http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070519/NEWS/705190339RYE — In his fourth visit to venues on the New Hampshire Seacoast since December 2006, Illinois Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a challenge to voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
"We are currently 16 votes (in the Senate) short of creating a veto-proof bill to end the war (in Iraq)," Obama told the approximately 300 people who attended a town meeting-style event at Rye Elementary School on Friday. "You have a couple of senators here in New Hampshire, and it's time for them to understand that our troops have performed admirably, but now it's time to bring them home."
The Illinois Democrat urged those present and others around the state to contact Republican Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, and tell them to vote to override President Bush's veto of a bill that would remove American troops from Iraq by sometime next year. Obama has created a way to petition the two senators on his New Hampshire Web site at nh.barackobama.com/page/content/16votesnh.
Ending the war in Iraq is his No. 1 priority, Obama told the audience, not only to end the drain of American financial resources and the deaths and dismemberment of U.S. soldiers, but also because he believes no progress can be made on other international issues while U.S. involvement in the war continues.