Obama's DNC Message: I'm Like You

CBSNews.com Reports: Democrats To Push Obama’s Similarities With Average Americans

(CBS)  This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.

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As officials put the finishing touches on the Pepsi Center, where the Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday, Barack Obama was campaigning in Wisconsin, far from Denver’s fanfare.

But the soon-to-be Democratic nominee certainly had the convention on his mind, and he told supporters he hoped to press this message: Despite his meteoric political rise, despite Republican attempts to cast him as an out-of-touch celebrity, and despite the effort being put into crowning him the standard bearer of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama is, ultimately, not so different from those whose votes he hopes to win.

“… I think what you’ll conclude is he’s sort of like us,” Obama said Sunday. “He comes from a middle-class background. He went to school on scholarships; he had to pay off student loans; he and his wife had to worry about child care; we had to figure out, you know, how to start a college fund for their kids."

That theme will come to the forefront on the first day of the convention, which will focus on Obama’s life and values and culminate in a speech by Obama’s wife, Michelle, that will mark her highest-profile appearance of the campaign.

House Speaker House Nancy Pelosi will also speak Monday, as will Obama’s sister Maya Soetero-Ng; Democrats have been holding out hope that Ted Kennedy, who is fighting brain cancer, might even make a surprise appearance. Even if Kennedy doesn’t make the trip, the longtime Massachusetts senator will be in the spotlight Monday evening thanks to a planned video tribute. (UPDATE: CBS News has confirmed that Kennedy has made it to Denver, though he presently does not plan to speak at the convention.)

Also in the spotlight Monday - though for a far different reason - will be Hillary Clinton’s supporters, whom Republicans hope will display their disappointment that the former first lady is not the Democratic nominee as dramatically as possible. In a CBS News/New York Times poll released Sunday, 42 percent of delegates originally pledged to Clinton said they will vote for her on the convention’s presidential roll call. Fewer than half were enthusiastic about Obama’s nomination.

John McCain’s campaign looked to exploit that dissatisfaction in a new ad, “Passed Over,” that suggests Obama selected Delaware Sen. Joe Biden over Clinton as his running mate because the New York senator spoke the truth about Obama’s shortcomings.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, set up shop a few blocks away from the Pepsi Center this weekend, where they fought for media coverage and pushed a message that Obama is ill prepared for the presidency.

In an effort to press party unity, Clinton is expected to formally release her delegates to Obama on Wednesday; she responded to the McCain ad in a statement by her spokesman noting that she "has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq and expanding access to health care. John McCain doesn't. It's interesting how those remarks didn't make it into his ad."

Clinton also praised Obama’s choice of Biden, who on Saturday ripped into McCain, his longtime friend in the Senate, painting him as disconnected from the everyday concerns of working class Americans - a charge Republicans have also leveled at Obama.

Delegates, politicians and journalists weren’t the only ones descending on Denver over the weekend; protesters also planned for a busy week. Many said they had come to press the Democratic Party to end the war in Iraq.

“We went to war and millions of people have died based on falsities,” Val Stepien, who marched through the city’s downtown carrying a peace sign Sunday afternoon, told CBS News. “Democrats voted for FISA; Democrats keep voting to fund the war; and we want the leaders of the Democratic Party to take a stand for peace and justice, not just here but all around the world.”

Inside the convention center, slender signs for each delegation were dwarfed by large, lighted banners advertising the media that had come to cover the event; organizers estimated that more than 15,000 journalists had come to town for the convention. Because of Biden’s selection as running mate, the Delaware delegation was given prime space on the convention floor, while Republicans suggested that the relatively poor real estate given over to Missouri and North Carolina signaled that Obama had given up on those states.

Despite the efforts of the opposition, however, Democrats held out hope that they would emerge from their week in Denver unified and primed for victory in November.

"Democrats gathering here are more optimistic about their party's chances in the general election than they have been from some time," CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs said. "Still, there's an undertow of worry about just how unified the party is in the wake of a bruising primary fight. How enthusiastically Clinton, and more importantly her supporters, embrace the soon-to-be nominee will be perhaps the most closely watched dynamic in Denver."

[kansas1946]

If you are already sick of that phony smile you better get use to it, More and More Obama ad nauseum into the fall.


