From the Chicago Tribune:
Roy Gross doesn't know exactly what he's going to say next Thursday when he takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention. But the former truck driver from Taylor knows his comments will focus on the woes of the middle class. Gross got the call last Saturday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to share the stage with him. He'll get three minutes to speak on the night that Obama will formally accept the nomination before 75,000 people at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High football stadium. "It's hard to get all of your thoughts into three minutes, but on the other side, I think three minutes will seem like an eternity on that big stage," Gross told The Associated Press Thursday in a phone interview. The 49-year-old business agent for Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit says he was shocked and excited to get the invitation. The Obama campaign will fly Gross to Denver on Wednesday and put him up. He expects to be back to work Friday. The daughter he has raised as a single parent is finishing up her final year as an education major at Bowling Green University in Ohio. She won't be able to accompany him because of her school schedule. Gross said he came to the Obama campaign's attention when he introduced the Illinois senator at a May 14 campaign event at Macomb Community College in Warren. He wrote his own comments then, but said he thought "that they would provide me with a speech so I would say the right things" when he spoke in Denver. Instead, the Obama campaign told Gross they want convention watchers to hear what he has to say in his own words. "I find that so great that they would allow a regular working Joe to actually put his thoughts on paper and go up there," he said. "I'm doubly impressed that Senator Obama is going to solicit the opinion of the common, working guy." Gross is one of more than 20 "real people" from around the country the Obama campaign has asked to speak about their everyday struggles during the convention, which runs Monday through Thursday.
From USA Today:
Barack Obama, whose oratory and opposition to the war in Iraq helped propel him to the Democratic presidential nomination, said Thursday that he's preparing for an election he believes will turn on the economy. In an interview here with USA TODAY, Obama spoke about his multiracial background, the meteoric journey that will take him to Denver to accept his party's presidential nomination next Thursday night and the potential obstacles that follow. The interview took place during a three-day campaign swing that took him through traditionally Republican communities of the rural South. … One of the sharpest areas of disagreement between the two men has been Iraq policy. Obama said Thursday's reports of a potential deal by the Bush administration to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq show that he, and not McCain, has been right about the conflict there. "It's more or less the same time frame I announced two years ago," Obama said. The senator has been advocating a phased withdrawal that would bring combat troops out of Iraq by 2010. McCain says the timing of a pullout must be determined by conditions on the ground. … Obama wants voters to focus on "the fundamental choice we have to make" between his economic policies and those of his Republican rival, John McCain, he said. "I'm much more interested in laying out that choice clearly than I am in a bunch of high-flying rhetoric," he said. Going into the fall, Obama is adjusting his campaign. "There's no doubt that the enthusiasm and grass-roots energy we built carries with it its own dangers," he said. …He said he's seeking smaller forums where he can discuss issues with voters. "We're cutting through all the sizzle and getting to the steak," Obama said. In Chester, he spoke to 250 voters at picnic tables in a sun-dappled pine grove. During a nearly 90-minute conversation that touched on matters ranging from health care to education, from tax policy to Iraq, Obama told the group that his foreign policy advisers will include two prominent Republicans, Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Indiana. "This is nice," Obama said of the laid-back setting. "Who brought the potato salad?"
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
… Obama spoke after a town-hall meeting at John Tyler Community College in Chester, [Virginia], where the Illinois senator, joined by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, talked about the economy before an audience of about 300 people. "I think that people are looking for who's going to fight for them in the White House," Obama said. "And if they have confidence that I'm going to make their lives better, their children's lives better, I don't think they care whether I'm green or blue or polka dot." Aided by Kaine, one of his earliest and most enthusiastic supporters, Obama has made a big push in Virginia. He has peppered the state with 33 campaign offices and supplemented television ads with four visits during his general-election campaign. All are signs that he believes Virginia's 13 electoral votes are within reach; a Democratic presidential nominee has not carried the state in 44 years. Obama spent the past two days talking about the economy. He visited Martinsville, which has the state's highest unemployment rate, and Lynchburg, Chester and Chesapeake. During the interview in Chester, Obama sought to dispel the notion he's too liberal for Virginians by affirming his stances on several hot-button issues, such as his opposition to same-sex marriage and his support for Second Amendment rights. "I am a strong believer of the Second Amendment," he said. "Nobody's going to take the guns of law-abiding Virginians away from them." … "The fact that we're tied . . . I think that sends a good signal about what we're doing," Obama said, referring to polling showing he and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain are close in Virginia. "But it's not going to be easy. "This is a state in transition. Obviously the success of [former Gov.] Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and [Sen.] Jim Webb indicate that Democrats can win statewide, but it's going to require everything we've got in order to pull this out."
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