Washington，DC ｜April 14，2008
Good afternoon. I know I kept a lot of you guys busy this weekend with the comments I made last week. Some of you might even be a little bitter about that.
As I said yesterday，I regret some of the words I chose，partly because the way that these remarks have been interpreted have offended some people and partly because they have served as one more distraction from the critical debate that we must have in this election season.
I’m a person of deep faith，and my religion has sustained me through a lot in my life. I even gave a speech on faith before I ever started running for President where I said that Democrats，“make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people’s lives.” I also represent a state with a large number of hunters and sportsmen，and I understand how important these traditions are to families in Illinois and all across America. And，contrary to what my poor word choices may have implied or my opponents have suggested，I’ve never believed that these traditions or people’s faith has anything to do with how much money they have.
But I will never walk away from the larger point that I was trying to make. For the last several decades，people in small towns and cities and rural areas all across this country have seen globalization change the rules of the game on them. When I began my career as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago，I saw what happens when the local steel mill shuts its doors and moves overseas. You don’t just lose the jobs in the mill，you start losing jobs and businesses throughout the community. The streets are emptier. The schools suffer.
I saw it during my campaign for the Senate in Illinois when I’d talk to union guys who had worked at the local Maytag plant for twenty，thirty years before being laid off at fifty-five years old when it picked up and moved to Mexico；and they had no idea what they’re going to do without the paycheck or the pension that they counted on. One man didn’t even know if he’d be able to afford the liver transplant his son needed now that his health care was gone.
I’ve heard these stories almost every day during this campaign，whether it was in Iowa or Ohio or Pennsylvania. And the people I’ve met have also told me that every year，in every election，politicians come to their towns，and they tell them what they want to hear，and they make big promises，and then they go back to Washington when the campaign’s over，and nothing changes. There’s no plan to address the downside of globalization. We don’t do anything about the skyrocketing cost of health care or college or those disappearing pensions. Instead of fighting to replace jobs that aren’t coming back，Washington ends up fighting over the latest distraction of the week.
And after years and years and years of this，a lot of people in this country have become cynical about what government can do to improve their lives. They are angry and frustrated with their leaders for not listening to them；for not fighting for them；for not always telling them the truth. And yes，they are bitter about that.
Now，Senator McCain and the Republicans in Washington are already looking ahead to the fall and have decided that they plan on using these comments to argue that I’m out of touch with what’s going on in the lives of working Americans. I don’t blame them for this — that’s the nature of our political culture，and if I had to carry the banner for eight years of George Bush’s failures，I’d be looking for something else to talk about too.
But I will say this. If John McCain wants to turn this election into a contest about which party is out of touch with the struggles and the hopes of working America，that’s a debate I’m happy to have. In fact，I think that’s a debate we need to have. Because I believe that the real insult to the millions of hard-working Americans out there would be a continuation of the economic agenda that has dominated Washington for far too long.
I may have made a mistake last week in the words that I chose，but the other party has made a much more damaging mistake in the failed policies they’ve chosen and the bankrupt philosophy they’ve embraced for the last three decades.
It’s a philosophy that says there’s no role for government in making the global economy work for working Americas；that we have to just sit back watch those factories close and those jobs disappear；that there’s nothing we can do or should do about workers without health care，or children in crumbling schools，or families who are losing their homes，and so we should just hand out a few tax breaks and wish everyone the best of luck.
