BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book details Obama's presidential platform. The platform is organized by Obama's campaign, with a personal foreword by Barack Obama. The book includes seven of Obama's key speeches, which we excerpt below. They are:

We'll use this opportunity to analyze the McCain-Obama race. McCain comes into the election with three strikes against him:

With three strikes against him -- and BIG strikes -- McCain has his work cut out for him. McCain's slide in the polls reflects that challenge. All Obama has to do is carry on looking presidential, without any serious gaffes, and the election is his.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, Oct. 2008

Click here for 41 full quotes from Barack Obama in the book Change We Can Believe In, by Barack Obama. OR click on an issue category below for a subset.

Budget & Economy    Clinton left behind a surplus; Bush squandered it.

Civil Rights    Legalized discrimination meant blacks could not amass wealth.

Crime    Reformed death penalty by listening & compromising.    We need more cops; but we also need more families.

Education    To compete, students need at least H.S. & college degree.    We need real commitment to education; instead we got NCLB.    $10 billion to guarantee early childhood education for all.    Pay for college education for those who commit to teaching.

Energy & Oil    Harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol.    $150B over 10 years to establish a green energy sector.    All nations must act to reduce carbon emissions.

Families & Children    Admit that too many fathers are missing from too many homes.    I know what it means to have an absent father.    Reward fathers who pay child support with larger EITC.

Foreign Policy    In Berlin: proud citizen of US; fellow citizen of the world.    Dangers of intertwined world can’t be contained in borders.    Cooperation among nations is not a choice; it’s the only way.    In Cold War, we won hearts & minds; now do same to world.

Free Trade    Impossible to turn back globalization; we’d be worse off.    Don’t let trade policy be dictated by special interests.    Global trade is unsustainable if it favors only the few.

Government Reform    Use technology to shine a light on spending.

Health Care    Universal health care by of first term.

Homeland Security    Wrote law to secure & destroy world’s deadliest weapons.    $4,000 tuition tax credit in exchange for community service.    Seek the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.

Principles & Values    Moved to Illinois as community organizer, for $13,000 a year.    I’ve been in DC long enough to know that it must change.    End politics of division; make it about addition.    Hope is the bedrock of this nation.    We are choosing hope over fear.    In no other country is my story even possible.    This candidacy is not just an exercise in affirmative action.    We’ve never really worked through complexities of race.    Working together we can move beyond some old racial wounds.    This union may never be perfect, but can always be perfected.

Tax Reform    Middle class tax cut helps offset rising cost of gas & food.

Technology    Broadband in heart of inner cities and rural towns.    Double basic research funding; make the R&D tax permanent.    National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank: $60B in 10 years.

Welfare & Poverty    Welfare policies contributed to erosion of black families.

Click for quotations from other sources by:
• Barack Obama