Hoping to Counter the 'Palin Effect,' Obama Focuses on Education

LEBANON, Va., Sept. 9, 2008— -- With recent polls showing a 20-point swing among white women voters to John McCain, Barack Obama is looking to regain the advantage and win over some of those women who may have switched their support because of the so-called "Palin Effect."

Obama, when asked by ABC News about the apparent swing, said that despite the excitement he believes issues will ultimately beat out personality.

"I think that what we're going to have to do is see how things settle out over the next few weeks when people start examining who is actually going to deliver on the issues that people care about," Obama said. "You know, who's got an education plan that is going to improve the prospects for our children?"

He said his concrete proposals for issues such as education will help him attract women voters, so he spoke of his education reform plans today in the battleground state of Ohio.

Campaigning in Dayton today, Obama said that the old ways of approaching education reform have not worked and that the debates in Washington have crippled progress.

"It's been Democrat vs. Republican, vouchers vs. the status quo, more money vs. more reform," Obama said at Stebbins High School. "There's bickering, but there's no understanding that both sides have good ideas that we'll need to implement if we hope to make the changes our children need."

Obama's education approach includes traditional Democratic positions, including a $500 million investment in new technology for schools, and more Republican ones -- such as merit pay and performance standards for teachers and $400 million for charter schools.

Education has been an area where Obama feels he can cast himself as reaching across the aisle to take on his own party. In an interview Sunday with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Obama admitted education is an area on which he sometimes separates from the Democrats, noting that some of his education proposals are "not popular with my party."

But Obama today urged Democrats to be open minded on education reform.

"Democrats have to realize that fixing No Child Left Behind is not enough to prepare our children for a global economy," he said. "We need a new vision for a 21st century education -- one where we aren't just supporting existing schools, but spurring innovation; where we're not just investing more money, but demanding more reform."

Teachers unions have generally opposed merit pay, with some leaders worrying that it would create a competitive environment among teachers and discourage them from sharing ideas.When Obama brought up merit pay during a speech to the National Education Association in July, it was met with loud boos from the audience.