Obama: GOP record aids Democrats

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By DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

OMAHA — Republican performance in Washington has handed Democrats “an enormous opportunity” to launch a comeback in the 2006 congressional elections, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said Monday.

Recent disarray in the Bush administration “punctured a hole in the sense that this White House is competent and squarely addressing issues,” Obama told a news conference.

Democrats next year should offer voters “a contrast as to how Democrats would govern compared to how Republicans have governed,” he said.

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Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks during a press conference before the start of "Lunch for the Girls," a fundraiser for Girls Inc., at the Qwest Center in Omaha on Monday. (Jill Peitzmeier)

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks during a press conference before the start of "Lunch for the Girls," a fundraiser for Girls Inc., at the Qwest Center in Omaha on Monday. (Jill Peitzmeier)

Obama pointed to a number of issues, including runaway deficit spending, rising health care costs, unaddressed energy challenges and, in later remarks, a brief mention of a lack of planning to deal with the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.

After the brief media session, Obama walked into a luncheon event that demonstrated his star power.

More than 1,500 people paid $65 a ticket and overflowed the Qwest Center ballroom to hear Obama address a fund-raising luncheon for Girls Inc. of Omaha. The organization serves 5,800 girls in north and south Omaha with education programs and after-school activities.

Obama’s appearance was engineered by Susie Buffett, daughter of Omaha billionaire investor Warren Buffett. He and Obama have been friends since they were introduced a year and a half ago.

Obama, 44, burst onto the national stage in 2004 when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. Last November, he became the third black American elected to the Senate, winning a landslide victory in Illinois.

Answering questions from Girls Club members after his luncheon speech, Obama said they and their peers will be left with the burden of paying a huge national debt fueled by deficit spending during the Bush administration.

“We’re not doing anything about it except making it worse,” he said. “We’ve taken out a credit card in your name.”

President Bush and the Republican Congress decided to cut taxes by more than a trillion dollars in the middle of a war, Obama said.

Huge tax reductions were accompanied by increased spending, he said.

And Republicans, he said, are talking about cutting taxes again.

Obama, the father of two young daughters, urged Girls Club members to strive for excellence, take responsibility for their actions, demonstrate empathy for others, get involved and “dream big dreams.”

Adult Americans, he said, have the responsibility to make sure all children have the opportunities that allow them to “go as far as their dreams take them.”

Obama said he is reading “The Shame of the Nation,” the new book by Jonathan Kozol documenting the restoration of apartheid education in the United States 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered school desegregation.

“The education system is still visibly separate and painfully unequal,” Obama said.

In earlier remarks at the news conference, Obama said Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers should be required to “be more forthcoming” about her views than either John Roberts or Ruth Bader Ginsburg were asked to be at their Senate confirmation hearings.

Miers has “not spent a career thinking about constitutional issues,” Obama said, while both Roberts and Ginsburg left “a paper trail” from prior judicial service.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.