SCHotline Press Releases

Chicago, IL – During a rally at American University in Washington, DC, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Representative Patrick Kennedy, and Caroline Kennedy today endorsed Barack Obama for President.

As Prepared for Delivery:

Remarks of Caroline Kennedy
Introducing Senator Edward Kennedy
January 28, 2008
As Prepared for Delivery

Good Afternoon Everyone, and thank you, Patrick, for that introduction and for continuing our family’s proud tradition of public service.

                It’s a special privilege to come to American University where President Kennedy made his immortal call for a  peaceful world - a world made safe for diversity—a world that cherishes our children’s future.

                Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wish they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This longing is even more profound today.  Fortunately, there is one candidate who offers that same sense of hope and inspiration and I am proud to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President.

I am happy that two of my own children are here with me, because they were the first people who made me realize that Barack Obama is the President we need. He is already inspiring all Americans, young and old, to believe in ourselves, tying that belief to our highest ideals - ideals of hope, justice, opportunity and peace – and urging us to imagine that together we can do great things.

My Uncle Teddy feels the same way, and I am proud to stand with him today. For more than four decades in the Senate, Teddy has led the fight on the most important issues of our time: civil rights, social justice, and economic opportunity. Workers, families, the elderly, the disabled, immigrants, and men and women in uniform – all have no stronger champion. He has stood with teachers, students and parents to improve our public schools and help with the high price of a college education. When it comes to fighting for quality, affordable health care, Teddy is in a league of his own.

I know his brothers would be so proud of him. He is an inspiration to all the members of our family – always looking to the future, never the past, always hopeful, always believing that we are capable of our very best. You know him well but I’m honored to introduce him now – Senator Edward Kennedy.

Remarks of Senator Edward M. Kennedy
On Endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President
January 28, 2008
As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Caroline.  Thank you for that wonderful introduction and for your courage and bold vision, for your insight and understanding, and for the power and reach of your words.  Like you, we too “want a president who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again.”  Thank you, Caroline.  Your mother and father would be so proud today.

                Thank you, Patrick, for your leadership in Congress and for being here to celebrate and support a leader who truly has the power to inspire and make America good again, “from sea to shining sea.”

                Thank you, American University. 

                I feel change in the air.                

Every time I’ve been asked over the past year who I would support in the Democratic Primary, my answer has always been the same:  I’ll support the candidate who inspires me, who inspires all of us, who can lift our vision and summon our hopes and renew our belief that our country’s best days are still to come.

                I’ve found that candidate.  And it looks to me like you have too.

                But first, let me say how much I respect the strength, the work and dedication of two other Democrats still in the race, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. They are my friends; they have been my colleagues in the Senate.  John Edwards has been a powerful advocate for economic and social justice.  And Hillary Clinton has been in the forefront on issues ranging from health care to the rights of women around the world.  Whoever is our nominee will have my enthusiastic support.

                Let there be no doubt: We are all committed to seeing a Democratic President in 2008.

But I believe there is one candidate who has extraordinary gifts of leadership and character, matched to the extraordinary demands of this moment in history. 

 He understands what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the “fierce urgency of now.”

He will be a president who refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter who cares passionately about the causes he believes in, without demonizing those who hold a different view.

He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to “the better angels of our nature.”

                I am proud to stand here today and offer my help, my voice, my energy and my commitment to make Barack Obama the next President of the United States.

                Like most of the nation, I was moved four years ago as he told us a profound truth—that we are not, we must not be, just red states and blue states, but one United States.    And since that time I have marveled at his grit and his grace as he traveled this country and inspired record turnouts of people of all ages, of all races, of all genders, of all parties and faiths to get “fired up” and “ready to go.” 

I’ve seen him connect with people from every walk of life and with Senators on both sides of the aisle.  With every person he meets, every crowd he inspires, and everyone he touches, he generates new hope that our greatest days as a nation are still ahead, and this generation of Americans, like others before us, can unite to meet our own rendezvous with destiny.

                We know the true record of Barack Obama. There is the courage he showed when so many others were silent or simply went along. From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq.  

  And let no one deny that truth.

