Obama’s Weekend in Los Angeles

Barack Obama had a busy agenda wooing Latino voters on the West Coast over the weekend.
On Saturday he spoke to about 200 students, teachers and other supporters at a town-hall tyle meeting held Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the school portrayed in the movie “Stand and Deliver.”
Obama criticized California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for vetoing a bill last year that would make illegal immigrant students who graduate from high school eligible for aid for college. A similar bill, known as the Dream Act, is pending again this year.
If elected, Obama promised increased funding for schools and early childhood education. “It’s time to stand up deliver for America’s urban poor,” he said, in reference to the film, that starred Edward James Olmos as a math teacher who succeeded in teaching calculus to a group of poor Hispanic students.
As president, his first act would be to call a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and tell them to “get our troops out of Iraq,” he said.
Obama also made a whistle stop in Nevada, where Federico Peña, former energy and transportation secretary under President Clinton, launched Nevada Latinos for Obama.
The grassroots movement is aiming to muster up support for the senator for the Jan. 18 caucus.
“With Obama, the Latino community sees someone committed to providing real solutions to improve our education system, comprehensively reform our immigrations laws and respond to the community’s health care needs,” Peña said.
- Christina Hoag

Obama

Tags: Barack Obama, California