Obama relies on party big guns for campaign

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, Oct 31 (PTI) Anxious to keep his lead going
in Florida which has the crucial clutch of 27 electoral votes,
the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has been
relying on the big guns of the party to come out and bat for
him in the state.

If it was former President Bill Clinton out on the
Obama trail on a late night outing on Wednesday, now is the
turn of Al Gore who will be campaigning in the state hoping to
come in as the "clean-up hitter".

The Sunshine state has not forgotten the mess that took
place in 2000 with the "chads" and the then Presidential
candidate Gore is still seen as having won the election at the
time but losing it only legally.

The Obama camp knows well the high symbolic value of the
former Vice President who has not been very active this
election season but endorsing the Illinois Democrat whenever
it was needed.

Some political analysts and academics in the Midwest
maintain that the victory for Senator Obama is assured in
Florida and Ohio; and the Illinois Democrat has pulled away
with a convincing lead in Pennsylvania.

According to one argument, the kind of "landslide" that
Obama can expect to post on November 4 is directly related to
the voter turnout. And given the intensity of this season's
campaign, a record number of Americans are expected to show up
on polling day.

Meanwhile, in Florida Obama hammered away at the foreign
policies of the Bush administration arguing that keeping
America safe does not have to be a choice between retreating
from world politics and keep fighting without an end to a war
in Iraq that has gone on for nearly six years.

"... It's time to stop spending USD 10 billion a month in
Iraq while the Iraqis have a huge surplus. I will end this war
in Iraq. End it," he said in Sarasota.

"And we will finally finish the fight and snuff out Al
Qaeda and Bin Laden who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11. I will
never hesitate to do what it takes to defend this nation. From
day one of this campaign, I've made clear that we will
increase our ground troops and our investment in the finest
fighting force in the world," Obama said.

"But watching our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines
fight in Iraq and Afghanistan has only deepened my commitment
to invest in 21-century technologies so that our men and women
have the best training and equipment when they are deployed
into combat and care and benefits they've earned when they
come home," he added.

"... I won't stand here and pretend that any of this will
be easy especially now. George Bush has dug a deep hole for
us. And he wants to hand the shovel to John McCain. The cost
of this economic crisis -- the cost of the war in Iraq means
that Washington is going to tighten its belt. It's going to
put off spending on things we don't need," Obama said.

"What we've lost in these last eight years can't just be
measured by lost wages or a larger trade deficit. What's also
been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us
have a role to play."

"Each of us has a responsibility to our nation and our
fellow citizens. That's what we need to restore right now --
our sense of common purpose, a higher purpose of service and
sacrifice and duty," Obama said.