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Obama Delivers Heavily Populist Message

Posted Sep 24, 2008 by William March

Updated Sep 24, 2008 at 01:33 PM

After a delay getting started—he didn’t start speaking until 1:40 p.m.—Barack Obama just completed a half-hour speech with a strong populist tone to a crowd of 11,000 at Dunedin’s Knology Park.

Referring to both the Bush administration and his opponent John McCain as following a “trickle-down” economic philosophy, Obama told the crowd, “We have had it for eight years, it has run the economy into the ground, and I am running for president because it is tme to put the dreams of the American people back on track.”

“The American people have to rise up and overcome those special interests,” Obama said. “At this defining moment, we finally have the chance to stand up and say, enough is enough.”

Obama sought to portray McCain as having adopted a populist tone himself only in the last week since news of Wall Street’s most recent economic failures broke.

“The John McCain you’ve heard from over the last few days is a lot different from the John Mccain who’s been in Washington the last 26 years,” he said. “He’s been against the commonsense rules and regulations that would have stopped this.”

Campaign adies cited the Dunedin Fire Marshall’s Office as the source of the crowd figure of 11,000. County officials issued an advisory an hour before Obama started speaking, saying no more citizens should come to the rally because those already in line would fill the available space.