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Sarah Arkin/Register & Bee
About 50 local residents came out Tuesday to hear members of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign at Union Street Missionary Baptist Chuch. The campaign made a stop in Danville on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the candidate’s plans if elected.
Published: August 5, 2008
Updated: August 6, 2008
About 50 people came out to Union Street Missionary Baptist Church on Tuesday to grill members of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on issues ranging from health care to gas prices.
Fuel costs, job growth and the economy were forefront in the questions, echoing statements the campaign members said they have seen across the state.
“People are screaming out for help,” said Daniel Sepulveda, who has been an advisor to the Democratic candidate for four years.
In the short run, Obama would offer a $1,000 tax cut for middle-class families derived from a windfall profit tax on big oil companies, a change from the current administration’s tax cuts for the upper class, Sepulveda said.
Sitting in a church across from the shuttered Dan River Inc. mills, people expressed concern about globalization and asked how the candidate could bring jobs to the United States.
One of Obama’s plans to help keep and bring jobs to the U.S., Sepulveda said, is to change the tax code and reward companies for doing business in the United States. The code now, he said, encourages companies to operate in countries with few or no labor and environmental standards.
For gas prices, the No. 1 issue people are talking about, campaign members laid out the short-term and long-term solutions, noting that Obama recently said he would consider offshore drilling as part of a larger plan, but stressed that the U.S. only has 3 percent of the world’s oil reserve.
The Illinois senator’s bottom line is to reduce dependency on oil and he would provide loans and tax credits to automakers to make cars more fuel-efficient, campaign officials said.
In addition, Obama advocates releasing 10 percent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move that brought down prices after Sept. 11, and that could provide time to invest in and research alternative energy sources, according to his campaign representatives.
On the issue of rights for ex-felons, the campaign members pointed out that Obama has co-sponsored legislation advocating restoring voting rights and work force training programs.
For health care, Sepulveda said that Republican candidate John McCain’s plan is “not fixing the system.”
Obama’s plan would allow people to participate in a national provider plan similar to that provided to members of Congress, he said. Individuals also would have the option of opting for private insurance providers, but the government would regulate those providers to ensure care.
As far as medication prices, a big problem for people who are underinsured, Sepulveda said that under Obama’s plan Medicare would be able to buy drugs in bulk and re-importation of drugs would be allowed.
Danville City Councilman Buddy Rawley asked whether Obama would pick Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as a running mate.
Virginia Communications Director Kevin Griffis said there was “a good chance” and acknowledged that the two politicians “like one another a lot … and come from a similar point of view philosophically.”
As to whether Kaine is on the short list, he said, “I haven’t seen any lists.”
Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.
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Reader Reactions
djc4 you are right!!!
I guess he was lieing when he was against drilling. I guess he was lieing when he wanted to pass a Bill in his home state that would have banned gun stores in a 5 mile radious of any park or school. Anyone who could be in a racist church for 20 years and not know it is either very slow or very low. Obama is a liberal elitist who want to force change on this country. I guess you people must want to buy a bike and turn your thermostats down while illegal aliens take over. Why not change the flag to a red field with a bike on it? Socialism did not work in the Soviet Union and even China is Capitalist even though their current leadership is what Barrack wants to bring to us. You can bow down to Barrack and his lacking voting (what little there is) record. McCain has more brains in half of his head that Obama has in his whole cranium. Since McCain was not my first choice that leaves Barrack sorely lacking. Even Hilliary was better than Barrack.
DBCOLE you got the right idea!!! Applause! Applause!!! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
[sigh] Inflating tires: If you would pay attention, then you would know: The AAA says it will work. NASCAR says it will work. And the day after ridiculing Obama over it, even John McCain said it will work. And of course, inflating tires is not the entirety of Obama’s energy plan. It is only a small example of a very small part of his plan. Yet John McCain decided to cherry pick it for ridicule, and you bought in to his ridicule hook, line and sinker!
Racist church: Why to Catholics stay in churches with pedophile priests? Have you ever sat in a pew and cringed over something your Pastor has said? Did that make you leave the church? Do have racist friends or acquaintances? Does that make you racist? Do you have narrow minded friends or acquaintances? Does that make you narrow minded? Do you associate with only with people with whom you agree 100%?
A church is a lot more than just its pastor. I don’t excuse or forgive Rev. Wright for his racism, but it also is a rather inconvenient truth that Obama’s old church has done a lot in Chicago to benefit its neighborhood and its congregation.
Changing underwear? A silly exaggeration. Is Obama a “flip-flopper”? Or is he actually intelligent enough to recognize that changing situations require reconsideration and, perhaps, revision? People who are rigid break in a strong wind. People who think they are always right get crushed by the changing times. Are you always right? Have you never changed your mind? Are you even open to new information that might change your mind? Really? Then go to Obama’s web site and begin to learn what kind of person he really is.