                There is the great intelligence of someone who could have had a glittering career in corporate law, but chose instead to serve his community and then enter public life.

                There is the tireless skill of a Senator who was there in the early mornings to help us hammer out a needed compromise on immigration reform— who always saw a way to protect both national security and the dignity of people who do not have a vote. For them, he was a voice for justice.

                And there is the clear effectiveness of Barack Obama in fashioning legislation to put high quality teachers in our classrooms—and in pushing and prodding the Senate to pass the most far-reaching ethics reform in its history.

                Now, with Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign—a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us.  A campaign about the country we will become, if we can rise above the old politics that parses us into separate groups and puts us at odds with one another.

                I remember another such time, in the 1960s, when I came to the Senate at the age of 30. We had a new president who inspired the nation, especially the young, to seek a new frontier.  Those inspired young people marched, sat in at lunch counters, protested the war in Vietnam and served honorably in that war even when they opposed it.  

                They realized that when they asked what they could do for their country, they could change the world.

                It was the young who led the first Earth Day and issued a clarion call to protect the environment; the young who enlisted in the cause of civil rights and equality for women; the young who joined the Peace Corps and showed the world the hopeful face of America.  

                At the fifth anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps, I asked one of those young Americans why they had volunteered.

And I will never forget the answer:  “It was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country.”

                This is another such time.

                I sense the same kind of yearning today, the same kind of hunger to move on and move America forward.  I see it not just in young people, but in all our people.

And in Barack Obama, I see not just the audacity, but the possibility of hope for the America that is yet to be.

                What counts in our leadership is not the length of years in Washington, but the reach of our vision, the strength of our beliefs, and that rare quality of mind and spirit that can call forth the best in our country and our people.

                With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion.

                With Barack Obama, we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay.

                With Barack Obama, we will close the door on the old economics that has written off the poor and left the middle class poorer and less secure.

                He offers a strategy for prosperity—so that America will once again lead the world in better standards of life.

                With Barack Obama, we will break the old gridlock and finally make health care what it should be in America—a fundamental right for all, not just an expensive privilege for the few.  

                We will make the United States the great leader and not the great roadblock in the fateful fight against global warming.

                And with Barack Obama, we will end a war in Iraq that he has always stood against, that has cost us the lives of thousands of our sons and daughters, and that America never should have fought.

I have seen him in the Senate. He will keep us strong and defend the nation against real threats of terrorism and proliferation.  

                So let us reject the counsels of doubt and calculation.

Let us remember that when Franklin Roosevelt envisioned Social Security, he didn’t decide—no, it was too ambitious, too big a dream, too hard.  

                When John Kennedy thought of going to the moon, he didn’t say no, it was too far, maybe we couldn’t get there and shouldn’t even try.

                I am convinced we can reach our goals only if we are “not petty when our cause is so great”– only if we find a way past the stale ideas and stalemate of our times – only if we replace the politics of fear with the politics of hope – and only if we have the courage to choose change.  

                Barack Obama is the one person running for President who can bring us that change.

                Barack Obama is the one person running for President who can be that change.

                I love this country. I believe in the bright light of hope and possibility. I always have, even in the darkest hours. I know what America can achieve. I’ve seen it.  I’ve lived it—and with Barack Obama, we can do it again.

                I know that he’s ready to be President on day one.  And when he raises his hand on Inauguration Day, at that very moment, we will lift the spirits of our nation and begin to restore America’s standing in the world.

                There was another time, when another young candidate was running for President and challenging America to cross a New Frontier.  He faced public criticism from the preceding Democratic President, who was widely respected in the party. Harry Truman said we needed “someone with greater experience”—and added: “May I urge you to be patient.” And John Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do…It is time for a new generation of leadership.”

                So it is with Barack Obama. He has lit a spark of hope amid the fierce urgency of now.

                I believe that a wave of change is moving across America. If we do not turn aside, if we dare to set our course for the shores of hope, we together will go beyond the divisions of the past and find our place to build the America of the future.

                My friends, I ask you to join in this historic journey — to have the courage to choose change.

                It is time again for a new generation of leadership.