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Posted by mydiatribe at 12:59 PM : Aug 26, 2008
+ report abuse
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You bet. Just as long as I NEVER have to see that sickening Bush smirk as long as I live!!!

[concerns47]

The future by the time you are 72, you will have 7 houses, written many books and become a multi-millionaire, that is your real goal, not to help the middle class, to help you and your friends become multi-millionaires. Just look at your staff running your campaign, see their future will be the same. Your wife got your campaign manager so he owes you and will be paid millions.

[concerns47]

You needed to pick an old white person who is entrenched in Congress'' ways to get enough votes.

Hillary or Biden, who cares, you couldn''t get this on your own, that is why the polls are so close.

[concerns47]

Have you ever had to miss a meal so your children were fed, no!

We don''t think of ourselves as a messiah, receive aid getting our homes using criminals like Rezko, didn''t grow up body surfing in Hawaii, didn''t use affirmative action to get into Princeton and Harvard, we are/were not corporate lawyers, we were raised by loving parents and are loving parents unlike your mother who married the other side of the tracks.

We have family values and do not need a 75,000 stadium to self promote ourselves, let''s look at your real record in both Illinois and Congress and see how you got ahead.

[mydiatribe]

ATTN: ALL YOU OBAMA FREAKS!

Are you ready for ALL OBAMA ALL THE TIME???

Barry''s got a lot of $$$ to spend in the General Election.

If you are already sick of that phony smile you better get use to it, More and More Obama ad nauseum into the fall.

[dudeky]

your are soooooooo right russian will be coming in along with the iraqis come january along with
obama........... go get''em clinton or vote mccain
do not let this obama thing in.....
see i am watching c-span now and they just cut another one off because they are not praising
the ruler obama......sick sick sick.....
what does this man have that no one else has????

[dudeky]

we are getting no where people obama is still out
there this a.m. ........ the media is afraid of
him and his or they would give others a chance and
if you watch c-span and start to say bad about obama
they cut your call off real fast....and you can not talk about mccain either......can some one tell me why the fear about obama is why can we not speak bad about him???????where did ours freedom of speech go in this election?????go get''em clinton........
and jackson last night was so sad he is really for the black...........not for america

[wellhell3]

"The AP also reports that the Obama campaign is seeking to bloc stations from running the ad, pressuring others not to and is asking the Justice Department to step in. In a letter to station managers running the ad, many of them part of Sinclair Communications, Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer wrote: "Your station is committed to operating in the public interest, an objective that cannot be satisfied by accepting for compensation material of such malicious falsity."

TAKE A LOOK AMERICANS! IS THIS THE KIND OF COUNTRY YOU WANT! Obscammer thinks he can live his adult life influenced by criminals and anti-American terrorists, and when somebody puts out an ad to tell the truth, he uses his NAZI influence to BLOCK IT! Why not just go ahead and bring Vladamir Putin over here and make him president!

[trrrorislam3]

Obama''s DNC Message: I''m Like You

NO YOU ARE NOT,,,

HUSSEIN SAYS AMERICANS MUST LEARN SPANISH,,,

ummmm it is the DEMONIC-RATS that want to grant amnesty to illegals,,, including HUSSEIN,,,

HUSSEINs solution for illegals is to grant them amnesty and have americans learn SPANISH,,,

words out of his own mouth,,,

Barack Obama: Your Children Should Learn To Speak Spanish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk

Obama to America--Learn Spanish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7srmHLclw

[lambor59]

The Demo should change their stupid slogan from

WE CAN CHANGE *

to Let''s all get out on the street and handcuff BUSH and CHENEY.

[lambor59]

Obama is great but I''m not sure the Americans are ready for a black president, so, the US future is in deep trouble....

[jtyler271]

I''''m sorry, but HOPE and CHANGE does not buy gas and put food on the table nor insure a future for my grandchildren!

Posted by WellHell3 at 12:52 AM : Aug 26, 2008

Ranting about 5 and a half years in a POW camp does?

[wellhell3]

Barack Obama - June 30, 2008
In the end, it may be this quality that best describes patriotism in my mind %u2013 not just a love of America in the abstract, but a very particular love for, and faith in, the American people. That is why our heart swells with pride at the sight of our flag; why we shed a tear as the lonely notes of Taps sound. For we know that the greatness of this country %u2013 its victories in war, its enormous wealth, its scientific and cultural achievements %u2013 all result from the energy and imagination of the American people; their toil, drive, struggle, restlessness, humor and quiet heroism.
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Posted by kansas1946 at 11:51 PM : Aug 25, 2008

I can get this BS from a tent revival!

