Loose Transcript of Barack Obama's Speech in Lancaster County on March 31, 2008

Q:
Woman: Why did you vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act? It’s the worst Act in America?

A:
It’s not actually true that the Patriot Act was the worst act in America. Most problems were done by executive order by George W. Bush. First thing I will do is call in my Attorney Gen. to review each of the orders and find out which undermine civil liberties, and I will reverse them with the stroke of a pen. The suspension of habeas corpus, the Guantanamo Bay detainees, that was all done separately from the Patriot Act. The first one I wasn’t’ there for. The second one, I worked with Russ Feingold to try and amend it to repeal some of its excesses. There were some things in the Patriot Act that were needed. Prior to Patriot Act we couldn’t wire tap any phone that wasn’t land-based. Nobody uses land-based phones anymore. Terrorists are not using dial-up phones Together with Russ Feingold, we instituted a series of amendments that changed some of the worse excesses of law. I taught constitutional law for 10 years, so I take it very seriously. The problem is George Bush bringing more power into the executive branch and not using Congress at all. I want to fix that problem.

Q:
Man: What are your plans at the federal level to strengthen education for my son, Samuel.]

A:
The vast majority of funding and choices are happening at the local level. It has it’s strengths and its weaknesses. There is a lot of inequality between school districts. The role of the federal government is to provide financial help, and to help lift up best practices and provide a set of standards so Sam and others are able to compete in the global economy. Main emphasis of my presidency will be in three key areas. 1) Early childhood education. Reason I say that is because the biggest problem in low income and minority or rural school districts, is that a lot of kids are starting off already behind in areas like colors, letters, ABCs. They’re not used to sitting still, they’ve not been read to. It’s harder to catch up, so they stay behind and become disruptive. Every dollar we invest in early childhood education we get back in a reduced number of dropouts.

2) Teachers are the most important ingredient in our schools. We’re going to be losing over a million teachers as baby boomers start to retire. It presents a challenge and an opportunity. We need to pay them better and train them properly. I meet so many young people who are excited about teaching. But they don’t get the proper training, they land in the toughest schools, and after five years they were burned out and left the teaching profession

3) Math and Science education. We’ve fallen behind on that front. We need to recruit more math and science teachers.

4) The final thing we need to do is change No Child Left Behind. We need high standards; the problem is the way No Child Left Behind is structured. Standards are only judged by one test in the middle of a school year, so teachers are teaching to the test. All they can do is teach to the test; they have incentives to teach to the test. It makes teaching less interesting, it makes school less interesting, and I want to change that. We need a broad range of measures to determine if our students are doing well in school. One last point about education: the govt. can’t do everything. I can tell you’re a good dad, and that you’re spending time with your kids. We need every parent to parent. So unless parents are willing to turn off the TV set and turn off the video games and make sure their kids are doing their homework and meet with teachers, we’re not going to instill that sense of excellence. More money can only do so much. Change in attitude is what’s necessary.

Closing Remarks
I want to close by saying this; I want to remind you of two things: the status quos are not going to give up easily. There is always a struggle to change.

I think it’s great that Sen. Clinton’s people are as passionate about their candidate as my people are about me. We’ve seen huge vote increases all across the country because of it. I’m convinced the Democrats are going to be unified as soon as we settle in on a nominee. There’s a bigger differences between me and John McCain than between me and Hillary Clinton. John McCain wants to continue the war. He wants to continue the Bush policies and the tax increases that he once opposed.

I want to get people to pay attention. I will always emphasize transparency and accountability. Every dollar of spending will be posted on the Internet. You’ll know what’s being spent.

It’s going to take work, but positive change in previous generations took work. If it weren’t for the defeat of fascism we wouldn’t have won World War II. If it weren’t for the victory of civil rights, I wouldn’t be standing here.

I won’t promise to solve every problem. I’m not the perfect man, but I will always tell you what I think, always tell you where I stand. I’ll listen tot you when we disagree and we will dstagree sometimes. We don’t have to be disagreeable when we disagree. I will spend every day in the White House thinking about you and listening to you and acting on your behalf. I wanna fight for you. That’s why I got into politics and got into this race. We won’t just win PA, we’ll win the country.

Thank you very much, Lancaster. Thank you.

(Chants of O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!)