                It is time now for Barack Obama.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 28, 2008
Contact: Obama Press Office; (312) 819-2423

Conversation Focuses on Importance of Judgment and Keeping our Sacred Trust with America’s Veterans
BEAUFORT, SC - Today in Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S. Senator Barack Obama hosted a roundtable discussion with South Carolina veterans about the need for a President that has the judgment to secure our nation and is willing to be held accountable for keeping our sacred trust with those who serve. Senator Obama detailed his comprehensive plan to give all of our veterans the care and support they have earned.

“As a candidate, I know I am running to become Commander-in-Chief – to safeguard our security, and to keep our sacred trust with those who serve,” Senator Obama said.  “There is no responsibility I take more seriously.”

Senator Obama has a proven record of fighting for veterans.  As a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, he has worked to improve care for wounded warriors at Walter Reed, increase time off and benefits for the families of wounded troops, correct disparities in disability benefits, provide more services to homeless veterans, and improve screening and care for troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“We also need to recognize that caring for those who serve is not a separate cost – it is a cost of war,” Obama said.  “When I am President, building a 21st century VA to serve our veterans will be an equal priority to building a 21st century military to fight our wars.  No more shortfalls – it’s time to fully fund the VA medical center. No more delays – it’s time to pass on-time VA budgets every year. No more means-testing – it’s time to allow all veterans back into the VA.”

Barack Obama’s comprehensive plan to keep the sacred trust with our veterans will:

•      Improve mental health care at every stage of military service, by recruiting more mental health professionals, strengthening post-deployment mental health screenings, and expanding the VA’s capacity to treat psychological injuries.

•      Fully fund the VA and pass on-time budgets every year, so that the VA has all the resources it needs to make sure all veterans get the best care possible.

•      Fix the Veterans Benefits Administration and reduce the claims backlog by hiring additional workers and developing an electronic records system.

•      Have a “zero tolerance” policy for homeless veterans, providing expanded housing vouchers, and launching a new supportive services housing program to prevent at-risk veterans and their families from sliding into homelessness.

•      Re-invest in and repair the military, by making sure our troops have the technological edge, skills, and training to fight and win 21st century conflicts.

Obama noted that his commitment to veterans is grounded in his experience being raised in part by his grandfather, who served during World War II.

“I will never forget that everyone who wears the uniform deserves the opportunities that my grandfather got – to have a Commander-in-Chief who is accountable, and to have a grateful nation that helps you live the American Dream that you have defended,” Obama said.

Barack Obama’s comprehensive plan to keep the sacred trust with our veterans can be viewed in full HERE.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:          Kevin Griffis                                                     Amaya Smith
803-255-8008, ext. 234           or                     ext. 272 or
803-727-0825                                                 803-873-1478

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It’s been four decades since Bobby Kennedy crouched in a shack along the Mississippi Delta and looked into the wide, listless eyes of a hungry child. Again and again he tried to talk to this child, but each time his efforts were met with only a blank stare of desperation. And when Kennedy turned to the reporters traveling with him, with tears in his eyes he asked a single question about poverty in America:

“How can a country like this allow it?”

Forty years later, we’re still asking that question. It echoes on the streets of Compton and Detroit, and throughout the mining towns of West Virginia. It lingers with every image we see of the 9^th Ward and the rural Gulf Coast, where poverty thrived long before Katrina came ashore.

We stand not ten miles from the seat of power in the most affluent nation on Earth. Decisions are made on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that shape lives and set the course of history. With the stroke of a pen, billions are spent on programs and policies; on tax breaks for those who didn’t need them and a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. Debates rage and accusations fly and at the end of each day, the petty sniping is what lights up the evening news.

And yet here, on the other side of the river, every other child in Anacostia lives below the poverty line. Too many do not graduate and too many more do not find work. Some join gangs, and others fall to their gunfire.

The streets here are close to our capital, but far from the people it represents. These Americans cannot hire lobbyists to roam the halls of Congress on their behalf, and they cannot write thousand-dollar campaign checks to make their voices heard. They suffer most from a politics that has been tipped in favor of those with the most money, and influence, and power.

How can a country like this allow it?

No matter how many times it’s asked or what the circumstances are, the most American answer I can think of to that question is two words:

“We can’t.”

