Obama defends Iraq war vote
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that union support will be crucial to win the White House and hit back at Republican rivals who criticized him for voting against a bill to pay for the Iraq war.
Organized labor helped him get elected in the past and its support will be necessary in the future, the Illinois senator told delegates at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists convention in Chicago.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
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Obama addresses Unionists
''I know who brought me to the dance and I know who's going to take me to the next dance,'' Obama said.
It is a challenging time of change and uncertainty for labor, but union members need to fight harder for issues like universal health care and education funding, Obama said.
''We've got to make the union movement stronger in this country,'' he said. ''We need a president who doesn't choke when he says the word union.''
Political candidates benefit from labor's support, said CBTU President William Lucy, who also sits on the AFL-CIO executive council.
''I believe it is significant but not surprising that Sen. Obama chose to speak at a convention of 1,200 black trade unionists during this phase of his campaign,'' Lucy said in a statement. Obama ''knows that black union activists bring a reservoir of political experience and energy that has benefited past presidential candidates.''
Obama also told the vocal, supportive crowd that criticism of Thursday's vote on the Iraq spending bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney amounted to ''fear mongering.''
''I voted to give our country and our troops a new policy in Iraq that would end this war once and for all,'' Obama said. ''Today, apparently because I rejected George Bush's approach, John McCain and Mitt Romney thought they could score some political points.''
The bill would pay for the war through September, but did not include a timetable for withdrawing troops that Democrats and anti-war activists had sought.
McCain, who backed the spending bill, said Obama and fellow Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's opposition was ''the equivalent of waving a white flag to al-Qaida.'' Romney said the Democrats' votes showed a willingness to ''abandon principle in favor of political positioning.''
''(McCain and Romney) said I don't support the war on terror. Said I don't support the troops. Well, let me tell you something ... I know the toll of this war and what I know is that what our troops deserve is not just rhetoric. They deserve a new plan,'' Obama said. AP