Obama's Post-Debate Talking Points

Obama for America Daily Talking Points
February 27, 2008

* Tonight, Barack Obama showed why he's the one candidate who has the judgment to serve as Commander-in-Chief and can draw a clear contrast on foreign policy with John McCain. Barack Obama opposed this war in Iraq from the start, and said that it would distract us from the terrorists in Afghanistan . When he is President, he will end this war, take the fight to al Qaeda, restore respect for America in the world, and bring this country together to deliver the kind of change that will help struggling families afford health care, stay in their homes, and send their children to college.

* Barack Obama talked tonight about his comprehensive economic plan to provide a middle-class tax cut, cut the cost of health care and education, and create millions of new jobs through rebuilding our infrastructure and developing a renewable energy policy. He'll also renegotiate trade deals like NAFTA to include protections for our workers and our environment. Tonight, we heard Senator Clinton go to great lengths to distance herself from NAFTA. But the fact is, she was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for President. In 2004, she said, “I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York and America .” Barack Obama doesn't think NAFTA has been good for America – and he never has. He's been fighting for working families since he was a community organizer more than two decades ago. And he'll fight as President to make sure that our trade deals help Main Street , not just Wall Street.

* Hillary Clinton repeated John McCain's false charge that Barack Obama said he would “bomb Pakistan ,” even though she embraced that same policy earlier in the campaign. To protect the American people, Obama said that he would take out high level al Qaeda targets in northwest Pakistan if we have actionable intelligence about where they are, and Pakistan will not act – and according to the Washington Post, the United States has done just that in recent months. Unlike Senators Clinton and McCain, Barack Obama has made it clear to the American people that he will not hesitate to take out Osama bin Laden if we know where he is in Pakistan , and that's the judgment that the American people need in their Commander-in-Chief.

* Tonight, we heard a real difference between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton on health care. Hillary Clinton's health care plan will have the government force people to buy health care, and she's said she'd consider “going after” their wages if they don't. Barack Obama disagrees with that approach. He believes the reason people don't have health care isn't because they don't want it, it's because they can't afford it. That's why his universal health care plan goes further than Senator Clinton's plan in cutting the cost of health care premiums, saving the typical family up to $2,500 a year.