We can’t allow this kind of suffering and hopelessness to exist in our country. We can’t afford to lose a generation of tomorrow’s doctors and scientists and teachers to poverty. We can make excuses for it or we can fight about it or we can ignore poverty altogether, but as long as it’s here it will always be a betrayal of the ideals we hold as Americans. It’s not who we are.

In this country – of all countries – no child’s destiny should be determined before he takes his first step. No little girl’s future should be confined to the neighborhood she was born into. Our government cannot guarantee success and happiness in life, but what we can do as a nation is to ensure that every American who wants to work is prepared to work, able to find a job, and able to stay out of poverty. What we can do is make our neighborhoods whole again. What we can do is retire the phrase “working poor” in our time. That’s what we can do, because that’s who we are.

The challenge is greater than it has been in generations, but that’s all the more reason for this generation to act. One in every eight Americans now lives in poverty, a rate that has nearly doubled since 1980. That’s an income of about $20,000 a year for a family of four. One in three Americans – one in every three – is now classified as low-income. That’s $40,000 a year for a family of four.

Today’s economy has made it easier to fall into poverty. The fall is often more precipitous and more permanent than ever before. You used to be able to find a good job without a degree from college or even high school. Today that’s nearly impossible. You used to be able to count on your job to be there for your entire life. Today almost any job can be shipped overseas in an instant.

The jobs that remain are paying less and offering fewer benefits, as employers have succeeded in busting up unions and cutting back on health care and pensions to stay competitive with the companies abroad that are paying their workers next to nothing.

Every American is vulnerable to the insecurities and anxieties of this new economy. And that’s why the single most important focus of my economic agenda as President will be to pursue policies that create jobs and make work pay.

This means investing in education from early childhood through college, so our workers are ready to compete with any workers for the best jobs the world has to offer. It means investing more in research, science, and technology so that those new jobs and those new industries are created right here in America. And while we can’t stop every job from going overseas, we can stop giving tax breaks to the companies who send them there and start giving them to companies who create jobs at home.

We can also start making sure these jobs keep folks out of poverty. When I’m President, I will raise the minimum wage and make it a living wage by making sure that it rises every time the cost of living does. I’ll start letting our unions do what they do best again – organize our workers and lift up our middle-class. And I’ll finally make sure every American has affordable health care that stays with you no matter what happens by passing my plan to provide universal coverage and cut the cost of health care by up to $2500 per family.

All of these policies will give more families a chance to grab hold of the ladder to middle-class security, and they’ll make the climb a little easier.

But poverty is not just a function of simple economics. It’s also a matter of where you live. There are vast swaths of rural America and block after block in our cities where poverty is not just a crisis that hits pocketbooks, but a disease that infects every corner of the community. I will be outlining my rural agenda in the coming weeks, but today I want to talk about what we can do as a nation to combat the poverty that persists in our cities.

This kind of poverty is not an issue I just discovered for the purposes of a campaign, it is the cause that led me to a life of public service almost twenty-five years ago.

I was just two years out of college when I first moved to the South Side of Chicago to become a community organizer. I was hired by a group of churches that were trying to deal with steel plant closures that had devastated the surrounding neighborhoods. Everywhere you looked, businesses were boarded up and schools were crumbling and teenagers were standing aimlessly on street corners, without jobs and without hope.

What’s most overwhelming about urban poverty is that it’s so difficult to escape – it’s isolating and it’s everywhere. If you are an African-American child unlucky enough to be born into one of these neighborhoods, you are most likely to start life hungry or malnourished. You are less likely to start with a father in your household, and if he is there, there’s a fifty-fifty chance that he never finished high school and the same chance he doesn’t have a job. Your school isn’t likely to have the right books or the best teachers. You’re more likely to encounter gang-activities than after-school activities. And if you can’t find a job because the most successful businessman in your neighborhood is a drug dealer, you’re more likely to join that gang yourself. Opportunity is scarce, role models are few, and there is little contact with the normalcy of life outside those streets.

What you learn when you spend your time in these neighborhoods trying to solve these problems is that there are no easy solutions and no perfect arguments. And you come to understand that for the last four decades, both ends of the political spectrum have been talking past one another.

