Obama visits farm in Ohio
By PAUL GIANNAMORE Special to the Tribune ChronicleSMITHFIELD - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama stayed on message in his Ohio visits Wednesday. He said that he, and not Republican John McCain, has the plan to strengthen the middle class, the education system, the economy and health care while reducing taxes for the majority of Americans.
Obama made the talk during an appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Piergallini farm on county Road 10, in Smithfield, which is about 10 miles southwest of Steubenville.
Though it was much the same message he delivered in accepting his party's nomination a week ago in Denver and much the same message he delivered in New Philadelphia earlier in the day, the crowd that waited in the afternoon sun was spontaneous in its adulation for Obama.
About 500 people came through the gates for Obama's appearance on the farm, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla, enjoying a barbecue picnic meal prepared by Todd Piergallini, one of the children of Ray and Lucille Piergallini, who own the farm that has been in the family since 1932.
The Illinois senator, wrapping up his first week as Democratic Party nominee, said he didn't want to speak long, preferring to shake hands, which he did for several minutes on the way in and out of the Piergallini farm.
Obama told the crowd that he's learned several things in the nearly 19 months he's been running for president:
"America is big and it's beautiful. Look around. This is as pretty a piece of real estate as any place in the world."
"I've learned just how wonderful the American people are." Obama said Americans continue to prove to him they're hardworking, gracious, self-reliant, independent and that they believe they have obligations to other people.
"Americans are anxious right now." Obama cited rising foreclosures, 47 million Americans without health insurance or those with insurance facing rising premiums, the rising price of gasoline and stagnant or falling wages.
Obama said the average family income rose by $7,500 under President Clinton and has fallen by about $2,000 annually under President Bush.
Obama said the election of 2008 has at stake the fight for America's promise that every succeeding generation has it better than the one before.
"I believe America's promise is what we owe to the next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that," he said.
Obama said Republicans believe they deserve four more years in the White House after eight years of plant closings, falling wages and rising poverty, a remark that prompted a "No way" exclamation from the crowd.
Of McCain, he said, "We owe him great honor and our respect. We don't owe him our vote.
"I don't think John McCain gets what's going on in Ohio," Obama said, speaking while surrounded by the Piergallini family, including 17 grandchildren, with the hills and woods of part of the 800-acre farm spreading out behind him.
Obama also quipped that he's been to 49 states but not Alaska, a reference to McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and noted the presence of an emu in one of the nearby farm pens.
"I asked Ray about that and he said he won it for a dollar. He should have rejected the offer, because I'm sure it eats more than a dollar's worth of food every day," Obama joked.
He recounted growing up as the child of a single mother who survived at times on food stamps, with a grandfather who earned his education on the GI Bill after service in World War II and a grandmother who worked on the bomber assembly lines during the war and rose from the secretarial pool to retire as a bank vice president.
"That's the American dream I believe in," Obama said.
He said his tax cuts would benefit 95 percent of Americans.
Obama said he wants a program that pays for college tuition in return for community service and health insurance for all, with premiums to be lowered by as much as $2,500 per family per year for those with insurance. He said he would push for programs emphasizing prevention and rely on technology to cut costs.
Obama said McCain's idea of health care is to tell people to go to the emergency room and stop being classified as lacking proper medical care. He said McCain would eliminate health care benefit deductions for employers, causing fewer employers to supply health care plans.
He said McCain's philosophy is to "say you are on your own" to Americans who lose their job, lose their home or lack health care coverage.
Obama said he wants to invest $15 billion annually to help American automakers design and produce fuel efficient automobiles in the United States.
He also said new technology for dealing with coal will be important, including carbon sequestration, which would see carbon from coal burning plants stored in deep underground wells instead of being vented into the atmosphere.
"It will require leadership from Washington," he said. Obama also said he wants to invest in solar power, wind power and biodiesel, creating 5 million jobs and "reopening the steel mills" and textile mills to make solar panels and the parts for wind turbines.
He also vowed to end the war in Iraq "honorably and decisively" while shifting the focus to Afghanistan.
"John McCain says he would follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell. We need just to chase Osama bin Laden to where he is" in the mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Obama said.
He said Republicans will try to make the nation "scared of me" by questioning his experience, his resume or his "funny name" or by saying Obama "will try to take away our guns."
"I believe in the Second Amendment. No sportsman here needs to worry about his guns in an Obama administration," Obama said.
He said the politics of fear "works because we are cynical" about Washington.
"We can't afford to do it this time," he said.
Giannamore writes for the Steubenville Herald Star
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bruskii
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09-04-08 1:23 PM
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O-Hi-O-O-O hmmmmmm
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Handala
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09-04-08 9:53 AM
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E-I-E-I-O!Hmm?
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bruskii
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09-04-08 6:35 AM
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like farm is petting zoo big deal
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