Obama, Clinton make Iowa stops
JOHNSTON, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were in Iowa on Saturday noting a cynicism among the American people and both urging activists to take back their government.
Obama said from his experience he’s learned change in America comes from the bottom up, not the top down. He points out that people had to mobilize to get slavery abolished, or to get women the right to vote.
“There are very few instances in our history where suddenly, people in power said ‘you know what, we should make life a little easier for ordinary people.’ That’s not how it worked,” Obama said in an interview before an appearance in Johnston in front of the Iowa Citizen Action Network.
He used his trip to Iowa to highlight his background as a community organizer to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods in Chicago. Today, he is scheduled to conduct an Earth Day rally in Iowa City.
Obama said it is time to reverse many people’s cynicism about government, those who believe government does not make any meaningful difference in their lives. Over the last six years, President Bush has fed that cynicism, Obama said, whether it was with the incompetence displayed in the handling of Hurricane Katrina or what he called the flawed intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.
But he expressed optimism that people are turning the cynicism around, pointing to people who are attending his campaign events that haven’t been involved in the political process before.
Earlier in the day, Clinton told a crowd at a rally with U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell that it’s time to get government back on their side.
Clinton recalled a man in Newton telling her that it seemed like the government is “against us” or didn’t seem to care. She said it is a sentiment she is hearing across Iowa and the country.
“When I was growing up, I believed that not only did I have my family on my side, I had my country on my side. I thought that we were all in this together. And unfortunately, I think a lot of Americans just don’t believe that any more,” she said. “They see a government that is not working very well — can’t manage national disasters, can’t hire qualified people, can’t hold contractors responsible, prevent corruption and cronyism.”
She argued the country’s economy is slowing down for the vast majority of Americans.
“No matter what you hear from the White House today, that’s what’s happening,” Clinton said. “You know, average wages are stagnant. People are not getting ahead.”
Chris Louscher, an Algona Democrat, was in Des Moines for Clinton’s event. Louscher also was impressed with the large crowd Obama drew in her home town recently.
Like many activists, she’s undecided whom she will support in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses next year. But she said she’s looking for a candidate who can redevelop trust of the American people and the rest of the world. “I think that’s been lost,” she said.
Charlotte Eby can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.