It’s true that there were many effective programs that emerged from Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. But there were also some ineffective programs that were defended anyway, as well as an inability of some on the left to acknowledge that the problems of absent fathers or persistent crime were indeed problems that needed to be addressed.

The right has often seized on these failings as proof that the government can’t and shouldn’t do a thing about poverty – that it is a result of individual moral failings and cultural pathologies and so we should just sit back and let these cities fend for themselves. And so Ronald Reagan launched his assault on welfare queens, and George Bush spent the last six years slashing programs to combat poverty, and job training, and substance abuse, and child abuse.

Well we know that’s not the answer. When you’re in these neighborhoods, you can see what a difference it makes to have a government that cares. You can see what a free lunch program does for a hungry child. You can see what a little extra money from an earned income tax credit does for a family that’s struggling. You can see what prenatal care does for the health of a mother and a newborn. So don’t tell me there’s no role for government in lifting up our cities.

But you can also see what a difference it makes when people start caring for themselves. It makes a difference when a father realizes that responsibility does not end at conception; when he understands that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one. It makes a difference when a parent turns off the TV once in awhile, puts away the video games, and starts reading to their child, and getting involved in his education. It makes a difference when we realize that a child who shoots another child has a hole in his heart that no government can fill. That makes a difference.

So there are no easy answers and perfect arguments. As Dr. King said, it is not either-or, it is both-and. Hope is not found in any single ideology – an insistence on doing the same thing with the same result year after year.

Hope is found in what works. In those South Side neighborhoods, hope was found in the after school programs we created, and the job training programs we put together, and the organizing skills we taught residents so that they could stand up to a government that wasn’t standing up for them. Hope is found here at THEARC, where you’ve provided thousands of children with shelter from the streets and a home away from home. And if you travel a few hours north of here, you will find hope amid ninety-seven neighborhood blocks in the heart of Harlem.

This is the home of the Harlem Children’s Zone – an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children in a neighborhood where they were never supposed to have a chance.

The philosophy behind the project is simple – if poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence; failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community. And we have to focus on what actually works.

If you’re a child who’s born in the Harlem Children’s Zone, you start life differently than other inner-city children. Your parents probably went to what they call “ Baby College”, a place where they received counseling on how to care for newborns and what to expect in those first months. You start school right away, because there’s early childhood education. When your parents are at work, you have a safe place to play and learn, because there’s child care, and after school programs, even in the summer. There are innovative charter schools to attend. There’s free medical services that offer care when you’re sick and preventive services to stay healthy. There’s affordable, good food available so you’re not malnourished. There are job counselors and financial counselors. There’s technology training and crime prevention.

You don’t just sign up for this program, you’re actively recruited for it, because the idea is that if everyone is involved, and no one slips through the cracks, then you really can change an entire community. Geoffrey Canada, the program’s inspirational, innovative founder, put it best – instead of helping some kids beat the odds, the Harlem Children’s Zone is actually changing the odds altogether.

And it’s working. Parents in Harlem are actually reading more to their children. Their kids are staying in school and passing statewide tests at higher rates than other children in New York City. They’re going to college in a place where it was once unheard of. They’ve even placed third at a national chess championship.

So we know this works. And if we know it works, there’s no reason this program should stop at the end of those blocks in Harlem. It’s time to change the odds for neighborhoods all across America. And that’s why when I’m President, the first part of my plan to combat urban poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in twenty cities across the country. We’ll train staff, we’ll have them draw up detailed plans with attainable goals, and the federal government will provide half of the funding for each city, with the rest coming from philanthropies and businesses.

Now, how much will this cost? I’ll be honest – it can’t be done on the cheap. It will cost a few billion dollars a year. We won’t just spend the money because we can – every step these cities take will be evaluated, and if certain plans or programs aren’t working, we will stop them and try something else

But we will find the money to do this because we can’t afford not to. Dr. King once remarked that if we can find the money to put a man on the moon, then we can find the money to put a man on his own two feet. There’s no reason we should be spending tens of thousands of dollars a year to imprison one of these kids when they turn eighteen when we could be spending $3,500 to turn their lives around with this program. And to really put it in perspective, think of it this way. The Harlem Children’s Zone is saving a generation of children for $46 million a year. That’s about what the war in Iraq costs American taxpayers every four hours.

