Obama's Election Eve Left Turn

(Carrollton, Texas)

 

People have been waiting for Sen. Barrack Obama (D-IL) to make a mistake, on an otherwise nearly perfect campaign. Today may have been it!

 

Tonight on the eve of a razor tight race in Texas and Ohio, Obama appeared before a crowd, that by-in-large won't be able to vote Tuesday. The popular Senator had a 5 p.m. "town hall meeting" at Newman Smith High School, 20 miles north of Dallas in the suburb of Carrollton.

 

Senior Emmanuel Ayala introduced Obama, and excitedly announced he would vote for the first term U.S. Senator tomorrow. "The old ways of doing it just don't cut it anymore," Ayala said to cheers. But plenty of freshman, sophomores and juniors won't be old enough. Among the press corps tonight, it begged the question: "Why campaign here?" Every state poll has the Clinton-Obama race in a dead heat on election eve.

 

But Obama has confounded conventional wisdom before, so why not this time?

 

To be sure, his appeal to this group is undeniable. They like his message. They like his optimism and hope. He spoke about the war; the economy and education, three issues these students care about, whether they can vote or not.

 

While he has championed getting out of Iraq, he was more realistic to these students: "I don't think we'll be able to be completely out in a year," Obama said.

 

He promised to pull out some troops as soon as he takes office, then about 1 or 2 brigades per month. All told it could take two years. Plus there would have to be diplomacy with all sides, to try to make the fragile Iraqi government last. No magic bullet here.

 

Among the loudest cheers came when Obama promised a $4,000 annual college tuition tax credit to help pay for education. At the other end of the school spectrum, he proposes universal pre-school. And in the middle there would be more after-school programs for at-risk kids, and more drop out prevention for high schoolers. No where was there a road map to pay for it.

 

"We've got to have high standards in our schools. Especially in the area of math and science, " he said to cheers. "One thing that we know works is after school programs for kids. And summer school programs for kids," Obama added. No one raised a hand to object. No funding plan was laid out.

 

It's the kind of scrutiny Obama is likely to face and soon, especially if he if the nominee. You can lay out all sorts of feel good programs, but someone, somewhere will have to pay the bill. That will likely be these kids. High schoolers now, the working class in another decade, but today a group that largely can't vote yes or no.

 

The closest Obama got to a specific was this: "All this stuff is going to cost something," he said, "but it's a worthy investment if we are going to keep our economy competitive."

 

His most controversial statement on the economy dealt with immigration reform (or the lack of it). You can almost see the words being used against him in fall campaign ads if he is the nominee:

 

"We have to work with people in Columbia and Mexico and others in central America," Obama said. "We've got to give better economic opportunity to the people there."  Boosting their economies at home, will make it less attractive to come here illegally. Critics will argue it's more important to help the U.S. economy, right here on U.S. soil first.

 

As for the 12 million already in the U.S. illegally??

 

"The notion that we are going to send 12 million people back, is just not true."  Obama says it can't be done with law enforcement, so there has to be a plan to transition them to legal status.

 

In Texas, a border state, the immigration controversy is a huge issue, and Obama's comments now could well be called into serious question in the fall campaign.

 

So Obama concluded tonight by encouraging these young high schoolers to be agents of change this year, perhaps influencing their parents, even if the students themselves can't vote.

"Your voice matters. You can have an impact," The Illinois Democrat said.  "Change always happens in this country, when young people act."

 

Polls open at 7 a.m. and there could be bad weather to deal with including snow!  Join me "live" from Dallas at 7:45 a.m. on KTVU's "Mornings on Two" with Ross McGowan.

 

As always, check in daily at www.MarkCurtisMedia.blogspot.com.
There were some great campaign photos again today, from my loyal assistant Allie Curtis.

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