Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-Il.) addressed workers at the AFL-CIO Convention in Center City this morning. His opponent, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, delivered a speech at the same convention yesterday.
Entering the room to cheers of, “Yes We Can!”, Obama spoke on a number of issues ranging from foreign policy to the creation of new jobs. Like Clinton did in her speech yesterday, Obama criticized presumptive Republican nominee John McCain (R-Az.) for his continuation of many of the ideals of the Bush administration.
Obama also spent a great deal of time addressing the need for not only a new administration in the White House, but also for a fundamental change in the way Washington works. “People have lost faith, they’ve lost trust, that anybody in Washington is listening to them,” Obama said. “The problems we face go beyond any single administration.”
In his speech, Obama referenced his “Road to Change” bus tour across Pennsylvania, which is on its sixth and final day. He referenced his bowling match this week in Western Pennsylvania: “My poll numbers dropped a little bit after the bowling … but I’m going to tear up the bowling alley in the White House.” (Out of a possible 300 points, Obama scored a dismal 37 — if he and Hillary have the “bowl-off” for the nomination she referred to yesterday, Hillary might actually have a chance at winning the nomination.)
The speech at the AFL-CIO was an attempt by the Obama campaign to gain the crucial support of the Pennsylvania working class, a group that has typically favored Clinton in other states. Both Obama and Clinton have heavily courted this demographic while campaigning in the Keystone State, as evidenced by the fact that both candidates spoke at this convention.
In response to Clinton’s “Rocky Balboa” analogy yesterday, Obama presented a “Rocky” argument of his own: “We all love Rocky … and last time I checked, I was the underdog in this state.”
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April 4th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
How can AFSCME, an affiliate of AFL-CIO ever support Hillary Clinton who was for SIX LONG YEARS, a member of the board of directors of WALMART, that union-hating
employee-exploiting behemoth? For AFSCME to endorse such a two-faced little phoney is an insult to the American worker and to the middle class. All AFSCME members should ask McEntee the AFSCME chief,” How much were you bribed to endorse Hillary?”