June 27, 2008
Obama: Rivals No More, Allies And Friends
"She rocks. She rocks. That's the point I'm trying to make." -- Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton, in Unity, NH, today.
Obama's Unity speech available in full after the jump.
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
Unity Event
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Unity, New Hampshire
EMBARGOED FOR DELIVERY
Thank you, Hillary Clinton. And thank you, Unity, New Hampshire for hosting our little get together today.
I want to start by saying a few words about the woman you just heard from. For sixteen months, Senator Clinton and I have shared the stage as rivals. But today, I couldn’t be happier and more honored that we’re sharing it as allies in the effort to bring this country a new and better day.
As someone who has taken the same historic journey as Senator Clinton; who has watched her campaign and debate, I know from firsthand experience how tough she is, and how passionate she is, and how committed she is to the causes that brought us here today. And I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning – even in the face of tough odds – is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago; what sent her to work at the Children’s Defense Fund and caused her to fight for health care as First Lady; what has made her a fantastic Senator from New York and a historic candidate for the presidency – an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult that fight may be. I’ve admired her as a leader, I’ve learned from her as a candidate, I am proud to call her my friend, and I know how much we’ll need both Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton as a party and a country in the months and years to come.
Hillary and I may have started with separate goals in this campaign, but we have made history together. Together, we inspired tens of millions of Americans to participate, some who cast their ballot for the very first time, others who voted for the first time in a long time. And together, in this campaign, in 2008, we shattered barriers that have stood firm since the founding of this nation.
Now, I don’t pretend that one election can erase all the past biases and outdated attitudes that we’re still wrestling to overcome. And I know that there have been times over the last sixteen months where those biases have emerged. But I also know that while this campaign has shown us how far we have to go, it has also proven the progress we have made. I know that because of our campaign, and because of the campaign waged by Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all of yours will forever know that there is no barrier to who and what they can be in the United States of America.
It is fitting that we meet in a place called Unity, because the truth is, that’s the only way we can solve the challenges facing this country. Today, we look back at the votes cast here in the snows of January not as 107 votes for Hillary Clinton and 107 votes for me, but as 214 votes for change in America – votes cast by young and old, men and women, rich and poor, Democrats and Independents and even a few Republicans. And that’s why at this moment, we must come together not just as Democrats, but as Americans – united by our understanding that there is no problem we cannot solve; no challenge we cannot meet if we meet it as one nation, as one people.
The decisions we make in this election and in the next few years – on Iraq, on climate change, on our economy – will shape the next generation and possibly the next century. And on each and every issue in this campaign, the choice could not be clearer. It is a choice between moving forward and falling further behind. It’s a choice between more of the same policies that have failed us for eight long years or a new direction for the country we love.
We can continue to spend ten billion dollars a month in Iraq and leave our troops there for the next twenty years, or fifty years, or one hundred years; we can follow a policy that doesn’t change whether violence is up or down, whether the Iraqi government takes responsibility for itself or not.
Or we can decide that it is time to begin a gradual, responsible withdrawal from Iraq. It is time to rebuild our military and take care of our veterans. It is time to refocus our efforts on the war we must win in Afghanistan, where the leadership of al Qaeda actually exists.
That is the choice in this election.
We can continue to watch the cost of health care push more families and businesses into bankruptcy, and allow the number of uninsured to rise.
Or we can decide that it is time to guarantee coverage to every American who wants it. It is time to bring down the typical family’s premiums by $2500. And it is time to bring down costs for the entire country by bringing our health care system into the 21st century through better technology and more emphasis on prevention.
That is the choice in this election.
We can continue to depend on dictators for our energy, and destroy our planet in the process. We can give billions in tax breaks to oil companies that are making record profits while we give pennies to consumers who are paying over $4 a gallon for gas.
Or we can decide that solving our energy crisis will be the great project of this generation. We can decide that it is time give Americans immediate relief at the pump with another round of tax rebate checks. It is time to eliminate those oil company giveaways and invest in clean, renewable energy like wind power, and solar power, and the next generation of biofuels – investments that can create up to five million new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. It is time to work with our automakers to raise the fuel efficiency in our cars with technology we have today. It is time to leave our children a planet that is safer and cleaner for generations to come.
That is the choice in this election.
We can watch another generation of our children graduate without the skills they need to compete in a global economy because our schools didn’t prepare them or they couldn’t afford a college education. Or we can make a commitment to every child, everywhere from the day they are born to the day they graduate college – that we will invest in early childhood education; that we will recruit an army of new teachers with better pay and more support, and that we will finally make college affordable for every single American who wants to go.
That is the choice in this election.
When it comes to our struggling economy, we can allow the divide between Main Street and Wall Street to grow, or we can ensure that our prosperity is once again the tide that lifts every boat.
We can have a tax code that rewards wealth and hands out billions more to big corporations and multimillionaires, or we can reward work by giving a $1,000 tax cut to 95% of working families, and by eliminating income taxes for senior citizens who make less than $50,000-a-year
We can keep giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding the companies that create good jobs right here in America.
We can allow millions of Americans to work full-time, but still not make enough to support their families. Or we can raise the minimum wage, index it for inflation, and ensure that in America, hard work pays.
