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By Sherrie Peif
speif@mywindsornow.com
FORT COLLINS -- With only nine days to go until Election Day, northern Colorado found itself in the hotbed of political stumping again, this time with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stopping in Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon.
"Thank you CSU," Obama said to an estimated 50,000 people who gathered at The Oval on the Colorado State University campus. "It is pretty around here. I should have gone to school here. Now I know. What a spectacular campus. What a spectacular crowd. And what a spectacular day."
Obama's remarks on northern Colorado and the CSU facility weren't the focus of his speech, however, with talk quickly diverting to defending his campaign by redirecting the attack toward his opponent, Republican John McCain.
"Change never comes without a fight," Obama said. "In the final days of campaigns, the say anything, do anything politics all too often takes over. We've seen it before, and we're starting to see it now. The ugly phone calls, the misleading mail and TV ads, the careless outrageous comments, all aimed at keeping you from bringing about the change that we need."
Obama's latest trip to Colorado was on the heels of a McCain stop in Denver on Friday. Colorado, and it's nine electoral votes, have been the focal point for both campaigns recently with both vice presidential candidates stumping for Obama and McCain last week in Loveland and Greeley, and spouses and celebrities continuing to hold rallies across the state for both men.
Obama started off his 30-minute speech with what seems to be a common theme for both candidates in the waning moments of the campaign, an attempt to distance himself from President Bush.
"They have been throwing everything at me but the kitchen sink hoping that something is going to stick," he said. "The other day, Senator McCain took it to a whole new level. He said that I was like George Bush. He said this. You can't make this stuff up. I was confused by this since I was opposed to every one of Bush's economic proposals. Then (Sunday) on "Meet the Press," he said he and President Bush share a common philosophy. I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little of that straight talk he was talking about."
Those comments didn't sit well with the McCain camp.
"Barack Obama can't name a single issue or philosophy on which he's opposed the Democratic-controlled Congress -- not one," said Tucker Bounds, spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign, in a statement. "John McCain opposed President Bush's wasteful spending policy, his big oil energy policy and his efforts to grow the federal government by 40 percent. Obama supported Bush on all three."
Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said Obama shares a common philosophy with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank.
"Barney Frank promises to cut defense spending by 25 percent and raise taxes," Conant said. "Obama's philosophy of higher taxes and bigger government would hurt economic growth. Considering that Obama is amongst the most partisan members of Congress, it's audacious for him to accuse John McCain of lacking independence. Unlike McCain, Obama has never broken with his party's leadership. If elected president, it's clear Obama would be little more than a rubber-stamp for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's tax-and-spend agenda."
But amid the backdrop of the autumn leaves and thousands of people still running in to hear the speech even as it ended, Obama, mostly, spoke about his plan for a new White House by easing the economic crisis, investing in education and health care and funding new energy policies.
"The rescue plan that passed the Congress was a necessary first step to easing this credit crisis, but if we're going to rebuild this economy from the bottom up, really and truly rebuild this economy so the fundamentals are sound, we need an immediate rescue package for the middle class," Obama said.
Obama outlined an American jobs tax credit for each new employee that companies hire in the United States over the next two years, promised to eliminate capital gains taxes and offer emergency loans to keep small business doors open and assist in hiring workers, promised to create a jobs and growth fund to help states and local governments save jobs and pay for health care and education without raising taxes. He also promised to help homeowners refinance their mortgages while putting in place a three-month moratorium on foreclosures.
"Under my plan, tax rates will actually be less than they were under Ronald Reagan," he said. "It is true that I want to roll back the Bush tax cuts on the very wealthiest Americans and go back to the rate they paid under Bill Clinton."
Speaking on health care, Obama said he will fix the problems that people have been talking about for too long, using a personal connection to his mother's death from ovarian cancer at the age of 53.
"I'll never forget how she spent the final months of her life lying in a hospital bed, fighting with her insurance company because they claimed that her cancer was a pre-existing condition and didn't want to pay for treatment," he said. "If I am President, I will make sure those insurance companies can never do that again."
And he promised to make sure anyone who wanted to attend college, could, by implementing a plan that would pay the tuition for anyone who invested time in their country, either through the Peace Corps, the military or by volunteering in their local communities. He also pledged to invest in early childhood education, recruit new teachers and increase teacher salaries.
"My opponent's top economic adviser actually said that they have no plan to invest in college affordability because we can't have a giveaway to every special interest," he said. "Well, I don't think the young people of America are a special interest. They are the future of this country."
In closing, Obama drove home the importance of Colorado voters.
"Colorado, if you will stand with me, if you will go out there and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors and knock on doors and make phone calls, if you are ready to once again believe in the promise of this country, then I guarantee you, we will not just win this election," he said. "But you and I together are going to change this country and change this world."
