Obama, the morning after (UPDATED)
By Emily Richmond · January 16, 2008 · 10:49 AM
We’re at the Henderson Convention Center, where U2’s “Beautiful Day” is playing in the background and Sen. Barack Obama has been greeted with a standing ovation by a full house. People were lining up two hours early to get inside.
The audience remained standing as Obama began describing his early days as a community organizer for local churches in Chicago.
“Does everybody have chairs?” Obama asked, to laughter. “You better sit down. We’re gonna be here a while.” As the audience dutifully complied, he joked “This is an example of my leadership skills.”
Obama said after a year on the campaign trail, he’s been impressed by the level of interest by the American people, not just in his candidacy, “But in politics, and taking back the country.”
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Updated 10:45 a.m. — Obama, in Henderson, continues:
Presidential candidates who promise to round up and deport all undocumented immigrants “aren’t telling the truth, they’re trying to score poltical points…We would have to empty out of jails (to make room to hold the undocumented immigrants)…We’d have to build detention centers. Think about how that would look on television, us shipping millions of people out of the country. That’s not who we are.”
The real answer is to “fix our legal immigration system to reduce the backlog,” Obama said.
On health care: The system needs serious revision and a more common-sense approach particularly when it comes to preventative measures, Obama said.
“You can’t get reimbursed for a dietician to help you lose weight, which might cost $1,000,” Obama said. “But you can get reimbursed $30000 for a foot amputation once you become diabetic and get sick.”
<>“I respect that Sen. Clinton and President Clinton tried to get health care fixed in 1993. But they went about it the wrong way. They went behind closed doors and tried to do it themselves. Here’s what I’m going to do. We’re going to have a big table. We’re going to have doctors, nurses, big drug companies, insurers … I’ll sit at the table. I’ll have the biggest chair because I’ll be the president. I’ll put my plan at the center of the table. We’re going to do it on C-SPAN, so everybody will be able to see just who’s saying what.”
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Obama, his voice sounding as strong as he did at last night’s debate, ended his hour-long appearance with a pledge:
“I’m not going to be able to fix everything right away. But I can get us on the right path. I will listen to you even when we disagree. We will find common ground. I will wake up, every morning, in the White House, thinking how to make your lives a little better.”
As the crowd applauded and the front rows surged forward to shake Obama’s hand, camera phones were held high and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” played on the sound system.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/early-line/2008/jan/16/obama-morning-after/
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