Obama SF Rally, Part II: Americans Are "Our Brother's Keeper"

Obama continues his address to a Sioux Falls Arena audience KELO estimates at 5,100:

Health care: Obama repeats his vow to pass some form of universal health care by the end of his first term. Save each family $2500, make the Congressional plan available to everyone, get rid of exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and focus on prevention -- "we don't need disease care; we need health care."

Energy: Obama says wind, solar, and biofuels aren't just about clean energy; they're about more jobs -- five million new jobs, he says, just waiting for us to change our energy focus.

Education: I'm still not hearing the call that Clinton made to repeal No Child Left Behind, but I am at least hearing Obama say he wants teachers teaching art and music and civics and not just teaching to a single standardized high-stakes test. Obama also promises to make college affordable, but this is no handout: he says young people can expect to work for that assistance, to do some form of community service.

Foreign policy: Obama notes Bush's suggestion at Israel's Knesset that some in America want to appease the enemy. Appeasement? Bush, says Obama, is the one who hasn't caught bin Laden. Bush is the one who got distracted with the war in Iraq.

Obama says we can lead the world in tracking down terrorists, but he asks us to imagine the positive effect on America's image by trying to lead in locking down loose nuclear weapons, lead in fighting poverty, and bring an end to the genocide in Darfur. Obama also vows to close Guantanamo and restore habeas corpus because we believe in civil liberties in America. There's a message for the rest of the world about what America is about.

Indian country: Obama says even a people with the richest culture may be stuck in despair and poverty when they have spent so many years seeing betrayal and broken promises.

Obama notes the election is not about making government bigger or waiting for the government to solve everything. Putting more money in education is great, but parents need to "put away the video game and the television set" and make sure kids are learning. We can create public service programs, but young people have step up. "We have to get back to the notion that I am my brother's keeper and my sister's keeper."

Obama says if the other side wants to make this election about him personally, he'll take them on. Obama's grandfather served under Patton in Word War II, marched across Europe; his grandmother worked on the homefront on a bomber assembly line. Grandfather got GI Bill education; they got government loans to help build their first house. Mom had to go on food stamps to get by. Wife Michelle's dad had multiple sclerosis but was still able to work for the city, provide for a family of four kids on that single income and send the kids to college. Obama says his biography is about the patriotism we all know and live, about the hope and opportunity America is about.