by John McCormick
DALLAS – Sen. Barack Obama kept his dual focus Wednesday on the two fellow senators he hopes to beat to the White House, a day after he easily beat one of them in the Wisconsin primary.
During a rally at the Reunion Arena, Obama repeatedly told an audience his campaign said totaled 17,000 that they have several choices to make in this campaign.
“Today, Sen. Clinton told us that there is a choice in this race, and you know, I couldn’t agree with her more,” he said. “But contrary to what she’s been saying, it’s not a choice between speeches and solutions. It’s a choice between a politics that offers more of the same divisions and distractions that didn’t work in South Carolina and didn’t work in Wisconsin and will not work in Texas.”
The Illinois Democrat pledged that he would offer “a new politics of commonsense, of common purpose.”
As he has throughout his campaign, Obama suggested that he would be a more successful general election candidate than Clinton against a Republican.
“It’s a choice between going into the general election with Republicans and independents already united against us, or running with a campaign that has already united Americans of all parties around the agenda for change,” he said. “That’s the choice.”
Obama continued his line of challenging Clinton for not rejecting contributions from federal lobbyists, as he does.
“It’s a choice between a candidate who has taken more money from lobbyists and special interests than any other Democrat or Republican and a campaign that hasn’t taken a dime of their money because we’ve been funded by you, the American people,” he said.
Obama also offered criticism for the likely Republican nominee.
“If I’m your nominee, John McCain won’t be able to say that I agreed with him on voting for war in Iraq, that I agree with him [on] the Bush-Cheney policy of not talking to leaders we don’t like, that I agree with him on supporting NAFTA and permanent trade with China, because I haven’t agreed to those things,” Obama said. “That’s the choice in this election.”
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As he encouraged supporters to vote early for the March 4 Texas primary, Obama suggested McCain would not offer change for the status quo.
“John McCain has already promised another four years of George Bush policies,” he said. “He speaks of a 100-year war in Iraq, billions of dollars more in tax breaks for the wealthy, while ordinary people are struggling.”
Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk suggested March 4, when primaries will be held in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont, could put Obama over the top for the nomination.
“If we win one, we’re done, and Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States of America,” Kirk said in his introduction.