Obama: Cedar Rapids 2/10/07

Obama: Cedar Rapids 2/10/07

There was a rumor of wifi but it appears to have been only a rumor. So this is live written, delayed posted (with overdubs, even KISS Alive! had overdubs.)

2:30ish and Settling in at the press platform…

Operation looks major league but perhaps a touch over efficient. Maybe it’s an excess of volunteers; a lot of Fresh Faced Young People were tasked with keeping the press in the press area. I made the mistake of trading my civilian tix for a press pass.

Had a nice brief chat with Joel Miller, Linn County Auditor candidate who was not missing the chance to shake a few thousand hands before Tuesday’s special election. I let him get on with talking to folks who can actually vote for him and wandered down the line. But I’m hoping today’s obsession with press corralling is a brief bump in the road and not a sign of things to come

The Overrated One has been sighted though he did have a nice summary today. Chris Dorsey of Iowa Politics is here as is rfdblog.com. And loads and loads and loads of national press. I’m squeezed in between a couple cameras. While I was wandering the folks in line looked young, young, young.

3:42. Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s colors are green and gold and I wonder how a certain Bears fan will like that. The hubbub is overpowering the music but it’s four or five songs on a loop. One hip hop, one country, Sly Stone’s Everyday People, the Rascal Flatts version of “Life Is A Highway” (I guess Tom Cochrane’s origninal is too Canadian) and John Mellencamp’s ubiquitous “This Is My Country”…

Congressman Loebsack – I still love saying that - gets a nice cheer. Linn activist DJ Arnold says Obama had a short get together with a few of his ilk just now and some of them are trickling into the seats saved next to him. Mayor Kay Halloran is here (despite the Vilsack endorsement mentioned this morning).

4:07 now and underway. Joel Miller is getting a moment at the platform. The party line is “he’s the only qualified person in the race.” (repeated by every Linn County Dem I talked to)

Congressman Dave Loebsack

Dave Loebsack is up and thanking all of us for his big surprise win last fall. Says he recognizes a lot of national press - not from his race but from past caucuses as a party activist.

“Iowa takes its job seriously. The caucus process is the most democratic - small d - way to do this, we have the opportunity to talk about the issues and ask the hard questions, and a lot of us have been doing that for a lot of years.”

“In America, we do have hope and opportunity, and those of us in Congress are doing all we can to restore that.” He announces for re-election – but we knew that so we chuckle.

“The Democrats have Congress, we’re halfway there. We can try to negotiate with the president. But let’s do our job and choose the best person for the Democratic nomination and let’s begin here in Iowa.”

A brief lull. Dave had a good meeting with labor folks in Iowa City just before this. The Kennedy kids are starting an O-BA-MA! Chant but it dies out.

4:16 and the Congressman asks the folks in the bleachers to scoot closer together so we can get more folks in. In a nice professorial voice of a guy who’s done a lot of caucus events before.

4:20 and a Kennedy High senior intros Obama. He makes the entrance to loud cheers, though I remember basketball games being louder. No entrance music – apparently that’s the drill for Obama as that was what he did at the DNC last week. Crowd is standing so my once good vantage point is shot. Now the noise approaches hoops level…

The family is with him, he has the tie on today and not the usual Obama no tie uniform. Steve Sovern is handling the re-intro. I guess introducing Obama is a dual duty.

Sovern: “This is a hugely different way to start the campaign – but this is a hugely different candidate.” The idea here is this is a conversation, not a speech. Obama is introing the electeds: Loebsack and Joel Miller get more love. His Illinois cohort Dick Durbin is here, hanging back by the press mostly unobserved.

4:30 and on to the meat: leading with health care; energy as national and environmental security. Education and global competitiveness. Internationally people recognize the terrorist threat is real. But can’t solve it till “we bring this ill conceived are in Iraq to a close.” (first big applause.

We have faced similar challenges in the past: we faced it with slavery, name checks Lincoln, we overcame great depression and fascism – here’s that big historic arc he likes to draw. “We’ve been able to meet every challenge; there’s no reason we can’t meet today’s challenges.”