So let’s invest this money. Let’s change the odds in urban America by focusing on what works.

The second part of my plan will do this by providing families the support they need to raise their children. I’ll pass the plan I outlined last year that will provide more financial support to fathers who make the responsible choice to help raise their children and crack down on the fathers who don’t. And we’ll help new mothers with their new responsibilities by expanding a pioneering program known as the Nurse-Family Partnership that offers home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income mothers and mothers-to-be.

This program has been proven to reduce childhood injuries, unintended pregnancies, and the use of welfare and food stamps. It’s increased father involvement, women’s employment, and children’s school readiness. It’s produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program. It works, and I’ll expand the program to 570,000 first-time mothers each year.

The third part of my plan for urban America is to help people find work and make that work pay.

I will invest $1 billion over five years in innovative transitional jobs programs that have been highly successful at placing the unemployed into temporary jobs and then training them for permanent ones. People in these programs get the chance to work in a community service-type job, earn a paycheck every week, and learn the skills they need for gainful employment. And by leaving with references and a resume, often times they find that employment.

Still, even for those workers who do find a permanent job, many times there’s no way for them to advance their careers once they’re in those jobs. That’s why we’ll also work with community organizations and businesses to create career pathways that provide workers with the additional skills and training they need to earn more money. And we’ll make sure that public transportation is both available and affordable for low-income workers, because no one should be denied work in this country because they can’t get there.

To make work pay, I will also triple the Earned Income Tax Credit for full-time workers making the minimum wage. This is one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in history and lifts nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty every year. I was able to expand this program when I was a state Senator in Illinois, and as President I’ll do it again.

The fourth part of my plan will be to help bring businesses back to our inner-cities. A long time ago, this country created a World Bank that has helped spur economic development in some of the world’s poorest regions. I think it’s about time we had something like that right here in America. Less than one percent of the $250 billion in venture capital that’s invested each year goes to minority businesses that are trying to breathe life into our cities. This has to change.

When I’m President, I’ll make sure that every community has the access to the capital and resources it needs to create a stronger business climate by providing more loans to small businesses and setting up the financial institutions that can help get them started. I’ll also create a national network of business incubators, which are local services that help first-time business owners design their business plans, find the best location, and receive expert advice on how to run their businesses whenever they need it. And I will take steps to help close the digital divide and increase internet access for cities so that urban America is just as connected as the rest of America.

The final part of my plan to change the odds in our cities will be to ensure that more Americans have access to safe, affordable housing. As President, I’ll create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that would add as many as 112,000 new affordable units in mixed income neighborhoods. We’ll also do more to protect homeowners from mortgage fraud and subprime lending by passing my plan to provide counseling to tenants, homeowners, and other consumers so they get the advice and guidance they need before buying a house and support if they get in to trouble down the road. And we will crack down on mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud by increasing enforcement and creating new criminal penalties.

What this agenda to combat urban poverty attempts to do is not easy, and it will not happen overnight. Changing the odds in our cities will require humility in what we can accomplish and patience with our progress. But most importantly, it will require the sustained commitment of the President of the United States, and that is why I will also appoint a new director of Urban Policy who will cut through the disorganized bureaucracy that currently exists and report directly to me on how these efforts are going; on what’s working and what’s not.

Because in the end, hope is found in what works.

The moral question about poverty in America – How can a country like this allow it? – has an easy answer: we can’t. The political question that follows – What do we do about it? – has always been more difficult. But now that we’re finally seeing the beginnings of an answer, this country has an obligation to keep trying.

The idea for the Harlem Children’s Zone began with a list. It was a waiting list that Geoffrey Canada kept of all the children who couldn’t get into his program back when it was just a few blocks wide. It was 500 people long. And one day he looked at that list and thought, why shouldn’t those 500 kids get the same chance in life as the 500 who were already in the program? Why not expand it to include those 500? Why not 5000? Why not?

