Obama: 'Change won't come easy'
Two weeks before the presidential election, Sen. Barack Obama today returned to battleground Virginia and energized a crowd of nearly 13,000 at the Richmond Coliseum. The Obama campaign cited a city fire official who said an additional 7,000 people were outside.
"It's good to be back in Virginia. It's good to be back with some of my favorite friends," Obama said, after he held hands aloft with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and with former Gov. Mark R. Warner, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.
Earlier in the day, Obama stood with foreign policy advisers at the Jefferson Hotel and defended remarks by his running mate, who has suggested that if Obama is elected, foreign adversaries will try to test the mettle of the new president.
Obama said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. "sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes. But I think that his core point was that the next administration is going to be tested, regardless of who it is because... the next administration is going to be inheriting a whole host of really big problems."
Obama stood with retired generals and ex-members of Congress, such as former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.,and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind, co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission.
"The question is will the next president meet that test by moving America in a new direction, by sending a clear signal to the rest of the world that we are no longer about bluster and unilateralism and ideology, but we're about creating partnerships around the world to solve practical problems," he said. "That's going to be the best way to meet that test and I am confident that we'll be able to do so."
A spokesman for Sen. John McCain's campaign accused Obama of minimizing Biden's comments.
"Judgment to lead? It's not leadership for Barack Obama to promise to be straight with Americans, only to dismiss serious statements and concern from his own running mate as simple 'rhetorical flourishes.' Joe Biden guaranteed a generated international crisis if Barack Obama is elected, and a smile-for-the-cameras press conference isn't going to mitigate the risk of an Obama presidency."
Obama, seeking to be the first Democrat to carry Virginia since 1964, was to attend an evening rally in Leesburg. It was the second Virginia campaign trip in a week for Obama, who campaigned Friday in Roanoke.
Obama's rally at the Coliseum began more than 30 minutes late, in part because the senator greeted some supporters who were unable to get in to the arena.
At the Coliseum, Obama said he understands Americans' worries about the economy amid the financial meltdown.
"The question isn't whether you are better off than you were four years ago," he said. "It's whether you're better off than you were four weeks ago."
Referring to "Joe the Plumber," the Ohioan who Sen. John McCain made famous last Wednesday during the final presidential debate at Hofstra University, the Illinois senator charged that McCain is "fighting for Joe the hedge fund manager."
Obama also sought to temper expectations given the economic downturn.
"Richmond, make no mistake. The change we need won't come easy," he said. "Bush has dug a deep hole. It's going to take awhile to dig out."
Obama also took aim at a comment over the weekend by a top adviser to McCain. As the Republican campaigned in Prince William County, the adviser distinguished Northern Virginia from the rest of state, which she referred to as "real Virginia."
"There are no real parts of the country and fake parts of the country," Obama said today
As Obama left the Jefferson and his motorcade headed to the Coliseum, about 60 people waited at the corner of Franklin and Jefferson streets to catch a glimpse of the Democratic nominee.
"Mr. Secret Service man, tell him to turn right and wave, please!" shouted Wendy Lucas of Chesterfield County. Obama did wave as he passed the group, bringing shrieks from the crowd.
Before Obama reached the arena, Del. Dwight Clinton Jones, D-Richmond, a candidate for mayor, gave the invocation to the capacity crowd at the Coliseum. He ended his prayer by asking those in attendance to pray for the presidential candidates, particularly Obama.
"We pray for those who are running for the president of the United States," Jones said. "But most especially, because of the world in which we live, we pray for brother Barack Obama," he said, causing the crowd to erupt in applause.
"Keep him safe. Protect him," Jones said. "Stand on his left and his right, above him and beneath him and allow him to know in his most difficult times that you will never leave him or forsake him," Jones said to swelling approval.
Before Obama took the stage, Kaine and Warner took turns warming up the crowd.
Kaine thanked "Virginians who are poised to help this state go Democratic for the first time since 1964."
He said he is not surprised by that possibility. Virginians "love excellence" and not mediocrity, he said, referring to the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.
-- Jim Nolan and Olympia Meola
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