We are happy warrriors for change.
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
LEBANON, N.H. -- In high spirits, Obama told a crowd of about 800 people, after speaking to an overflow crowd outside of another several hundred who couldn't enter the event, that the key to taking on the special interests was to know your own principles, be agreeable and be able to reach across the aisle.
"And if you have a working majority and then American people are behind you then you can fear no man,” he told the crowd. “You can walk into a room with a sunny disposition. You can smile and say yes sir and no sir, and yes ma'am and no ma'am and if they don't agree with you got the votes and you can beat them and you can do it with a smile on your face.”
More: "That's how we're going to win an election, and that we'll bring change to this county that's what we can accomplish one day at a time. We are happy warriors for change. We are cheerful about the prospects of taking over. The American people taking over their government, what a radical proposition."
Obama also went after the charge that he his call for change was all style and no substance.
"The change we are talking about is not vague and amorphous,” he said. “People keep on saying what does he mean by change. If you want to go on my Web site and read the 25 page health care plan I have on which says everyone can have healthcare they can rely on and that twe are going to lower premiums and we are going to have higher qualities.”
Obama reamed out a list of his policy proposals before telling the crowd, "We have been crystal clear about the changes we want to bring about. And you know that we can make this happen if we follow through. If we don't make this a flash in the pan."
That call to make sure his victory in Iowa was not just a "flash in the pan" was the focus of much of his stump today and over the past few days, trying to hammer home the idea that his push for change was real.
The high levels of turnout in Iowa were proof of that Obama could deliver on his promise of delivering on the change he has promised.
"We are on the cusp of creating a new majority in American politics. A new majority that will not just win a nomination that will not just win a general election but more importantly will allow us to govern," he said.
He cautioned the overflow crowd outside his event that just winning wasn't enough to create the change that they sought.
"I am riding this wave -- you're the wave and I'm riding it,” Obama said, “and so don't think somehow that because I win in Iowa or I win in New Hampshire we've solved our problems- we haven't, we've just started and what's going to be required is that we cobble together a working majority of people who may not agree on everything, but agree on some things.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/07/557079.aspx