And that, of course, is the final question about poverty in America. It’s the hopeful one that Bobby Kennedy was also famous for asking. Why not? It leaves the cynics without an answer, and it calls on the rest of us to get to work. I will be doing exactly that from the first day I become your President, and I ask you all to join me in getting it done. Thank you.

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Rep. Presidential Candidate Jim  Gilmore Explains “Rudy McRomney”
During Interview on ETV Radio’s “The Big Picture on the Radio”

Columbia, SC… During an interview on Friday with ETV news and public affair’s Managing Editor and Host Andrew Gobeil, on “The Big Picture on the Radio,” Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama talked about his recent spat with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, over an immigration reform bill.  Last week, the two senators’ argument spilled from the Senate floor into a nearby hallway after Obama introduced an amendment to the bill that Graham said was a partisan attempt to undermine it.

Obama characterized Graham’s attack as an overreaction that stemmed from the many hits Graham has taken for supporting the bill: 

“Lindsey, I think, was feeling frustrated because I know he’s taken a lot of heat for his positions here, and he, I think, got stressed on the floor because of an amendment that I strongly believed and still strongly believe would have improved the bill.  And, you know, the notion that somehow me offering an amendment that would subset a provision that will change how we do immigration fundamentally in this country with respect to families–that that somehow is not being bi-partisan, I think, was completely overblown and designed primarily to deflect attention from some of the problems that Lindsey was having on the Republican side.”

Later in the program Obama talked about his decision to visit the Upstate region for the first time, saying, “The Upstate, obviously, is an enormous growth center in South Carolina.  It’s got a lot of businesses that are thriving and, you know, is very important to the economy of the state overall… We’re going to be not just in Spartanburg and Greenville but we’re also driving down to Greenwood to visit some of the more rural parts of the Upstate and it just gives me a better perspective of the diversity of this state and some of the challenges that it’s facing.” 

Stating that his campaign is trying to focus on smaller forums that will give him a better opportunity to interact with the crowds, Obama said this will be one of many more visits to South Carolina over remaining months before the primaries.  “We’re going to be campaigning very aggressively here… We anticipate working very hard to be competitive here in this state.  We’re going to be coming down here on a regular basis.”

Gobeil’s other guest on the program, which airs statewide on ETV Radio news stations Fridays from 9-10 a.m., was Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore, who took stabs at opponents he faces both within his own party as well as in the Democratic party.

Gilmore explained why he coined the term “Rudy McRomney” to describe his Republican opponents’ liberal leanings:

“With a lot of free media and a lot of cash, the three leading front runners are trying to re-convert themselves into being conservatives, and there’s just no foundation for that.  And that’s why I called it ‘Rudy McRomney’ because all those three guys at some point or the other are trying to remake themselves into being conservatives.  None of them are and I think that the record is crystal clear.” 

As for the Democratic Party, Gilmore described it as “a classic state party.”

He said, “They believe in the maximum possible taxation and the maximum possible control of society through those means. Hillary Clinton, for example, came out and said we’ve got to get rid of this individualistic society and, think about the ‘we’re-all-in-it-together’ type of society. Well that’s just code word for more taxation and spending on government programs.”

Gilmore said he decided to run for president because “We examined the race, and examined the field and realized that there really was not a real conservative in the race, someone who is a principled conservative, who had been around the conservative ideas for a long time, someone who is consistent, kept their word on these kinds of approaches. We knew that there would be a… need for a conservative candidate and that’s why we got into the race.”

The Big Picture on the Radio can be heard Fridays at 9 a.m. on ETV Radio’s four news formats: 88.1-WRJA Sumter, 89.1-WLJK Aiken, 89.9- WJWJ Beaufort, and 90.1-WHMC Conway. The program can also be streamed from www.myetv.org.

The Big Picture can be seen on ETV Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., with encore presentations on Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m.

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 For more information, contact Rob Schaller at 803-737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.

Brayboy, Bird, and Wade join leadership team

COLUMBIA, SC — Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign today announced the appointment of Rick Wade as a top advisor and the addition of two new members to the South Carolina staff.

Stacey Brayboy will lead the staff as state director, and Jeremy Bird will serve as field director. Brayboy and Bird join a staff that already includes Political Director Anton Gunn. Rick Wade is a senior adviser to the campaign.

