The New Generation Of Banging Hardtechno

bertram123 · Posted: Thu 13:20, 13 Oct 2011 Post subject: As a freshman

“As a freshman, our objective was not to try to get in the front all the time. But the truth is that in that first year, we had just seen an Iraqi election, and my feeling was that while I was not optimistic, it was appropriate to try to give the nascent government a chance.”7 Barack was also criticized for the fact that he had voted against a Senate amendment seeking to set a specific timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, a vote taken up by the Senate long after the autho rization vote. As was often noted by his opponents, it was easier for Barack to campaign against the war and communicate his stance against the war because he wasn’t in the Senate when the authorization was voted on in October 2002. When asked if senators who voted in favor of authorizing the war bear some responsibility for the war in Iraq, Barack answered that the authorization allowed the Bush administration to wage a war that has damaged national security. “I leave it up to those senators to make their own assessments in how they would do things differently or not.”8 Barack told huge crowds at his campaign rallies that he had a message of hope, that he would run a positive campaign, and that he wouldn’t resort to negativity against his Democratic Party opponents. He was determined to concentrate on the issues and communicate his message that included what he would do as president. He said he knew Americans were looking for something new and different in politics, and he assured them that he was the answer. His difference, he said, was about attitude, stressing that the bitter, decisive politics of the past could change if everyone would work together on common interests and on what concerns the United THE CAMPAIGN FOr THE PrESIDENCY 101 States. He said that he wanted to unite Americans and work closely with those who disagreed with him to find common ground. This, he said, was the attitude of coming together and working together. In his book The Au dacity of Hope, Barack wrote about his time as an Illinois senator, depicting himself as a bipartisan problem solver. “Occasionally I would partner up with even my most conservative colleagues to work on a piece of legisla tion, and over a poker game or a beer we might conclude that we had more in common than we publicly cared to admit.”9 With his ideas of change, a commitment to run a positive campaign, the conveyance of a message of hope, and his stance against the Iraq war, the crowds were cheering and Barack’s message was resonating. At a cam paign stop in Denver in March 2007, Barack told hundreds of people that he understood they no longer had confidence in their elected leaders and that they believed “government feels like a business instead of a mission.” His campaign, he assured them, was their campaign, shouting, “We have to take over Washington. At every juncture when the people decided to change this country, it changed.”10 Touching on health care, education, and energy, his biggest response came when he stated once again that the Iraq war should never have been authorized and added that the United States was less safe and America’s standing in the world was diminished. A Denver man standing near the stage stated to a Denver Post reporter that he already knew he was backing Barack for president.