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Posted: August 17, 2007 4:08 PM
Obama Touts Transparency in Government
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Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his family have been on a multi-day tour of Iowa leading up to Sunday’s debate in Des Moines. His ‘Road to Change’ tour kicked off Wednesday in Cedar Falls with a speech on transparency in government.

Obama said as president, he would post all non-emergency bills online for five days before signing them into law to give Americans a chance to weigh in on the legislation, along with announce all meetings between lobbyists and government agencies, according to the Associated Press.

The senator also took a thinly veiled swipe at rival New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, suggesting that he would offer more “change” than she would.

“We can’t just change political parties and continue to do the same kind of things we’ve been doing,” he said.

He left Iowa briefly Wednesday night for a fund raiser in Omaha, Neb. hosted by billionaire Warren Buffet. Buffett, who has not endorsed Obama or Clinton, said earlier this year that he would help either of them with their presidential campaigns if asked, wrote Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg. “He has often criticized the government for favoring the rich, repeating a charge tonight that Congress is the ‘tax planner’ for the rich,” she wrote.

Also Wednesday, Obama gave a lengthy interview to Dan Balz of the Washington Post where he again took on Clinton.

“Some of those battles in the ’90s that she went through were the result of some pretty unfair attacks on the Clintons,” he told Balz. “But that history exists, and so, yes, I believe I can bring the country together in a way she cannot do.”

Then on Thursday, the senator and his wife, Michelle, kept up the heat on his rivals with another campaign stop in Atlantic, Iowa.

“It remains an open question whether the sharper tone — a departure from his more professorial air early in his candidacy — carries any risks for a candidate who pledged to campaign on a message of hope and a new kind of politics,” wrote Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times. “Mr. Obama has told associates he finds the burst of aggressiveness to be liberating.”

But both his Democratic competitors and Republicans are fighting back. This week the Republican National Committee tried to keep alive the criticisms of Obama’s foreign policy experience. At a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama discussed Afghanistan, saying, “We’ve got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there.” In response, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan released a statement, “It is hard to imagine that anyone who aspires to be commander in chief would say such a thing about our brave men and women in uniform. Obama owes our armed forces an apology — today.”

But Obama still has not backed down. At a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Thursday, he reiterated his belief in speaking bluntly about foreign policy.

“My call for a new foreign policy is based on the same thing that informed my opposition to the war in Iraq: common sense, not conventional Washington thinking,” Obama said. “I’m running on my judgment and I’ll tell the American people where I stand.”

Also this week, the Obama campaign began airing Spanish-language radio ads in Nevada to reach out to immigrants and Hispanics in the state.

“Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said he expects Hispanics to make up 6 percent to 10 percent of Democratic caucus-goers,” wrote Kathleen Hennessey of the Associated Press. “He said the campaign’s ad plays to Hispanics’ increasing disillusionment with Washington politics.”

Earlier this week, Obama also released a statement on the resignation of White House adviser Karl Rove.

“Karl Rove was an architect of a political strategy that has left the country more divided, the special interests more powerful, and the American people more shut out from their government than any time in memory,” Obama said.

Looking ahead, Obama continues his tour of Iowa on Friday and Saturday with events in Tama, Charles City, Clear Lake, Waverly and Cedar Rapids. Sunday, he expects to participate in the Democratic debate in Des Moines to be broadcast on ABC. Afterward, he is scheduled to fly to New Hampshire for three days of campaigning.