Hiring CEOs out of college? Just because I said I valued intelligence and judgement more than just experience, doesn’t mean I think experience is worthless. Of course experience is important. But what you do or don’t learn from it is even more important. If your’re an idiot, all the “experience” in the world is not going to make you good enough to be President. John McCain does not impress me with his brilliance!
If Obama is so intelligent why does he think that inflating your tires will end the oil problem? If he was so intelligent why did he stay in a racist church for 20 years? If he is so intelligent why does he change his mind like most people change their underwear. (Daily is how you are supposed to change them) If experience is not important why don’t major corporations hire CEO’s out of college? You Sir have a feel good argument. But feeling good about doing nothing is not a good thing. Obama is a Socialist and an elitist.
“Experience” is a red herring. Rumsfeld had “experience”. Cheney had “experience. And just look at the mess that they and their buddies got us into.
Bill Clinton had no federal experience when he came to office, yet somehow he managed to bring prosperity to our country. (At least he did not get in the way.) He also help settle regional conflicts (Bosnia, Ireland) and create a budget surplus.
Whatever you may think of his character, he nonetheless had a very successful presidency, especially as compared to the current fools.
Experience is not what matters. Intelligence, insight and judgement are what I’m looking for, and I believe that Obama is perhaps the most intelligent and capable candidate I’ve seen in my lifetime (61 years).
McCain has experience? Maybe, but for all his experience, he still can’t keep Sunni and Shia straight. (Multiple times!, not just once. Don’t you think a President really ought to know the difference?)
McCain still (by his own admission) does not know squat about economics.
McCain has spent 26 years being a part of the broken Washington that he now finds convenient to rail against. So he ridicules Obama for his positions one day, but then switches to agreeing with him the next.
Obama may not accomplish all that I hope he will, but McCain will accomplish nothing at all!
Do you really think that Obama is a “socialist”? That’s a silly exaggeration. Was F. Roosevelt a socialist? Contrary to popular myth, government does not screw up everything it attempts. Contrary to popular myth, an unregulated free market does not benefit all people. Just look around southside, and you can see that as plain as day.
There are areas of society where subsidy and incentives can have long term benefits that a “free market” simply will never produce. Examples in our history abound. Rural electrification at the turn of the prior century. Social security. A regulated banking system. Just to name a couple.
Do you really think that “privatization” of social security would have been a good idea?
Do you think that the current financial crisis would have occurred if we had not deregulated the banking industry as much as we did?
Universal broadband is something that will never happen without government subsidy! Do you not think that a universal broadband initiative would be as long term beneficial as rural electrification was a hundred years ago?
There is a video in which George Bush proudly states, “I don’t do nuance”. I never again want a president like that. Never!
I am not really “fried”, whatever that is suppose to mean. However, I am one who likes to hear directly from the source, not the opinions of talking heads. I have read the books of Mr. Obama, and listed to, and read reviews of his speeches. I have also read the works of Marx, Engels, Owen, Fourier, and Proudhon. The later group also, like Mr. Obama, had no experience with their socialist beliefs. Even considering the falts of Mr McCain, he does have something that Mr. Obama lacks and thats experience. The last inexperienced senator this Country elected almost got us involved in a war with the Soviet Union, and did get us involved in a very unpopular war that costs the lives of some 56 thousand Americans. Need I go further?
“Refreshing Change.“ A kidney stone is refreshing compared to Obama. Socialist Government is not a refreshing change. That is what he proposes. Lines for the doctor $10 a gallon gas. Oh boy! Give me some of that! I hope he will institute a government program so everyone can have a bicycle! Only elitists like Obama will be able to have cars.
“Southernfried” seems pretty fried to me. Obama’s campaign workers filled a small hall. So what that it was small?
Obama can fill a football stadium in Denver. He can fill every venue he speaks in. McCain has trouble filling a high school basketball gym.
So what does the McCain campaign do? They criticize Obama for being too popular? Does McCain think he’s going to win by being not “too popular”?
“Letstalk” complains that Obama should come to Danville himself, not just send his campaign workers. Leaving aside the impracticality of Obama going to every small town in America, he has, nevertheless, been to many of them, including Bristol. What’s the matter? Wasn’t that close enough to Danville?
It’s typical that Republicans would focus on the inconsequential instead of the issues. Have you “Southernfried” or you “Letstalk” ever bothered to listen to even one of Obama’s speeches? Have either of you taken the trouble of going to Obama’s website and reading his positions on issues that might actually matter to our future? I bet Obama’s campaign workers have. So I would think that their understanding of what Obama wants to do would be far better than yours!
Question. Do you actually like what George Bush and Virgil Goode have done to this country of ours? Not me!
I attended the Obama event and will say that they did not promise that Obama will fix everything. No one can promise to do that. Sen. Obama says “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington…I’m asking you to believe in yours. The speakers reinforced that we can bring change by changing the way we do things and by taking charge. I believe that we must stand up and take control, working together, and not apart. I do not see that as a liberal view but a sensible view.
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