From the Washington Post:
Sen. Barack Obama lamented the loss of U.S. jobs Wednesday as he campaigned in a region of southern Virginia that in recent elections has spurned Democratic presidential candidates. Obama came to economically distressed Southside alongside Mark R. Warner, a popular former governor who seven years ago made the strongest electoral showing in rural Virginia of any statewide Democratic candidate in a generation. Warner is running for U.S. Senate, and Democrats hope he can help Obama snare Virginia's 13 electoral votes. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spoke to workers laid off from nearby factories at a packed town hall meeting in a cavernous warehouse here used by Patrick Henry Community College to train workers in the auto-racing industry. U.S. flags and race cars surrounded the stage. "You're worried about the future. Here people have gone through very tough times," the Illinois senator said. "When you've got entire industries that have shipped overseas, when you've got thousands of jobs being lost. . . . That's tough." … Democrats expect Obama to win big in Northern Virginia, perform well in competitive Hampton Roads and attract large numbers of African American and younger voters. But their strategy, much like Warner's winning formula in 2001, also includes securing as many votes as possible in Southside, where Obama ran ahead of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in February on his way to a landslide victory in the state's primary. … Obama drew hearty applause here when he spoke about his desire to give tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States and stop tax breaks to those that ship jobs overseas. "People feel like the American dream is slipping away," he said. "That's what's at stake in this election. We can't keep going in the same direction that we have been. We have to fundamentally change how America does business."
From the Associated Press:
Democrat Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to create millions of union jobs in alternative energy and end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas, using tough new populist language to convince voters that he, not rival John McCain, is best positioned to lift the limping U.S. economy. Obama was on a two-day bus tour through Virginia, a likely general election battleground state, amid frenzied speculation about when he would announce his running mate. He brushed off questions about his choice during a morning visit to a farmer's market in Greensboro, N.C., before boarding the bus. … At a community college in Martinsville, Va., Obama told about 350 supporters that McCain had a compelling biography as a former prisoner of war in Vietnam. But, he said, the GOP hopeful would follow the economic policies of the Bush administration if elected. "I honor his service," Obama said. "I don't honor his policies. I don't honor his politics." Obama also renewed his warning that Republicans would try to scare voters about his background. "They'll say, 'He's young, he's got a funny name, he's not patriotic,'" Obama said, adding that it was part of a pattern in GOP presidential politics. "We've seen this movie before," he said. … Obama said it was wrong that the Iraqi government has been sitting on billions of dollars in oil revenue while the U.S. spends billions to rebuild the country. "We should be using some of that money to rebuild Virginia, laying roads, building broadband lines and putting people back to work," Obama said. As for tax breaks to companies taking jobs overseas, Obama said: "We sure as heck don't have to give them incentives to move. ... We should give companies tax breaks that are right here." … "If you give me that opportunity, if you give me that chance, I will fight for you every single day," he pledged. "I'll wake up every day in that White House thinking about those people in Martinsville."
[Emily's List, the organization founded to help elect more pro-choice women to governor's offices and Congress] today released the results of a survey it did earlier this month showing that Obama holds a solid lead among women voters -- 51 percent backed Obama and 39 percent John McCain. That gives Obama a larger preconvention lead among women than those enjoyed by either John Kerry in 2004 (one percentage point) or Al Gore in 2000 (nine points). Obama's 12 point lead is also larger than the final margin of victory for Kerry (3 points) and Gore (11 points) among women. "This is a very solid showing for Senator Obama. In historical terms, it's a showing that augurs well for him," said pollster Geoff Garin, who oversaw the survey. … [T]he organization's leader, Ellen Malcolm, today rejected the suggestion that it was lingering doubts among Clinton's supporters that was contributing to whatever softness there is in support for Obama among women voters. Malcolm noted that women in the survey who had positive views of Clinton were supporting Obama, 73-18 percent, whereas 19 percent of those who did not like Clinton were backing Obama, which Malcolm suggested showed a lack of antiObama animus among Clinton supporters. "The more you like Senator Clinton, the more likely you are to be for Senator Obama," Malcolm said. To further the 'no harm, no foul' notion, she noted that she and Clinton and Michelle Obama would be attending a unity event at the convention next week.
From the Olympian:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has opened a campaign office in Idaho, in keeping with an earlier promise the Illinois senator made to establish a presence in all 50 states. … "It's been almost 50 years [since Idaho voted for a Democratic presidential candidate]," said T.J. Thomson, lead organizer for the grassroots Idaho for Obama campaign. "I'm thinking it'd have to be a perfect storm." Strong voter turnout. An off year for Republicans. Independents that can be persuaded. Those are the political conditions Thomson and a team of 1,500 volunteers hope for as they try to rally Idaho voters behind a Democratic candidate. The group has largely targeted young voters, a demographic Obama has been widely credited with drawing into politics. Republican presidential candidate John McCain hasn't opened a campaign office in Idaho. … The Obama campaign staffed an office in downtown Boise this week with two full-time paid employees and one full-time volunteer. Campaign efforts at the grassroots level were energized earlier this year when Obama made a swing through Idaho in February and drew about 14,000 people to Boise State's basketball arena. "When he showed he could fill a colosseum to its capacity, in a place like Idaho," Thomson said, "that showed America that even in states that have been traditionally Republican in the past, that doesn't mean they're always going to be Republican."
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