Obama: McCain 'a little panicked'
Posted: Friday, September 19, 2008 2:50 PM by Carrie Dann
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- As officials in Washington continued work on a plan to rescue a teetering financial system, Obama responded to McCain's efforts to paint him as a "Washington insider" complicit in the financial crisis, calling it a "panicked" move by the Arizona senator.
“This morning, Senator McCain gave a speech in which his big solution to this world wide economic crisis was to blame me for it,” Obama said to boos from the crowd of about 8,000 people at a South Florida rally. “This is the guy who spent nearly three decades in Washington and after spending the entire campaign saying I haven’t been in Washington long enough he apparently now is willing to assign me the responsibility for all of Washington’s failures.”
“I think it’s pretty clear that Sen. McCain is a little panicked right now,” he added. “At this point he seems to be willing to say anything or do anything or change any position or violate any principle to try and win this election.”
Throughout his roughly 40 minute speech, the senator also stressed the differences between himself and John McCain on issues of concern to women.
The Democratic nominee spoke of his commitment to equal pay for equal work, pointing out that McCain had opposed legislation to help women get equal pay, and said McCain had called Roe v. Wade a “flawed decision” and was running on a platform to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest, an issue some of his campaign’s ads have been highlighting as part of an effort to win over the women voters who will be critical in this election.
“Change means a president who will stand up for choice, who understands that five men on the Supreme Court don’t know better than women and their families and their doctors about what’s best for their health,” he said. “That’s why I fought so hard in Illinois and Washington to stop laws that overturn Roe v Wade. That’s why I am committed to appointing judges who understand how law operates in our daily lives, judges who will uphold the values at the core of our constitution. That’s why I will never back down from defending a woman’s right to choose.”
The senator said McCain’s health care plan would hurt families and give insurance companies “free rein” to discriminate against women with histories of breast cancer and other illnesses. He stressed Joe Biden’s authorship of the Violence Against Women Act.
Telling the crowd he wasn’t too far away from qualifying for an AARP card, Obama said he would protect Social Security, unlike his opponent.
“John McCain’s talked about privatizing social security,” he said. “Imagine if you had some of your social security money in the stock market right now, how you’d be feeling about the prospects or your retirement. Without social security half of elderly women would be living in poverty. Half. If my opponent had his way millions of Americans would have had their social security tied to stock market this week. Millions would have watched as the market tumbled and their nest egg disappeared before their eyes."
He was briefly interrupted early in his speech by a group of black protestors holding signs with phrases like “Blacks Against Obama” and others suggesting the senator had been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. They were eventually escorted out by arena security
Obama, who was introduced by former Clinton supporter Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, ended his pitch to women with a homage to his former Democratic rival.
“I think we’re up for the challenge –we always have been. That’s why I’m standing here today, because of what my mother and my grandmother did for me,” he said. “That’s why all of us are here today because of all our parents and our grandparents but especially all of the women who came before us. Who reached out for the ballot to raise families who traveled those lonely roads to be the first ones in the boardrooms and the court room, and the battlefields and the factory floors. Women like my friend, Hillary Clinton who put those 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling. So that my daughters and all our on and daughter could dream a little bigger, reach a little higher.”
