{"id":"5","article_title":"Obama: Florida, Michigan are Clinton's 'last slender hope'","category_id":"1","article_date":"2012-10-23","article_summary":"Sen. Barack Obama accused Sen. Hillary Clinton of stoking anger in \r\nFlorida and Michigan over the Democratic Party's decision not to \r\nrecognize the states' primary <br>","article_content":"<img title=\"Image: http:\/\/www.myvivvo.com\/thumbnail.php?file=art.obamaplane.ap_115644714.jpg&amp;size=article_medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myvivvo.com\/thumbnail.php?file=art.obamaplane.ap_115644714.jpg&amp;size=article_medium\" alt=\"Obama Florida Michigan are Clintons last slender hope\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n                                \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Sen. Barack Obama accused Sen. Hillary Clinton of stoking \r\nanger in Florida and Michigan over the Democratic Party's decision not \r\nto recognize the states' primary votes.<br><br>\"They weren't stirring it\r\n up when they didn't need the delegates,\" he said. \"Let's not sort of \r\npretend that we don't know what's going on. This is, from their \r\nperspective, their last slender hope to make arguments about how they \r\ncan win.<br><br>Obama, speaking to reporters on his campaign plane late \r\nSaturday, also took on Sen. John McCain's suggestion that Obama's lack \r\nof military service makes him unqualified to criticize him on veterans \r\nissues.<br><br>\"I will cede to no one the ability to talk about veterans\r\n issues,\" Obama said. \"My grandfather was a veteran. Those veterans \r\nbenefits helped my grandparents to raise my mother. I have veterans \r\nthroughout the state of Illinois that I've been fighting for since I \r\ncame into the United States Senate.\"<br><br>Obama returned to his home \r\nbase of Chicago, Illinois, Saturday night after a campaign swing through\r\n in Puerto Rico, which holds its primary June 1, and spending three days\r\n in Florida.<br><br>Obama said he wants a resolution of the controversy \r\nover the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations so that they \r\n\"feel that they've been treated fairly and they're seated.\"<br><br>\"I want to be looking at them when I'm standing on the stage in Denver in August,\" Obama said.<br><br>He said the \"anger will go away once it's resolved\" and it will not be a deciding factor in the November general election.<br><br>\"I\r\n think the Democrats are going to be focused on who's going to stop the \r\nwar, who's going to be making Supreme Court appointments, who's going to\r\n have a serious energy policy, who's going to bring good jobs and good \r\nwages, who's going to continue the Bush tax cuts and who's going to give\r\n a middle class tax cut,\" Obama said.<br><br>\"The notion that the folks \r\nin Florida, who are trying to struggle with $4 gas and not being able to\r\n get property insurance for their house during hurricane season, are \r\ngoing to be making a decision based on a political tempest that occurred\r\n during a primary, I don't see it,\" he said.<br><br>Obama said he \r\npredicted a \"substantive debate\" with McCain during the general election\r\n over veterans issues, especially if McCain continues to oppose the \r\nexpansion of the GI Bill.<br><br>\"John McCain will have to decide \r\nwhether he thinks that the current level of benefits or the current \r\nperformance of the VA is sufficient,\" Obama said.<br><br>After Obama \r\ntook to the Senate floor last Thursday to criticize McCain's opposition \r\nto legislation, which passed by a 75-22 vote margin, McCain quickly \r\nresponded that Obama was taking \"cheap shots\" on an issue that \"he has \r\nless than zero understanding of.\"<br><br>\"I will not accept from Sen. \r\nObama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country \r\nin uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did,\" McCain said in\r\n a written statement.<br><br>Asked to respond Saturday, Obama said \"the \r\nnotion that somehow I can't speak out on behalf of veterans because of \r\nthe fact that I didn't serve makes no sense whatsoever.\"<br><br>Obama \r\nsaid that he, and many others his age, did not serve in the military \r\nbecause the Vietnam War -- and the draft -- ended before he was of draft\r\n age.<br><br>\"Obviously, I revere our soldiers and want to make sure \r\nthey are treated with honor and respect,\" he said. \"I think the GI Bill \r\nis one way to do that. I hope that John McCain and George Bush decide \r\nthey believe the same thing.\"<br><br>The updated version of the GI Bill,\r\n which has now passed the Senate and House, proposes to essentially \r\nprovide a full scholarship to in-state public universities for members \r\nof the military who have served for at least three years.<br><br>McCain \r\nsupports enacting legislation to expand education benefits for veterans,\r\n but he, as well as President Bush and much of the military brass, \r\noppose this specific measure because they worry it will deplete \r\nretention rates among those currently serving in the military at a time \r\nwhen recruitment efforts are already struggling.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><br>","created_by":null,"created":null,"modified_by":null,"modified":null}