On September 18, Senator Barack Obama spoke to a cheering crowd at the site of Washington's old Convention Center (now demolished) on 11th and H Street. Obama proposed at the rally that America needs to "redesign how we think about our foreign policy." He proposed talking to our adversaries without conditions, and bringing in other nations in order to find a resolution of the Iraq conflict.
The rally attracted a wide variety of spectators: men and women of all ages, races, and backgrounds, all hoping to catch a good look, and maybe shake the hand of the man they hope will be the next president of the United States.
DC mayor, Adrian Fenty, introduced Obama. Fenty came out in support of Obama just two months after Obama announced his intention to run. Like Fenty, Obama is campaigning on a platform that seeks to make sweeping changes in the very way the business of government is conducted.
Like most campaign rally speeches, Obama's stump speech included sharp criticism of the current administration. Obama is unique in saying the problem lies deeper than just replacing the man or woman occupying the presidency or changing political parties. He expressed concern about the state of America under both Republican and Democratic leadership. To illustrate this problem, at the rally he especially focused on the issues of health care and foreign policy.
Obama described how the health care crisis in this country has touched his own life. He told the story of his mother, who died of ovarian cancer at 53, spending her final days worrying about whether the insurance company was going to consider her cancer pre-existing and deny her claim. With 47 million Americans without healt hcare coverage, her story is not unusual, said Obama, who pledged his commitment to bringing about fundamental change in our health care system.
Obama said he opposed the war in Iraq before it began, at a time when it was not popular to do so. In the U.S. Senate, he has introduced legislation to bring our troops home.
"The next president has to tell the American people the truth, even when it's not easy; even when it's not convenient," he said.
He proposed regaining America's moral standing in this world by leading with values and ideas, and leading by example. "We are not a nation who closes a blind eye to torture," said Obama, referring to persons detained and interrogated, whom the current administration says are not prisoners of war but only "enemy combatants."
He shared a vision of America as a "bright light in the community of nations." Although his critics consider his optimism naïve and call him a "hope monger" and a "hope peddler," Obama says he believes in the power of one voice to create change. All change in America, he said, has happened from the bottom up. He ended the DC rally simply by saying: "Let's go change the world."
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