Obama reaching out to white working class
BRISTOL, Va. -- As he begins the general election contest for the White House, Democrat Barack Obama is targeting the voters he had the hardest time winning in the primaries: those who are white and working class.
The Illinois senator told USA TODAY Thursday that his appearance here in a small town on the Virginia-Tennessee border represented the first stop in a 2½-week tour about economic issues. The trip will also take him to several states won by his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, during the Democratic primaries, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
Obama laid out his campaign plans during an interview in the library of Bristol's Virginia High School.
"What we're going to do over the next 2½ weeks is focus on the economy, which is what is pressing on the American people so severely," Obama said.
During the tour, he said he plans to "offer some very concrete solutions as to how we deal with both the short-term squeeze that (working-class Americans are) under and how over the long term we right the economic ship."
Obama also touched on his search for a vice presidential nominee, his plans to visit Iraq and a conversation he had yesterday with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
To start, he laid out ambitious plans to increase funding for a host of domestic programs, including a 10-year, $150 billion "Apollo-style program" to develop new energy sources.
On the economy, his agenda includes "significant investment" in the nation's transportation system. Obama said he'll also discuss plans to expand retirement accounts — with the addition of matching funds from the U.S. government — and to pump more money into the nation's education system.
Obama did not discuss details or costs of these proposals. But he said he'd pay for his programs by raising taxes on wealthy taxpayers, eliminating corporate tax loopholes and ending the war in Iraq, which is costing the U.S. government $10 billion a month.
Among his ideas to address climate change and the skyrocketing cost of fuel, he said he favors a major expansion of high-speed rail service.
