Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Rahul Keerthi Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of of about 5,000 people at Rhode Island College on Saturday.

Though Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., might not make a "perfect president," he will spend every day of his presidency thinking about the problems of average Americans, the candidate told a thundering crowd of thousands at the Rhode Island College Recreation Center Saturday afternoon.

Obama was in Providence to campaign before the state's primary on Tuesday, following the visit of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who attended a rally at the same venue last Sunday. About 5,000 people were allowed inside the recreational center, and several thousand attended the rally outside the center. Before entering the building, Obama briefly addressed those who couldn't enter but had waited all morning despite the cold and rainy weather.

Responding to some critics' assertions that he is running for president because of a long-held ambition, Obama said he is running because of "the fierce urgency of now" - a phrase he borrowed from Dr. Martin Luther King. "I believe in such a thing as being too late," he said of his decision to run in this presidency rather than wait until he is older.

While the crowd chanted his campaign's popular refrain, "Yes, we can," Obama emphasized that real change comes from the grassroots - not from the highest level of administration. Real change, he said, requires that divisions of race, region and religion be forgotten.

The senator delineated his position on several foreign and domestic issues. Ending the war in Iraq, fighting global warming and reforming health care and education demand immediate action, he said.

Obama criticized Clinton for voting in favor of the war and lauded former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75 for opposing it despite being a Republican. Chafee, who is currently a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, left the Republican Party this summer and endorsed Obama in early February.

Obama said he would not just end the Iraq war but would like to end the "mind-set" that led the country to war in the first place.

He explained his health care plan, saying it will provide every American with care and subsidize it for those who cannot afford it.

Continued...

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