Michelle Obama: 'People hungry for different kind of politics'
3:37 PM Wed, Feb 20, 2008 | Permalink
Email this author | Email this entry |
 |
Projo Politics Blog |
|
« Five will lead 'Rhode Island Women for Obama' |
Main
| Obama campaigns begins ads in Spanish in R.I. today »
PROVIDENCE -- Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, gave a strong defense today of her husband's campaign before about 150 cheering women -- and some men -- at the Providence Biltmore hotel. "This has been an amazing journey for me, Barack and my whole family," she said. She's gotten to travel the country, she said, adding that "people are hungry for a different kind of politics. They are tired of negativity and sniping." She also offered a lawyer's-style brief for her husband's campaign. She talked of Obama's upbringing as the child of a single-parent mother and spoke of her own childhood as the daughter of a working-class family from Chicago's South Side. Without mentioning by name Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama critiziced what she called the negativity and thrust-and-parry politics she indicated the Clintons have used on her husband. Obama is visiting the state to help the campaign of her husband ahead of the March 4 primary, one of four such contests -- including delegate-rich Texas and Ohio -- nationally that may sort out the party's nominee. The visit comes after her husband's primary wins in Wisconsin and Hawaii, bringing his winning streak to 10 over Clinton. On Sunday, Clinton will stop in Rhode Island for a campaign visit. -- With reports from Journal staff writer Scott MacKay Obama got perhaps the biggest cheer of the afternoon when she mentioned the war in Iraq. "The facts are pretty clear," she said. She talked about how "a lot of years of Washington experience" did not stop the rush to war after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 -- a jibe at Sen. Clinton, who voted to authorized President Bush to militarily prosecute the war in Iraq. "A lot of years of Washington experience, and they all [senators], said, yeah, let's go to war," Obama said. The invitation-only event was billed as the launch of Rhode Island Women for Obama. Among those attending were Nuala Pell, an advocate for higher education in Rhode Island and wife of former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell; Attorney General Patrick Lynch; former Rhode Island Secretary of State Susan Farmer, a Republican; and, many other professional women from around the state. Michelle Obama has a speech at 5:45 p.m. at the Community College of Rhode Island's night campus in Warwick, an event free and open to the public. She is slated to be joined by her brother, Brown University basketball coach Craig Robinson, at the event. 
|
New comments
New photos
Authors
New posts
Projo blogs
Archives
Leave a comment