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Obama's first priority: End the war

Obama's first priority: End the war
By MIKE DENNISON of the Missoulian State Bureau


BUTTE - For his first task as president, Barack Obama said Friday he'll call in the
nation's
top military officials and “tell them we have a new mission” - end the war in Iraq.

Next on the list is reforming the nation's health-care system, so everyone in the United
States
has basic health care and costs are reduced for families and businesses.

And, third, craft a new energy policy that “requires a shift away from the sort of
wasteful
energy usage of the past, and to develop alternative fuels like solar, wind and
biodiesel,”
Obama said in an interview on his campaign bus near the Montana Tech campus.
*
Obama, 46, a U.S. senator from Illinois and the presumptive Democratic nominee for
president,
spent the day in Butte, taking in a Fourth of July parade and attending a picnic with
hundreds
of well-wishers and supporters.

But he also took time to chat with local reporters, both on his bus and on the grounds of
the
World Museum of Mining, standing before a small grove of aspen trees that wavered in the
breeze
preceding an afternoon thunderstorm.

Obama said he has a good chance of winning in Montana because people are struggling here
and
will respond to his message of change and reform, to stop the war in Iraq, to reduce the
weight
of energy prices and ensure access to public lands.

Obama has been polling strongly in several Western states where Democrats traditionally
lose in
presidential elections, Montana included.

Yet Republicans have signaled they certainly won't be rolling over in these states, and
will go
after Obama on at least one issue dear to the hearts of many Montanans: gun ownership.

Earlier this week, the Montana Republican Party called on Obama to “clarify his muddled
record
on the Second Amendment,” saying Obama has a record of supporting restrictions on gun
ownership.

Obama said Friday he believes in “common-sense gun laws” that allow law-abiding citizens
to
purchase and own firearms, including items such as background checks when buying guns.

“There is not a sportsman or hunter in Montana who is a legal possessor of firearms that
has
anything to worry about from me,” he said.

Regarding the war in Iraq, Obama repeated his call for bringing home U.S. troops in a
“careful
and deliberate fashion,” consulting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

On health care, he said he wants a system that regulates insurers more stiffly and helps
people
who can't afford health insurance acquire it. But he's not in favor of a national,
single-payer
system like Canada or other countries that offer the same care for all, usually financed
by taxes.

“The problem is, we've got a legacy of employer-based health care,” he said. “People are
accustomed to those sorts of arrangements and they're fearful about what they might have
to
give up in a transition to a different system.”

Obama said his plan works within the system we have now, offering “alternatives” to
families
who can't get insurance now and finding ways to lower premiums for all.

“And we've got to emphasize prevention, which is the most important thing we've got to do
long-term,” he added.

Obama also said his broad base of donors make him the candidate who can stand up to
well-heeled
special interests who have been controlling policy in the country.

The Obama campaign doesn't accept money from political action committees or from people
who are
registered federal lobbyists. However, it has accepted tens of millions of dollars from
big
individual donors connected with insurance, Wall Street investment houses, hedge funds,
banks
and pharmaceutical companies.

“When we have 1.7 million donors, there is no donor that we're dependent on, there is no
industry that we're dependent on,” he said. “I can say ‘no' to anybody because I've got a
broad
base of support.

“I've been able to show independence not only in the past, but will be able to show
independence as president.”

http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/07/05/news/local/news03.txt

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