gunner in Baghdad, his son has been involved in intense fighting, both reported in the media and some that has gone unreported.

“He has seen buddies killed and maimed, and dozens more civilians suffer a similar fate,” Don said. “His private question to us has been ‘why are we the soldiers asked to sacrifice for a civil war?’”

With that, the Florys introduced Obama. Obama thanked the crowd for coming and said the country has some real challenges facing it, citing a broken health care system, inadequate education system, absence of an energy policy and an economy that is leaving many people behind.

Obama garnered resounding applause when he said, “Finally, we’ve got a war that never should have been fought, should never have been authorized.”

He continued, “Our troops have done everything we’ve asked of them. They’ve performed magnificently. The failure has been in a civilian leadership that has not given them a mission in which they can succeed.”

“We cannot have our people policing a sectarian civil war,” he added. “We have now spent over a half trillion dollars, we have close to 3,200 lives that have been lost. We are seeing as much instability as there’s ever been in the Middle East. We are less safe that we were before the war started. It is time to bring our troops home.”

Obama said he has a specific plan to bring the troops home and introduced a bill a few weeks prior to that effect, detailing a plan to start bringing troops home as of May 1 with the goal of having all troops home by March 31, 2008. He remarked that one thing that could be done right is treating veterans properly when they return home, including medical care and smoothing the transition back into the workforce. Obama noted that is not being done now and said it is shameful.

“We can do better. I think we have higher expectations of ourselves as a nation and as a people,” he said.

He said politics has become petty and small with people more focused on making negative attacks then on discovering common ground.

Obama said he is proud of his record in bringing people to work together and remarked that he cannot help affect some of the changes needed without the support of the American people.

“This is going to be an election for change,” Obama continued. “And you are going to be the agents of change. I hope this campaign becomes a vehicle for your hopes and your dreams, because if that happens, I’m absolutely convinced that nobody can stop us.”

After his remarks, Obama met with area residents, shaking hands and letting many people take pictures. His communications director, Tommy Vietor, said the success of events such as the one held in Clinton is attributable to the volunteers who put so much work into planning and details. He commended volunteers and the community for showing such an active interest and genuine concern.

Obama then walked to the lecture hall where more than 100 people listened to the talk in an overflow area. Again, he took time to meet with as many citizens as possible. He later said it is very important to him to meet with the public and hear their concerns.

In response to criticism that he doesn’t have enough experience, Obama replied he thinks people usually mean that he hasn’t been in Washington that long.

“I’ve been in Washington long enough to know that Washington needs to change and that’s part of the reason we’re running this campaign,” the candidate said.