Obama: 'Old Politics Just Won't Do'
Democratic Contender Frames Race Against Clinton as 'Past Versus the Future'
Without mentioning Clinton by name, Obama noted their differences over votes to authorize the Iraq war and other issues.
"I will end the mentality that says the only way for Democrats to look tough on national security is by talking, acting and voting like George Bush Republicans," he said. "It's time to reject the counsel that says the American people would rather have someone who is strong and wrong than someone who is weak and right — it's time to say that we are the party that is going to be strong and right.
"The way to win a debate with John McCain is not by nominating someone who agreed with him on voting for the war in Iraq, who agreed with him in voting to give George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, who agrees with him in embracing the Bush-Cheney policy of not talking to leaders we don't like, and who actually differed with him by arguing for exceptions for torture before changing positions when the politics of the moment changed," Obama said.
Turning Clinton's own campaign slogan against her, Obama said: "It's not enough to say you'll be ready from Day One — you have to be right from Day One."
Even before Obama took the stage, the Clinton campaign had already issued a response to the speech. In it, the campaign accused Obama of "misleading attacks" on Clinton's record on Iraq, Iran, diplomacy and torture, among other issues.
In bold, capital letters, a Clinton spokesman emailed reporters: "SEN. OBAMA LAMENTS THIS KIND OF POLITICS IN HIS BOOK, AUDACITY OF HOPE: 'FOR THAT IS HOW MOST OF MY COLLEAGUES, REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT, ENTER THE SENATE…THEIR WORDS DISTORTED, AND THEIR MOTIVES QUESTIONED.' [PAGE 133]"
In his speech, Obama argued against the politics of divide and conquer, without pointing the finger directly at the Clintons.
"We've faced forces that are not the fault of any one campaign — forces that open American wounds," Obama said. "The politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon. A politics that tells us what we have to think and even vote within the confines of the categories that supposedly define us."
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