Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: On the World

More than 11,000 people attended a rally for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama at the Fort Worth Convention Center on Thursday.

Obama began the rally by addressing concerns that he was too young to be running, that he should sit back and wait awhile, saying the American people couldn't afford to wait for change.

"I believe there is such a thing as being too late," Obama said. "And that hour is almost upon us. We are at a defining moment in our history. Our nation is at war, our planet is in peril, and the dream that so many generations fought for feels like it is slowly slipping away."

Obama said everywhere he's gone, he sees people working harder just to get by. With the prices of post-secondary education and gas at an all-time high, he said it's harder for the American people to save.

"The average person in America has saved $400 this year, but owes $8,000 on their credit cards," he said.

Obama promised to bring needed changes if he was elected president. He said he plans to implement universal preventive healthcare - instead of "disease care" - boost teachers' salaries and to improve education by throwing out standardized testing and ending "teaching to the test."

"Our education system - despite the slogans - leaves millions of children behind, unable to compete," he said.

Obama said every child should receive the best education possible.

"People look at children and don't want to help them because they are not their own," he said. "The country needs to remember that every child is our child."

Another one of Obama's plans to ensure that American's can afford an education is to provide $4,000 in tuition a year for students who do community service.

"We invest in you, and you invest in America," he said.

The American people want a different direction, Obama said; they aren't about spin, PR and double talk. They want honesty, truthfulness and straight talk. He said people are excited about the upcoming election because they know they will be selecting the next president in November.

"Whatever else happens," he said, "the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot."

The crowd booed when Obama told them Bush was coming back to Texas, and they were going to have to figure out what to do with him.

"The failed policies of the past seven years, the "Scooter Libby" justice, Katrina, the warrantless wiretaps, the Karl Rove politics, all that is coming to an end next year," he said.

America has some big problems, Obama said, and he feels that if the American people all work together then they can solve them.

North Dallas resident Trinity Highlands said she's ready for a change and she thinks Obama is the one to bring it.

"[Former President Bill] Clinton was okay when he was in office, but there needs to be a difference," she said. "We've had enough of the Clintons and definitely enough of Bush."

Highlands said she was glad she attended the rally because it was a historical event.

Dallas resident Myrna Macy and her 9-year-old son Joshua came just for that reason.

"I came because I have a 9-year-old and I wanted him to see the political process, because in nine more years he's going to be a registered voter," Macy said.

Macy and Joshua both said they were excited to see Obama speak, and Joshua said he had been watching the election coverage on television, but had not known what the rally was going to be like.

"It's been great, but it's bigger than I thought it would be," he said.

Some of the attendees of the rally came just to try and make up their minds about the candidates.

Arlington resident Melissa Reynolds said improving health care and education were important issues to her, and she didn't yet know for whom she was going to vote.

"They both talk a good talk, and I'm still trying to figure out who's plan is the most feasible," she said.

Reynolds said she has attended rallies for almost all of the candidates and hopes Obama's speech will help make up her mind.

"I'm just here to see what he has to say," she said. "To see if it's better than Hillary [Clinton]."

The "Stand for Change" rally in Fort Worth was one of six stops Obama made on his three-day campaign tour of Texas.

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Kimberly Ansley filmed the footage above and Cody Richeson edited the film.

Contact Corrine at etc4640@dcccd.edu

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