Obama urges Iowans to keep fighting

Returning to where it all began for his presidential campaign, Democrat Barack Obama urged a crowd of 25,000 in Des Moines today to keep working for the last four days of the campaign to take back the White House.

Democrat Barack Obama speaking in Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines.

“With four days left, we can’t afford to slow down, sit back or let up for one day, one minute or one second,” he said. “Not when there is so much at stake.”

His opponent, Republican John McCain, will try to do anything to avoid talking about what’s important in this election, Obama said, focusing instead on personal attacks and “making a big election about small things.”

McCain “is delivering a message designed to divide and distract,” he said, adding: “He wants to tear us apart instead of bringing us together.”

Obama’s speech focused mostly on the economy and sought to fend off attacks from Republicans in recent days that he is a big-government “socialist.”

“We don’t need bigger government or smaller government, we need better government,” Obama said. “We don’t have to choose between letting the markets run wild and stifling innovation. We can have both.”

McCain calls his plan socialism, Obama said, but “I call it fairness.”

“He supports tax cuts for the wealthy that they don’t need and didn’t ask for,” he said.

Despite claims to the contrary, Obama said his tax rates for families earning under $250,000 annually will be lower than they were under Republican President Ronald Regan.

“I give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day,” he said.

Obama even took a shot at the McCain campaign’s use of “Joe the Plumber,” saying his tax proposal would benefit him and his fellow plumbers because “99.9 percent of plumbers make less than $250,000 a year.”

McCain’s policies are just a continuation of the eight years of George W. Bush, Obama said, and while he may deny it, in “21 months and three debates he hasn’t told the American people one thing he would do differently than President Bush on the economy.”

Obama continued his call to young people to get involved in national service, saying if they are willing to serve in the armed forces, peace corps or in their own communities, “we will make sure you can afford to go to college, no ifs, ands or buts.”

“We’ll invest in you if you invest in America,” he said.

“I won’t stand here and pretend things are going to be easy,” Obama said. “President Bush dug a pretty deep hole, and he’s trying to hand the shovel to John McCain.”

But together, America can overcome the challenges it faces.

“In the last eight years we’ve lost the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play,” Obama said. “We have to re-instill a common purpose. All of us have to summon the strength to bridge our differences. We can’t afford the political tactics that pit us against each other.”

In the end, Obama’s speech brought his campaign full circle by praying tribute to the state that launched his presidential campaign to the front of the pack.

“I will always be grateful to Iowa,” he said. “We started our journey right here.”