Obama focuses on electability
Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 2:34 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
DENVER, CO -- There were two clear targets in Obama's speech at the University of Denver on Wednesday morning -- one named (McCain), the other alluded to (Clinton).
In a speech the day after McCain won the Florida Republican primary, becoming that party's new presidential front-runner, Obama argued that the Democrats can't start the general election with half the electoral map against them -- and that they can't take on McCain when their nominee has the same positions as he does on foreign policy issues.
"It's time for new leadership that understands that the way to win a debate with John McCain is not by nominating someone who agreed with him on voting for the war in Iraq; who agreed with him in voting give George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran…" Obama said, also pointing to Clinton's positions on torture and diplomacy.
The fact that there were no longer two potential obstacles to the Republican nomination but one was clear when Obama began his speech with words of praise for Edwards, who dropped his bid for the presidency early this morning.
"So while his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives (John and Elizabeth Edwards) endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America," Obama said. He named every candidate in the race, including Senator Hillary Clinton, and called them "an all-star cast," but the praise didn't overshadow the thrust of Obama's argument that he -- and not Clinton -- is the best choice for the Democratic party.
While electability was the message that Obama wished to convey, the choice felt far more connected to one between generations of leadership rather than who could win against a Republican. The 9,500 people in the audience at Magness Arena was filled with students chanting "We Want Change" and "Yes We Can!" before Obama's arrival.
And the appearance of Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late John F. Kennedy, who introduced Obama spoke to that generational choice. Telling the crowd that over the years she had been deeply moved by people who said they were inspired by her own father, Caroline Kennedy said that the "longing" to be inspired "is even more profound today."
"Fortunately there is one candidate who offers that same sense of hope and inspiration. That candidate is Barack Obama," she said.
Obama too played upon the idea of passing the torch, setting up the choice in this election as choosing not only change but between "the past and the future."
"I know it's tempting -- after another presidency by a man named George Bush -- to simply turn back the clock, and to build a bridge back to the 20th century," Obama said.
Repeating a line from his victory speech in South Carolina Obama added, "It's about the past versus the future. And when I am the nominee the Republicans won't be able to make this election about the past because you will have already chosen the future."
Obama went into a list of eleven detailed attacks regarding Senator Clinton including her votes on bankruptcy, trade, and foreign policy. But the thrust of his argument about Clinton was to cast her as a polarizing figure.
Speaking of a woman looking for health care, he said, "She can't afford to wait another four years or another fifteen years to get health care because we've put forward a nominee who can't bring Democrats and Republicans together to get things done." Using Clinton's own line against her, he added: "It's not enough to be ready from Day One -- you have to be right from Day One."
Like in Iowa, Obama's speech felt like a closing argument a blueprint for why he should be chosen as president over someone far more well known and equally qualified for the job. In Iowa, that argument brought many audiences to its feet as he delivered the same message, stop after stop, over course of seven days before the caucuses there. Obama has seven days to do the same thing again. But unlike Iowa, the groundwork for that closing argument has not been laid out as carefully and methodically.
The Clinton campaign questioned Obama's speech as an attempt to go negative after a pledge to run a positive campaign. They pointed out that Obama -- like Clinton -- voted to fund the war in Iraq. And they noted his criticism of Clinton on voting for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran overlooked both the fact that Obama missed that crucial vote, as well as Clinton's opposition to using military force against Iran without congressional approval.
Eighteen thousand people showed up to see Obama in Denver, the site of the 2004 Democratic national convention and what Democrats see as a state that could go the Democrats' way in 2008. Obama spoke to an overflow crowd of 4,500 at an adjacent gym, and also addressed a second overflow crowd of several thousand at the university's lacrosse stadium. The Denver Broncos' Rod Smith and Federico Pena, the former mayor of Denver, were also on hand and spoke to Obama's ability to bring change.