I don’t just want to win, I want to transform this country. Only way I can do it is if you make this a vehicle for your hopes and dreams. No matter how able the individual, ultimately the country changes in when the people speak out for change. What I hope will happen is through meetings like that is we see reengagement and excitement from ordinary citizens – because they can accomplish extraordinary change.

Rolling applause.

Sovern says he gets a few more questions, then it’ll open to the crowd. He was watching C-Span calls – JFK comparisons. people saying Obama leads people back to Dems because of HOPE. How do you deal with responsibility?

Obama: “I hope all the questionss are like that. (ha ha ha) JFK comparison is premature… town hall meetings will let people “kick the tires and see what this guy’s about.” Hope people say “this guy’s agenda makes sense.” Our politics feels like an insider’s game with ordinary voters left out (applause) Special interest have an extraordinary influence – hard to get any energy bill through, drug bill, due to lobby influence. Recently passed ethics reforms. The aggregate over time of influence gives some people access others not and that excludes people. Kennedy era gave people sense everyone could be involved. The call to action has been missing, replaced by corrosive cynicism\m. When asked “who’s your biggest rival” I say “cynicism.”

Sovern: How do you maintain integrity while raising millions?

Obama “It’s hard” Makes no PAC pledge and gets applause. But we must raise $ to compete. Town halls are great but if I don’t get on TV, I’m a wonderful footnote in campaign history. Internet has put power back into people’s hands. $5, 10, 20 from millions of people lets us raise as much $ with more stake holders. It’s a pain in the neck raising money all the time, takes time away from finding solutions. Only 1% makes contributions, disproportionately wealthy. Not quid pro quo, but you spend time with them “and they’re not struggling.” High dollar donors can have progressive ideals, but they don’t feel daily struggles the same way.

Sovern: Ethnicity and “what is he”? What are you, Senator?

Obama: Uses the Alabama and Yo Mama joke he used last fall, does the mini-biography. Dad from Kenya, mom from Kansas, grew up in Hawaii: “Typical for an Illinois politician.” (ha ha) Went to Chicago to be a community organizer starting at $13,000 a year. “Best education I ever had – realizing that Washington has the power to influence the way locals cannot – and that ordinary people can do extraordinary things if given a chance.” One of my strengths as a leader – there are a lot of different pieces of American in me. As a teen that caused me some problems, I felt pulled in a million different but as I got older I learned that it was an enormous benefit because people are people. With similar hopes and dreams and common values – and that’s a foundation around which we can build a better politics.”

Sovern laying down ground rules for questions: “make it quick and make it a question.” (People mostly follow that, except maybe the teacher at the end but the crowd was on her side.)

Kyle from Naperville asks: How do we get troops out of Iraq?

“I opposed this war from the start” gets biggest applause since entrance. Whether you were for or against we must face facts; will not be a military solution, the problems are political. Shia, Sunni, Kurds have not come together on a host of issues to resolve peacefully. Our troops cannot maintain order in a civil war. So candidates have obligation to offer a specific plan. So I would begin phased redeployment – troops out by 3/31/08. Binding legislation. (interrupting applause) If at any point Iraq meets benchmarks we can reassess. Commanders have flexibility and Iraqis have incentives. Not putting troops (praise praise) in a situation where they can’t succeed. This parallels what Iraq Study Group recommended. The notion that this approach is irresponsible flies in face of military experts. We have genuine national security interest and responsibilities. “We should be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.”

Linda of CR: North Korea.

Obama: In many ways North Korea a greater danger than Iraq was pre-invasion. Nukes nukes nukes… We should have built on some of Clinton administration’s work: exchange inspections for assistance. “They cheated, nevertheless it kept a lid on.” Bush cut it all off. So North Korea just broke the deal. So we have to rebuild a constructive process. North Korea wants bilateral talks with US. I thiNorth Korea we should talk to North Korea (applause). They are a rogue state we must be tough, but the US doesn’t punish anyone by not talking. As a consequence we have no leverage. UN Sec General says “the simple act of the US acknowledging NORTH KOREA” would help.

John McCauskely (that's how I typed it and now I can't recall the pronunciation) of Sensible Priorities. He’s a Chicago native. Obama: “White Sox or Cubbies?” John is a Cub guy; Obama is a Sox fan. John backpedals saying his folks were a Cubs-Sox mixed marriage. Getting serious, he asks about cuts in Pentagon budget.

