Last updated on July 1st, 2012 at 06:08 am
A tired sounding Barack Obama delivered a forward looking speech in Evansville, IN last night after his Pennsylvania loss to Hillary Clinton.
Obama spoke about the record number of voters registered in PA, and the purpose of his campaign.
“And whether they were inspired for the first time or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of voters who will lead our party to victory in November. These Americans cast their ballot for the same reason you came here tonight; for the same reason that millions of Americans have gone door-to-door and given whatever small amount they can to this campaign; for the same reason that we began this journey just a few hundred miles from here on a cold February morning in Springfield – because we believe that the challenges we face are bigger than the smallness of our politics, and we know that this election is our chance to change it,” he said.
He returned to his theme of change, and took a not so subtle jab at Hillary Clinton, “We’re not here to talk about change for change’s sake, but because our families, our communities, and our country desperately need it. We’re here because we can’t afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing for another four years. We can’t afford to play the same Washington games with the same Washington players and expect a different result. Not this time. Not now. ”
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Perhaps sensing that his electability will be questioned Obama talked about the kind of president that he will be, “During the course of this campaign, we’ve all learned what my wife reminds me of all the time – that I am not a perfect man. And I will not be a perfect President. And so while I will always listen to you, and be honest with you, and fight for you every single day for the next four years, I will also ask you to be a part of the change that we need. Because in my two decades of public service to this country, I have seen time and time again that real change doesn’t begin in the halls of Washington, but on the streets of America. It doesn’t happen from the top-down, it happens from the bottom-up.”
I think that the Obama campaign learned a valuable lesson in Pennsylvania. That lesson being that you can never assume that people already know you and what you stand for. The TV pundits may have called the speech more of the same, but I believe this speech wasn’t meant for national television.
Obama was trying to introduce himself to the voters in Indiana and North Carolina. It seems like after getting derailed in PA, he is returning back to his strengths. This is a smart move because it looks like this campaign won’t be ending before June.
Full Text of Obama’s Speech:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGCB2S
