Obama Urges Unity at STL Event
By Jo Mannies, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Jun. 10–ST. LOUIS — Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama preached the importance of party unity — in Missouri and across the country — as he beseeched regional supporters of his former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to now embrace his quest for the White House.
“We’ve got to be unified going into November,” Obama said, igniting cheers from several hundred attending Monday’s campaign fundraising reception at the Renaissance Grand Hotel downtown.
Clinton’s Missouri campaign director, state Rep. Rachel Storch of St. Louis, echoed that theme as she introduced Obama to the crowd and promised him that “we are all here for you.”
Clinton’s most prominent area backers, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and former Gov. Bob Holden, were among the hundreds of activists in both camps who made peace over wine and cheese, as Obama called all to action.
Today, Obama is spending part of the morning in St. Louis, working with a nurse at an area hospital as part of a two-week economic tour dubbed “Change that Works for You.”
But Monday night, the focus was clearly on changing his party’s political dynamics by easing any tension remaining from his 16-month battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Besides congeniality, the event also provided Obama with more campaign cash. Local organizers predicted that close to $1 million was raised from supporters who contributed $500 to $2,300 apiece.
Obama praised his own supporters such as U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, Reps. William Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan, and Clayco chief executive Bob Clark as “folks who were there from the get-go.”
But much of his remarks were aimed at playing down any differences with Clinton.
The policy disagreements between him and Clinton, he told the crowd, were “infinitesimal, tiny, minute, trivial, inconsequential when compared to the differences we’ve got with the Republican Party” and presumptive GOP candidate John McCain.
On a variety of issues, Obama said: “John McCain is promising four more years of the policies that got us into this mess.”
Obama said he was referring to McCain’s support of numerous aspects of President George W. Bush’s policies, including tax cuts that Democrats say have primarily benefitted the wealthy, and the continuation of the Iraq war. McCain had voted in favor of the war.
Obama reaffirmed his own commitment to phase out the United States’ military presence in Iraq, while McCain, he contended, “keeps looking for reasons to stay.”
McCain has said the United States shouldn’t leave until Iraq and its new government are stable.
Obama’s remarks in St. Louis touched on his more detailed economic address earlier Monday in Raleigh, N.C.
While jabbing at McCain and Bush, Obama highlighted his own proposals that include tax cuts for middle-income families and retirees, a $50 billion economic stimulus package, expansion of unemployment benefits, and relief for homeowners facing foreclosure.
Before Obama arrived in St. Louis, Gov. Matt Blunt told reporters in a conference call that it was the Democrat who was pressing costly out-of-touch proposals.
Blunt, a Republican who supports McCain, accused Obama of embracing policies that helped bring on the Great Depression in the 1930s.
“It is clearly a time of economic uncertainty,” Blunt said. “Now is not the time to adopt the policies of (former president) Herbert Hoover of protectionism and higher taxes.”
Monday night outside the Renaissance, a couple dozen McCain allies, most of them area members of the College Republicans, underscored that theme. The group waved pro-McCain signs and posters declaring “Change We Can’t Afford.” Nearby, a smaller number of anti-abortion protesters nearby waved a giant placard showing aborted fetuses and other signs decrying Obama’s support of abortion rights.
Obama, for his part, made no mention of the protesters. What his victory for the nomination signaled, he said, was that many Americans were embracing his approach to politics and public policy.
“I believe in the politics of building people up, not tearing people down,” he said.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
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