Obama: getting out of Iraq will save billions… yet in terms of overall military budget we have problems with immediate cuts because this war has depleted our military. My ADD is kicking in, a reporter is doing his standup loudly and I get distracted. Obama says career military are opting out, can’t take third rotations. We need to build up size of active regular forces and replace equipment lost in war, probably a bump in initial Obama Administration (he sayss it, picture me as a president) military spending just to catch up. Then we go through budget to see which programs and weapons systems are effective, which are outmoded. We are not fighting the wars our parents fought. Potentially over time we could see some savings but we still need to address threats. (In sum: Get out of Iraq but I’m not a Disarm Now kinda guy)

Krista from UIowa asks about college costs.

Obama: I have a self-interest in college costs with two young kids (no one laughs at the joke surprisingly). Half of student loans go directly to students, works well. Other half, because of banking industry clout, goes thru banks and takes out $2 billion in profits. Not enough influence from students – students don’t vote enough. I’d make all programs run efficiently. Let the banks make money on my mortgage, my credit card, but don’t let them impede kids ability go to college.

Mix of loans to grants has changed. My era (which was roughly this blogger’s era): was 70% grants to 30% loans, and the debt burden was less and people could be teachers or social workers. With $100,000 in debt, those options are hard (applause). We should give incentives for kids to go into teaching (applause) and give them a huge break on their education.

Sovern: one more question.

Jean an Iowa City Teacher: No Child Left Behind (the Kennedy kids cheer) and vouchers (which she doesn’t like).

Obama: Left the $ behind. Applause But things were good: 1) high standards – we have to compete 2) Did ID a problem of schools doing well as a whole but some tee not result groups left behind, so we need to identify that. America is not a guarantee, but everyone should have a shot. But No child did not provide the $. Chicago is 3000 teachers short. Assessments penalize good schools because some schools have hard time meeting standards – more poor kids, etc. We should look for a trajectory of improvement instead. Most important ingredient is the quality of teachers. Need to make up for baby boomer retirements. We need to pay teachers more (applause) The most important job in the country, barely making enough $ to support.

But there should be more accountability. Can’t be test performance only – but that s/b part of the mix. The teachers can tell you who the good teachers are. (The voucher part of the question, which had been partially drowned by applause anyway, does not get taken up.)

Closing remarks: First of many visits to CR (yaaaaaaaaaaay they say) The novelty will wear off ("Do I want to see Obama AGAIN? Naah, the ball game's on") so we can meet in smaller groups so people can ask more questions. Making change in this country will depend on your decision that problems are SO important (a bit of Obama Oratory here…) If you feel that sense of urgency, don’t just wait for me. I’ve gotta have YOU get involved. He’s making the pitch for the pledge cards, nicely distributed on every seat (along with the Joel Miller flyers)… We can completely change how we do business in this country.

5:26. The crush of bodies is waiting for the moment with the man, perhaps to touch the hem of his garment. It may take a while to get out and get posted.

The bit of Oratorical Obama at the end really got folks going but that wasn’t the event intent. They’re playing Mellencamp AGAIN. Makes we want to buy a truck. Durbin is to my left doing an interview. One of his staffers picks my brain a little. An Iowa City guy has a pro-Palestinian sign, good for the national cameras to see.

Follow-up: State Rep. Tyler Olson is present, says his first session is going well. As I leave the press area Yepsen is approaching Loebsack: “Congressman! Haven’t seen you since the election…” I hope he dined on a full plate of crow… A camera guy based out of Springfield says 18,000 were at the announcement event.

On the way out Obama folks are signing folks up and handing out buttons and stickers, no abandoned signs were noted on the floor. Dem volunteers are handing out flyers for Joel Miller, and one of the independent candidates is seen as well. Odd, since the Democratic Senator who is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination was nice enough to endorse Democrat Joel Miller from the platform. I share this oddity with DJ Arnold, who is both a very loyal Democrat and a rather big guy, and as I leave he’s going over to discuss the matter with the independent candidate.

I’ll put up pics later if they turn out.