Obama Ipsum

Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed. But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors - found the courage to keep it alive. And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war. Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.

But I've got news for them, too. Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. The fourth issue that I will address is democracy.

But she didn't. No health care? The market will fix it. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me.

Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don't want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. It's that folks are hungry for change - they're hungry for something new. But by the time he was a young adult, he was an atheist. This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. Meanwhile, the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.

Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.