And we can perpetuate the unfair practice that pays women less than men, or we can honor our values, and the valiant efforts of Senator Clinton., by finally guaranteeing that women who do the same work as men are paid at the same rate.
That is the choice in this election.
No matter where we’ve disagreed, these are the issues that have always united Senator Clinton and myself. They are the causes that unite as Democrats. And I believe that at this moment, they are the causes that can unite us as Americans. Because the choice in this election is not left versus right or liberal versus conservative – it is the past versus the future. And it is time for us to move toward that future together.
I know it won’t be easy. I know it won’t happen overnight. I know that there will be many times where Americans disagree with each other.
But I also know that I have seen people of differing views and opinions find common cause many times during my two decades in public life, and I have brought many together myself. I’ve walked arm-in-arm with community leaders on the South Side of Chicago and watched tensions fade as black, white, and Latino fought together for good jobs and good schools. And throughout two decades of service, I’ve worked with friends in the other party to provide more children with health insurance and more working families with a tax break; to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure that the American people know where their tax dollars are being spent; and to reduce the influence of lobbyists who have all too often set the agenda in Washington.
In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.
This is one of those moments. This is our chance to turn the page on the policies of the past. This is our chance to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. This is our chance; this is our time, to march together in unity, as one people, toward the future that we know is possible. Thank you Hillary Clinton, thank you Unity, and may God Bless the United States of America.
Posted at 01:32 PM
Comments
What about Chelsea, the FUTURE voice of the Clinton's? When is she ever going to endorse Barack, and help support him to return the disaffected "College Coeds Choosing Clinton" back to the presumptive Democratic nominee?
Michael Grinberg | 06.27.08 02:51 PM
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Michael Grinberg, seriously? I assume that is sarcasm. If so, very funny!
Keith O. should be fired | 06.27.08 05:55 PM
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A very intersting comment I just read on the Marc Ambinder blog:
"I think one of the biggest mistakes by Obama during the primary that created so many (perhaps incorrect) hard feelings among some women against Obama was that he overplayed the hand about her claiming too much experience. Given she has double the years in the U.S. Senate and had been on the national stage for 15 years, his denigration of her experience was troubling and implicitly sexist. Or it was as troubling as implicit as the racial comments made in South Carolina against Obama.
Obama exhibited an occasional explicit sexism ('sweetie', etc.), yet this explicit poor behavior was quite rare. But he did have one problem that leaves a greater fear that he may be more implicitly sexist than he lets on -- very bad implicit sexism came out in his repeated attacks against her when he denigrated her experience as first lady.
Was being first lady equivalent experience as president? No, of course not. Women know this. Was it meaningless work where Hillary Clinton never had any insights on the workings of the White House? No, not at all. Combining 8 years of first lady and nearly 7 years in the U.S. Senate was an impressive combination in the eyes of many female voters.
By denigrating her time in the White House, it came off as him suggesting she's been engaged in a kind of "women's work" tending the house while the boys made the decisions. It also appeared as if he was marginalizing the policy issues (like health care) she worked on during that time as "women's work," not worthy of presidential attention but fine for the first lady to take care of (Isn't that nice? the little lady is having teas and health care task force meetings). While I realize that Obama's health care plan is better than McCain's, I can't get over the sinking feeling that Obama just doesn't care about health care as an issue because he denigrated Hillary Clinton's time in the White House, where she worked extensively on health care, as meaningless. I think health care is an American issue.
And even one of Hillary Clinton's biggest gaffes over Bosnia fed into the feeling that Obama just didn't take her seriously. She clearly screwed up and didn't admit it quickly enough. But they kept talking about it, and I was thinking "She admitted the mistake. And she still was in Bosnia. Has Obama ever been to Bosnia? [I don't know]."
Had she only been first lady, the charge that her first lady experience wasn't enough to be president would have merit. However, any professional woman married to a professional man knows that the two regularly discuss important decisions in their jobs before they are made. And because she was a U.S. senator, the first lady experience was a great plus on top of her time in the U.S. Senate. The idea that Hillary Clinton had no serious governmental experience was far from true, and it came off as marginalizing.
Obama's mockery of her first lady years only made us even madder when he lauded his own experience as a community organizer and state legislator to be president.
If you get to count community organizing and being a state legislator (+2 short years as U.S. senator) as a reason you are prepared to be president, then Hillary Clinton certainly gets to count her 8 years as first lady to go along with her 7 years (and 2 elections) to the U.S. Senate.
Also, Michelle Obama was being made to be the next Jackie O (perhaps by the media, not the Obama campaign). As a woman in the 21st century, I'd rather have Hillary Clinton as a role model than Jackie O., though I like both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
All the critiques against her as first lady struck me as a man saying that women proximate to power and on the national stage (even if the are first lady) don't really have the qualifications. Add to that the fact that Clinton had more service in the U.S. Senate than Obama, and that Obama was trumpeting his own experience in the state legislature as preparedness to be president, and it was borderline if not outright sexist. It wasn't good, and the result is a lot of hard feelings from some women now that the primary is over.
Ambivalent Obama supporter | 06.29.08 12:39 AM
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