“Stacey’s knowledge of South Carolina and the needs of people across state is a great addition to our South Carolina team,” said Barack Obama. “Together we are committed to engaging the thousands of South Carolinians who are committed to changing this country.”

A native of Manning, SC, Brayboy served as the state corps director for the Virginia coordinated campaign during Tim Kaine’s successful 2005 gubernatorial run. In 2004 she worked as the regional director for Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential campaign in the Palmetto State and also ran the South Carolina Votes Project, a statewide grassroots voter turnout program that reached 140,000 South Carolina voters.

“We need a leader who can unite us, and Barack Obama is the right person at the right time — for South Carolina and for America,” Brayboy said.

Bird comes to South Carolina from the Democratic National Committee, where he served as the deputy national field director in 2004. Bird worked as former Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s congressional district director in New Hampshire during the 2004 Democratic primary.

Wade, a Lancaster native, is a prominent national political consultant, commentator and business leader. He brings a remarkable depth and breadth of experience to the Obama campaign.

Additional Biographical Information

Stacey Brayboy — Brayboy served as the deputy director of the Virginia Council on Human Rights. She formerly worked for U.S. Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings and U.S. Representative Robin Tallon. Brayboy is a graduate of Francis Marion University and holds a masters degree from Clark Atlanta University.

Rick Wade — Wade served as a member of South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges’ cabinet and worked as chief of staff for former Lt. Gov. Nick Theodore. In 2002 Wade ran for Secretary of State in South. He holds a bachelors degree from the University of South Carolina and a masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Jeremy Bird — Bird worked as the training director for Democratic GAIN, where he trained thousands of field organizers to work on local, statewide, and national campaigns. Bird earned a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

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Teterboro, NJ- Barack Obama joined Mayor Cory Booker of Newark and Mayor Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City today to call for the creation of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that would build up to 14,000 new affordable units each year in mixed income neighborhoods and provide a needed economic stimulus to our communities across the country.

“In Newark, Jersey City, and across the country, too many low-income families are getting priced out of the housing market. That means too little left over for other essentials, like health care and child care. In fact, there is not a single metropolitan area in the country where a family earning minimum wage can afford decent housing,” said Senator Barack Obama. “I am standing here today with two men with whom I share a record of putting the people first who need a helping hand most and I can assure you that with Mayors like these two men leading our cities and new leadership in the White House, the revitalization of our cities will again be a priority in this country.”

“It is time that we have a national leader that will lead us in accordance to our highest common ideals and remind us that we have more that unites us as a people than divides us,” said Mayor Cory Booker. “Barack Obama has a substantive approach to our enduring national challenges. I believe he is committed to expanding access to economic abundance and opportunity. A couple months ago, I stood with Mayor Healy urging the federal government to restore needed funds. Today, I stand with Senator Obama and Mayor Healy to ensure affordable housing is a priority all over the country. I believe that America’s destiny is going to be determined by us rising to a larger common purpose. The best person in my opinion that represents that kind of prophetic leadership, is Barack Obama.”

“We have an affordable Housing Trust Fund established in our city because we recognized the need some time ago. As you know, Mayor Booker and I have called on our representatives in Washington to restore the federal dollars that have been cut by HUD, desperately needed dollars that support public housing sites in big cities across the nation, particularly in Jersey City and Newark. The fight for affordable housing for our working poor and the support of public housing initiatives go hand in hand,” said Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Mayor Booker and Mayor Healy announced their support for Senator Obama and stood with him today in support of the call for more affordable housing. Obama’s plan would create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to rehabilitate and build new rental housing in areas that are in close proximity to job opportunities, public transportation and other services.

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would use a small percentage of the profits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to create up to 14,000 new units of affordable housing every year in mixed-income neighborhoods. Approximately 75% of the funds would support households below 30% of the median income and the additional 25% of the fund would be used to assist low-income families in homeownership activities.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 14, 2007

Contact: (Obama) Bill Burton or Jen Psaki, 312-819-2423

(Booker) Desiree Peterkin Bell, 201-341-9146

(Healy) Stan Eason, 201- 376-2788