Sen. Barack Obama speaks to local residents during a campaign stop, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007, at Nodaway Valley High School in Greenfield, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
by John McCormick
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Seeking the last word before on-the-ground battle essentially stops for two days, Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday practiced his closing argument for the waning days of the Iowa caucus campaign.
“You know, we might just win this thing,” Obama told a crowd of about 500, stumping right into the early evening on the eve before Christmas Eve.
It was the third public event Sunday for the Illinois Democrat, who earlier in the afternoon thanked people for taking time to listen during a busy season.
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“I am grateful for your attention,” he said during a stop in Harlan, Iowa. “I want to wish you all the happiest of holidays.”
On Saturday evening, amid a heavy Iowa snowstorm, Obama rolled out what appears will be some of the key phrases he will use during his final week of campaigning before the Jan. 3 caucuses.
He told the roughly 250 people in Harlan Sunday afternoon that others have “stood up” for him throughout his life, as have activists for suffrage, labor and other movements.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said. “Now is our chance.”
Earlier in Greenfield, Iowa, he told about 250 people he was not planning anything “radical,” but does want the nation to do more to be “on the side of working families.”
Then, Obama practiced some of the language he is likely to use on the stump the day after Christmas, when campaigning is going to resume at full speed.
“Our moment is now to stand up,” he said. “To stand up for fair economic policies, to stand up for retirement security. To stand up for agricultural policies that actually helps family farmers and rebuilds small-town American. To stand up so that every child can go to college, to stand up for a foreign policy that doesn’t think in military terms…I hope you will stand up with me.”
He also reminded the audience of the clout they wield. “You, as Iowans, have more influence over who the next leader of the free world will be, than just about anyone,” he said.
Although she still had gift-wrapping to do, Sheryl Dickinson, an elementary school teacher from Greenfield, said she had no qualms with candidates campaigning so close to Christmas.
“It shows how important it is to the people of Iowa that are really actively involved in trying to choose the best person,” she said.