Transcript
Senator Obama’s Remarks in N.C., May 6, 2008
The following is the transcript of Barack Obama’s speech in North Carolina, as provided by CQ Transcriptions, Inc.
You know, there are those who were saying that North Carolina would be a game-changer in this election. But today what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to start by congratulating Senator Clinton on what appears to be her victory in the great state of Indiana. I want to thank all the people — I want to thank all the wonderful people of Indiana who worked so hard on our behalf.
(APPLAUSE)
The people in Indiana could not be finer. They worked tirelessly, and I will always be grateful to them.
I want to thank, of course, the people of North Carolina.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to thank them for giving us a victory in a big state…
(APPLAUSE)
… in a swing state, in a state where we will compete to win if I am the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, when this campaign began, Washington didn’t give us too much of a chance. But because you came out in the bitter cold, and knocked on doors, and enlisted your friends and neighbors in this cause, because you stood up to the cynics and the doubters and the naysayers, when we were up and when we were down, because you still believe that this is our moment and our time to change America, tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
More importantly, because of you, we’ve seen that it’s possible to overcome the politics of division and the politics of distraction, that it’s possible to overcome the same, old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems.
(Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times) r. Sen. Barack Obama went door to door in Elkhart, Ind., with his wife, Michelle, center, and daughters Malia, right, and Sasha. Primaries in Indiana and North Carolina take place tomorrow.
Malia and Sasha also joined their father in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Ben Smith, the irrepressible Politico.com blogger, has been paying attention. The details of Hillary Rodham Clinton latest mailings don’t quite add up.
In a piece titled Clinton mailing’s gun gaffe, points out
Clinton’s mailing attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s record on guns appears to include a striking visual gaffe: The image of the gun pictured on the face of the mailing is reversed, making it a nonexistent left-handed model of the Mauser 66 rifle.
To make matters worse, a prominent gun dealer said, it’s an expensive German gun with customized features that make it clearly European.
“The gun in the photo does not exist,” said Val Forgett III, president of Navy Arms in Martinsburg, W.Va. Forgett’s company was Mauser’s agent in the United States when the gun was released, and it sold Mauser guns here again in the 1990s. “The bolt is facing to the left side of the receiver, making it a left-handed bolt action rifle, indicating whoever constructed and approved the mailer did not recognize the image has been reversed.”
Forgett said the error would be obvious to sportsmen.
“I find it laughable on its face,” he said. “It’s like a picture of Babe Ruth hitting right-handed.”
Here’s the question I want to raise about the mailings: Sen. Barack Obama got Secret Service protection quicker than anyone else running for president because of specific threats against his life. I know Clinton wants the nomination really, really bad, but do we really want to send out mailings showing a gun, fake or no fake, pointing at his head?
(Jae C. Hong/Associated Press) Sen. Barack Obama campaigning in Indiana on Thursday.
Is this enough to make a difference: Joe Andrew, a superdelegate who was the Democratic National Committee chairman under President Bill Clinton, announced Thursday that he had switched his allegiance from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Senator Barack Obama in the race for the presidential nomination.