Barack Obama, the Democrat presidential candidate from Illinois, stirred the biggest crowd reaction in his speech at the Portland Expo last week, when he pledged affordable college education to all Americans.
“That’s our future right there,” he said, “and they shouldn’t be saddled with $50,000 or $70,000 worth of debt. We’re rich enough as a nation, we can afford it.” The cheers from the crowd reached the celings of the exposition building.
USM students supporting Obama attended the rally last Tuesday, many leaving enthusiastically.
“He was a really great speaker,” said English major Danica Koenig. “If everything he said could be put into action, our problems would be solved.”
“Hearing Obama speak made me hopeful and truly excited that America could be a country worth being proud of,” said Ryland Cook, a 25-year-old art major.
Other students were less impressed by Obama’s speech. “Obama is a political rock star,” said Marta Hurgin, a 20-year-old international studies major, “but he lacks the experience needed to beat Hillary (Clinton).”
Obama spoke surrounded by supporters on all sides, touting an optimistic message of hope and the return of America to a packed house audience, most of whompaid up to $23 a ticket.
Obama shared an experience he had in Greenwood, a tiny South Carolina community, where a city councilwoman was famous for getting a crowd roaring by chanting with them “Fire it up!” and “Ready to go!” She reminded him of the power one voice has to make change, he said.
“One voice can change a room,” he said, “and if one voice could change a room, it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if we change a state then we change a country. And if we can change a country then we change the world.”
Maine residents who attended may have thought they would get the same type of stale speech candidates in the past brought to them, but instead were treated to Obama’s message of hope and change in the fundamental ways government works. Although he spoke of the specific issues at hand-war in Iraq, lack of a viable healthcare system nationally, and affordable education for all-Obama’s main focus was the reinduction of American hands into government, and the need for honesty and transparency from Washington, D.C.
“There are those who argue the contest in this election is about who can work the game better,” Obama said, “but it is my assertion that it’s not a need to work the game better. What we need is to put an end to the game plan because the times are too serious and the stakes are too high and we need a spirit of responsibility and sacrifice and honesty and truthfulness and that is what we’re looking for in the next President of the United States of America.
“What’s wrong with America is not the American people,” he continued. “The American people aren’t the problem, they’re the answer. We just got to get American people focused on Washington and change is going to come,” adding “.it’s possible to come together and rally around a common destiny.”
Obama covered a number of pertinent political points, commonly heard in the political arena lately. He accused health insurance companies of “working an inside game and America has been locked out of the conversation.
“I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I do not accept that in the wealthiest nation on Earth we should still have 47 million people without health insurance and millions more who are struggling with bankruptcy because they have unpaid medical bills.” Obama promised the Portland audience that every American would have healthcare coverage before the end of his first term as president, if elected.
Obama is not the only candidate to have visited Maine. Republican hopefuls Fred Thompson, actor and former senator, and ex-New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani recently made campaign stops in the Pine State. Obama’s other New England stops last week included Peterborough, NH, and the Democratic debate in Hanover, NH, last Wednesday.