The New Generation Of Banging Hardtechno

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And he was determined to run a campaign based on hope, concentrating on giving the American people a new face and new ideas in Washington. He told the crowd in Springfield, and would tell other bigger and smaller crowds, that he knew he hadn’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington, but he assured everyone that he’d been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington had to change. Barack knew he had to set himself apart, and he had to hit the ground running to get his campaign off to a successful, rousing start. On the day he made his announcement to throw his hat into the ring, he left to campaign in Iowa and had plans to cam paign in South Carolina and New Hampshire; all three states had early primary or caucus dates and were crucial to the path to the Democratic nomination. Before the enormous crowd in Springfield, Barack said, “It’s humbling, but in my heart I know you didn’t come here just for me; you came here because you believe in what this country can be.”5 This was his message at the start of his campaign. He told crowds that his campaign wasn’t only about him. As someone who was a community organizer on the streets of Chicago’s South Side, he understood how change begins at the bottom and grows, and that change doesn’t filter down from the top. The Iraq War, a PosITIve Message, ConCenTraTIng on The Issues For all the candidates early in the campaign, Democratic or republi can, the Iraq war was a defining issue, and Barack spoke about it from the beginning of his campaign. In his speeches, he told crowds about his plan to end the Iraq war and reminded everyone that he opposed the war from 100 BArACk OBAMA the beginning. This stance on one of the most important issues of the time quickly set his campaign apart from his opponents, who had voted for the war authorization. Of those who had voted for the Iraq war, several were now apologizing or expressing regret for their vote. In a February 2007 interview, Barack said, “The authorization vote is relevant only because it gives an insight into how people think about these problems and suggests the sort of judgment they apply in evaluating a policy decision. There are people who sincerely believe that this was the best course of action, but in some cases politics entered into the calculation. In retrospect, a lot of people feel like they didn’t ask hard enough questions.”6 He told audi ences that the United States was continuing in a war that should never have been authorized and added that he was proud of saying in October 2002 that the war was a mistake. His opponents countered these state ments with the fact that Barack had not given a policy speech on Iraq until he’d been in the Senate for 11 months. In response, Barack stated that, during his first year in the Senate, he took a deliberate lowkey ap proach and didn’t make any major speeches on issues that were being discussed or voted upon, stating,