Obama Liveblog in Oskaloosa: The Speech

I am on the first leg of my blogging triathlon in Oskloosa at the at the Smokey Row Coffee House. There are probably over 250 people inside awaiting the arrival of Barack Obama. The place is packed and the line outside foes for a block is probably 75 people long. The Smokey Row is a great venue and it is surprising a small town has such a nice coffee house. (If you visit Oskaloosa make sure to check out the Smokey Row and the fabulous book store next door called the Book Vault.)

State Senator Tom Riley introduces Michelle Obama. Michelle is talking about their family and their oldest daughter is standing next to her. Today is their oldest daughter’s birthday. Michelle says the campaign wanted them to come to Iowa, but their girls had a special activity at camp yesterday. Michelle says she hates watching the news because there is something that disappoints her everyday. She wants us to be a society that looks out for children and families first. She outlines Barack’s race for Senate and how people said he couldn’t raise the money and how he couldn’t win outside of Chicago. However, he did raise money and he did win outside of Chicago. He won in the suburbs, he won in Chicago, and he won in rural Illinois. Michelle then introduces Barack.

Barack comes out with their youngest daughter Sasha. Sasha is hiding behind her dad like a typical 5 year old that is in front of a large crowd. Barack thanks the typical elected officials and thanks for all the people waiting outside. He says he will make sure he will get outside and shake hands with everyone.

He outlines the large crowds that have been coming to see him including 10,000 in Iowa City, 5,000 in Ames, and 4,500 in Davenport. Says he would like to think they are all there to see him, but a lot of people are frustrated. People are frustrated with health care, with No Child Left Behind that has left the money behind, with Wall Street that is doing great, but they are living paycheck to paycheck.

We are funding both sides of the war on terrorism and at the same time melting the polar ice caps. We need a real energy policy. People see a war that should never have been waged. The decision to go to war is not a sport. It is not a decision that should be based on ideology. We are in a war that was not decided based on genuine security needs, but on a few people sitting down saying we can do this and then don’t do the necessary planning.

These are some of things people are frustrated with and we haven’t even talked about Scooter. He quotes Dick Durbin who said even Paris Hilton got some jail time.

However, people aren't just coming to see him because they are frustrated. They are tired of a politics of fear.

I don’t want to be afraid of my fellow Americans, I want to work with them to get things done.

President talks about an ownership society that means we are on our own. If you’re a factory worker whose jobs gets shipped to China, you’re on your own to compete for a job with your teenager that pays $7.50 an hour. If you’re a single mom that doesn’t have health insurance you’re on your own.

People want a sense that we can set big goals, dream big dreams, we can go places a previous generation has never gone before.

We have been through tougher times than this and we have come through them and we have prospered. There is no reason this generation of Americans can’t do that.


We know what to do. We know what to do for health care. If we provide preventative care we can save money. We save money by switching to electronic medial records. We can use this money to provide good quality health care to everyone.

We know what to do for education. Every $1 we invest in early childhood education we get $7 dollars back. We need to invest in teachers. We are going to lose a million teachers in the coming years. We need to say we want our younger generation to enter teaching and we do that by paying teachers better.

We need to make sure our children aren’t burdened by a large amount of student debt. We need to decrease the interest rates on student loans. We need to make sure every child that is qualified to go to college can go to college.

We need to raise fuel standards to 45 mpg then we would be able to replace the equivalent of all the oil we import from the Middle East.

It would be a gift of independence for our next generation.

We believe in trade, but we believe in fair trade. If China is manipulating currency, we need to do something about it. We need to make sure there are labor and environmental standards. We need to end the tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas and invest in companies that create jobs here.

Obama would bring our troops home by next year and once again focus on the people who mean to do us harm. We left Afghanistan too early. Bin Laden is still on the loose. We need to focus our resources on the terrorism threats that actually exist instead of a careless war.

Obama says this campaign is about more than just him.

I’d like to be able to go to the store without my secret service guys. I am not an entourage type of guy.

There is no question and answer time. Obama closes his speech saying...

We aren’t just going to win an election, but most importantly we are going to transform a country.

The Smokey Row has this cool sign inside that said Barack for President.