Barack Obama Rallies 10,000 During University Of Toledo Visit

BY KAREN BERGER
AND NANCY GAGNET
MIRROR REPORTERS
The Savage Hall crowd was revved up even before the star arrived Sunday. So when Barack Obama stepped into the arena, the roar of approval was deafening.
The Illinois senator gave them exactly what they came for: hope for change.
“If you’re ready for a change,” was Obama’s rally cry, as he outlined his plans for health care, education, energy and foreign policy. While those in Washington “want to season me and stew the hope out of me,” Obama said he was undeterred, because hope is a necessary ingredient in change.
Changes he would like to make mirrored the audience’s concerns, particularly health care.
Obama promised that by the end of his first term that everyone without health insurance would have packages at least as good as the one enjoyed by Congress. He also planned to meet with insurance companies to discuss lowering prescription and premium costs.
“A lot of seniors have problems getting health insurance or paying too much for prescriptions,” agreed Toledoan Leon Foreman. “We also need outreach programs for kids who are going in the wrong direction.”
Education should cover birth through college, Obama said, and his changes would include rewarding teachers with money and support, investing in early childhood education, and a $4,000-a-year college tuition credit for every student in return for community service.
“I feel confident. He may not be able to change everything, but at least he’s moving in the right direction,” said Toledo resident Arnyka Harris, who said education and jobs were her top concerns.
Finding a job was the primary reason Oscar Roberts attended the rally. He held a sign asking Obama to help him get a job – until organizers took it away. Roberts, who said he has a bachelor’s degree in business management, lost his job with Greyhound in Denver and returned home to Toledo.
“I need a job. I ain’t giving up,” Roberts said.
Obama plans to raise the minimum wage regularly to keep up with inflation, set up a foreclosure prevention fund and roll back tax breaks for those making over $75,000 a year.
He criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, and said his Democratic opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, was trying to distance herself from the Bill Clinton administration’s signing of NAFTA. Obama said he would stop giving tax breaks to companies that send jobs overseas.
Investing in solar, wind and biodiesel energy would put people in Toledo back to work making solar panels and wind turbines, he said. Although he’s met with Detroit automakers about focusing on more fuel-efficient vehicles, he urged the audience to tame their love of gas-guzzling SUVs.
The $12 billion being spent each month in Iraq could be better invested in building roads and bridges and laying broadband lines in America, he said.
“The war in Iraq was unwise. Al-Qaeda is stronger now than in 2001. Bin Laden is still at large,” Obama said, promising to bring the troops home by 2009 – and to take care of the veterans when they return.
While Obama pledged to keep America safe, even if it required a show of force, he would rather use diplomacy and lead the way in hunting terrorists, helping those with HIV/AIDS, ending the genocide in Darfur and standing by civil rights – starting by closing Guantanamo Bay.
Obama talked about his work in Chicago’s South Side to establish job training programs for those affected by a steel mill closure.
“That experience taught me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things given the opportunity,” Obama said. “This is a new chapter in American history.”
That hope of change was catching in the audience Sunday.
“I like the fact that he’s ready to change America. We need a change,” said Paula Ford-Yate.
“I’m a Republican and I was planning on voting Republican,” said 19-year-old Vicki Forcina, a University of Toledo student. “But listening to his views might change my mind.”
Obama currently has 1,319 delegates to Clinton’s 1,250. A total of 2,025 delegates are needed to earn the Democratic nomination.