By Deb Kelly
INDIANAPOLIS — On a day when Indiana became, according to at least one poll, a battleground state in the upcoming general election, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama assured Indiana voters in Indianapolis that his tax plan would help middle-class workers.
Obama’s visit Thursday to Indianapolis took place at an outdoor forum in the heart of the city, in the American Legion Mall, surrounded on all sides by war monuments and memorials. Obama noted the 25th anniversary of the Beirut bombing of a U.S. Marines barracks that took the lives of 241 servicemen during the Lebanese Civil War.
The Big 10 Battleground Poll, sponsored by eight of the Big 10 Universities, was conducted once in September and again this past week. During the most recent poll, the Big 10 showed a 10-point spread between Obama and McCain, with McCain showing 41 percent of the vote and Obama 51 percent.
With introductions by Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jill Long Thompson, attorney general hopeful Linda Pence and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Obama spent a little less than an hour addressing the crowd of about 35,000. The day marked his 47th campaign stop in Indiana, a state that has not voted for a Democratic candidate for president in 40 years.
The crowd began arriving as early as 6 a.m., wrapping their hands around hot coffee cups for warmth, their breath visible in the early morning temperatures.
The American Legion Mall filled up over the next several hours as the sun continued to rise above the Legion’s national headquarters to warm the audience.
Obama spent the majority of his address on the economy, criticizing John McCain's tax policies.
“The truth is, my opponent and I are both proposing tax cuts,” Obama said. “The difference is he wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO. I want to put a new tax cut in your pocket.”
Sen. Obama added that McCain said a few years ago, “We couldn’t in good conscience support the tax cuts that went mostly to the wealthy at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief.
“He was right then,” Obama added, “but I’m right now.”
“Let’s have a show of hands,” Obama said to the crowd. “How many people here make less than a quarter million dollars a year?”
When nearly every hand in the audience went up, he said, “That seems to be the majority, which includes 90 percent of small businesses.”
The Illinois senator also noted the loss of jobs in Indiana, saying, “Where I come from, there is nothing more fundamental than a good-paying job.” He added that the economy needs to be built from the bottom-up, because, he said the top-down economic policies of the past eight years have not worked.
Obama also spoke about health care, noting his own mother’s death from cancer at age 52.
“I’ll never forget how she spent the final months of her life lying in a hospital bed, fighting with her insurance company because they claimed her cancer was a pre-existing condition,” Obama said. “They didn’t want to pay for treatment.
“As president, I’ll make sure those insurance companies will never do that again,” he added to the cheers of the crowd.
Obama made one more stop in Indiana, in South Bend, before leaving for Hawaii to visit his grandmother, who is in poor health.
Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.