I want to know specifically what his change is!

I want to know specifically with details how he intends to accomplish any one of his Tinkerbelle idiotic plans.

I''m sorry, but HOPE and CHANGE does not buy gas and put food on the table nor insure a future for my grandchildren!

[wellhell3]

n
You are kidding, right?? You have to be.


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Posted by kansas1946 at 10:46 PM : Aug 25, 2008

No, I''m NOT! I dare you to try to NAME ONE! Other than scamming to win elections! He''s pretty successful at that. He''s batting on about a 100 there!

[wellhell3]

How about getting off of these antibiotics?
How about finding an alternative to oil?
How about not killing thousands of American soldiers?
How about not creating another generation of terrorists?
How about creating change?
How about saying no to the Grand Oil Party?
How about saying yes to America?


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Posted by X-Republican at 12:33 AM : Aug 26, 2008

Why don''t you take a happy pill and enjoy living in the freest damned country on the planet!

This old hate your country it''s wrong, it''s bad, is starting to make people want to PUKE!

You sound like a bunch of commies, prattling out the first tenet of Marxism and Communism. (Teach the people to hate their country, that it''s bad, that it''s wrong, and that they need you to change it!)

[jtyler271]

Posted by dudeky at 12:24 AM : Aug 26, 2008

Well, aside from the religious overtones, there''s only one thing wrong with your post: McCain is not an Iraqi. Otherwise, spot on.

[x-republican]

How about getting off of these antibiotics?
How about finding an alternative to oil?
How about not killing thousands of American soldiers?
How about not creating another generation of terrorists?
How about creating change?
How about saying no to the Grand Oil Party?
How about saying yes to America?

[dudeky]

ok all of you people out there read this and think
back to when you sat in church and listened to a man of god about the end of time........
we will be taken over from within the government
what better way is there than to be president?????
if we do not stop this iraqi person we are doomed
he is not an american like you and i............
he and his wife are so FAKE it is not funny now
some how we have got to stop being afraid of him
and what ever it is you believe he can do to the
usa and put a stop to this.....it has gone far
enough.......i know there is enough of you go there
that you can get this going on the net so people
will think back to a sermon they heard and realize
this person is out to get us once he gets in office
he will change us alright.... right into bin ladens hands.......and for china they are in on it also...
we owe them so much money we will never get them
paid off they own us......so remember i have
told you this so read with an open heart and find
your pastor or bible or both and see if i am not
correct.....mine preached it this six months ago
and brought back memories to me......
i am 57 in ky may god bless all of us

[kansas1946]

Here is some more for you, ragnar. In fact, I think in listening to Obama for the last year, I have heard patriotism and love of country articulated from him as well as I have ever heard from anyone. I suspect you never had any intention of voting for him because he is a Democrat, so you never listened to him.

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Barack Obama - June 30, 2008
That is the liberty we defend %u2013 the liberty of each of us to pursue our own dreams. That is the equality we seek %u2013 not an equality of results, but the chance of every single one of us to make it if we try. That is the community we strive to build %u2013 one in which we trust in this sometimes messy democracy of ours, one in which we continue to insist that there is nothing we cannot do when we put our mind to it, one in which we see ourselves as part of a larger story, our own fates wrapped up in the fates of those who share allegiance to America''s happy and singular creed.

Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

[kansas1946]

He is very quick to try to silence anyone who questions his patriotism, but he hasn''''t yet identified anything that causes him to be patriotic.
Posted by ragnar30066 at 11:12 PM : Aug 25, 2008
+ report abuse
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Really?? Well maybe that is just because you aren''t listening.
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Barack Obama - June 30, 2008
In the end, it may be this quality that best describes patriotism in my mind %u2013 not just a love of America in the abstract, but a very particular love for, and faith in, the American people. That is why our heart swells with pride at the sight of our flag; why we shed a tear as the lonely notes of Taps sound. For we know that the greatness of this country %u2013 its victories in war, its enormous wealth, its scientific and cultural achievements %u2013 all result from the energy and imagination of the American people; their toil, drive, struggle, restlessness, humor and quiet heroism.
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