Spring Break
Michelle Obama speaks to military families in NC
AP
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: News
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"When I look at the two candidates and their plans for America ... and when I think about the military families I've met across the country and the kind of help that they could use right now - not in four years or eight years but right now - then the choice is clear," the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said.
"For me it is. It's clear. There is only one candidate in this race."
Obama didn't mention GOP nominee John McCain by name during Tuesday's gathering in Jacksonville. She referenced her husband's timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq only once - but that drew a thunderous roar from the crowd of about 1,500, many who identified themselves as veterans, service members or the families of soldiers.
Camp Lejeune is the Marine Corps' main base on the East Coast, and about 15,000 of the troops based there are deployed overseas. A total of nearly 50,000 Marines are based there and at posts nearby as part of the II Marine Expeditionary Force.
Obama has mounted an aggressive campaign in North Carolina to win the state's 15 electoral votes, hiring hundreds of staffers and running a host of television ads. If he succeeds, it will be the first time since 1976 that the state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Obama said her husband's record in Washington as a senator from Illinois proves he is committed to providing service members and their families with proper care.
Her husband, she said, has a record of supporting mental health care improvements and has backed a "21st century GI bill." He also wants to ensure the spouses of reservists called to active duty get time away from work to prepare their families for the deployment, she said.
"When you take a look at the candidates' plans, they add up to two very different visions for what kind of lives our servicemen and women should return to when they finally come home," Obama said. "They're two very different visions, because when your loved ones are very far away, they shouldn't have to worry about whether they'll find a job when they get back.
"They shouldn't have to worry about whether their families are being taken care of while they're away."
She said Barack Obama's commitment to veterans issues comes from his grandfather, a World War II veteran.
"All our troops and our families should get the same opportunity that Barack's grandfather had, an affordable college education," Michelle Obama said.
In attendance was retired Jacksonville Marine Timothy Francis, 47, who said he believes Obama will keep his word to those in the armed forces.
"Republicans make a lot of promises," Francis said. "But then they don't want to pass anything like the GI Bill because they say it costs too much money. Obama's not like that."
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