June 19, 2007
Take Back America: The Kennedy Contest
Today was a real zoo at Campaign for America's Future's fifth Take Back America conference. No wonder: Barack Obama and John Edwards delivered back-to-back speeches before the activist-heavy crowd.
The Democratic presidential race's two youngest hopefuls struck many of the same chords, two of which are the major messages touted by conference leaders: grassroots activity and the moral side of the issues facing the country.
Although both candidates stumped naturally on the overarching themes of their campaigns, it was all they could do not to utter former President John F. Kennedy's infamous inaugural address line, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." (Earlier in the day, MSNBC's Chris Matthews compared Obama to Bobby Kennedy during AFSCME's presidential forum. In Edwards' TBA speech, the candidate told the audience that he grew up watching the 1968 presidential hopeful.)
Obama spoke first and took the stage shortly after his scheduled noon debut. He returned to his "electrify the crowd" roots, building momentum as he went along and peaking when he touched on his commitment to ending the war in Iraq.
He also declared in his speech, "I am confident in my ability to lead this country... but I know that I can't do it without you.... This campaign that we're running has to be about your hopes. It has to be about your dreams and what you will do." He added that big movements always happen "from the bottom up."
Edwards took it a step further at the end of his remarks, launching into a call to action on global warming.
"It is time for the president of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war," he said. "It is time to ask Americans, 'If you love your country, you have to conserve in your home, in your workplace, buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.'"
He later invoked the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and the apartheid regime in South Africa in telling listeners that he, too, knows change starts small -- in communities, on campuses, etc.
"We have such opportunities to do great things in this country, but we cannot do it without you. Your country needs you. It needs you to take responsibility, it needs you to take action," he said, asking "What are you willing to do? How much are you willing to do? How much do you love this country?" He stressed the point emphatically a bit more, calling up Gandhi as he ended his address.
In general, the crowd seemed a bit more sympathetic to the Illinois senator's campaign, giving bigger reaction to Obama than Edwards. Several Obama supporters who tried to work the crowd and hand out signs were shooed away by organizers trying to keep the campaigns off to the sides of the large ballroom in the Washington Hilton.
Posted at 3:03 PM
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Barack Obama, Campaigns, Democrats, John Edwards, Labor, WH 2008
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