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player ready...by John McCormick
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Barack Obama appeared briefly in this tiny state Saturday as he sought to challenge a potential Hillary Clinton stronghold, bringing to 42 the number of states he has visited since launching his campaign a year ago.
Obama repeatedly mocked Clinton for suggestions that she could bring about change the way he could if elected president, as he spoke to a crowd his campaign said totaled 10,000 inside and outside a field house at Rhode Island College.
“Real change, for example, is not calling NAFTA a victory and saying how good it was for the American people until you decide to run for president, like Sen. Clinton did,” he said. “That’s not real change.”
Although he has waffled recently on a previous pledge to use public financing if he wins his party’s nomination and his Republican opponent does the same, Obama also hit Clinton for taking money from federal lobbyists, a group he shuns.
“Real change isn’t saying that you’ll stand up to lobbyists and special interests, when you’ve taken more money from lobbyists and special interests than any of the Democrats or Republicans running for president, like my opponent has,” he said.
Obama used a former Republican senator from Rhode Island who was in the audience and has endorsed him to make his point against Clinton on the war in Iraq.
“Real change isn’t voting for George Bush’s war in Iraq and then telling the American people it was actually voting for more diplomacy,” he said. “The title of the bill was ‘A Resolution to Authorize the Use of the United States Armed Forces Against Iraq.’ That sounds like you were voting for authorizing armed forces against Iraq. I knew what it was. Lincoln Chafee knew what it was. We were voting for war.”
Obama was not in the U.S. Senate at the time, but expressed his opposition in a 2002 speech in Chicago.
Before speaking inside, Obama briefly addressed what his campaign said was an overflow crowd of about 5,000 people in a parking lot. They were huddled under umbrellas and hoods amid a light rain.
“It looks like we need a bigger boat,” Obama said, noting the weather.
Olayinka Oladele, 41, of Providence, a student studying theology told a reporter he had been standing there for three hours. “I don’t regret it,” he said.
Inside, it was yet another Kennedy backing his campaign who introduced Obama. In this case, it was Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.
But notably absent was Obama’s brother-in-law, Craig Robinson. Campaign aides said the Brown University men’s basketball coach could not make it to the rally because his team has a game Saturday evening, albeit one at home.
The Ivy League coach regularly does media interviews and has appeared at events across the country on Obama’s behalf.
The rally marked Obama’s first Rhode Island visit since announcing his presidential bid more than a year ago. He was also scheduled to overnight Saturday in West Virginia, leaving only seven states unvisited.
Rhode Island officials are predicting about 30 percent of the state’s 660,000 registered voters will turnout Tuesday.
But the state will have only 32 delegates at the Democratic National Convention, compared 228 in Texas and 161 in Ohio. Among the four states holding contests Tuesday, Vermont, with 23 delegates, is the only one Obama will not visit during the final days of campaigning.
Obama was scheduled to return to Ohio for campaign events Saturday evening and Sunday. He has concentrated much of his attention in recent days on delegate-rich suburban areas in Ohio and Texas.
His campaign said supporters over the past week have made more than 700,000 phone calls to potential voters in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont, with the goal of reaching 1 million by Tuesday.
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While he has made strong gains in recent weeks among women voters, Obama’s campaign is clearly taking no chances, issuing a statement noting the start of “Women’s History Month.”