Democratic National Committee chairman appears at UMF, touts Obama's candidacy

BY BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON -- Howard Dean on Wednesday spoke to a standing-room-only room of college students and community members, saying they were living in an extraordinary time where they have a opportunity to change the course of history.
"This is a great country and a great people. What we lack is a president who is as great as the American people," Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee who was in town to rally support for presidential candidate Barack Obama, told nearly 300 students at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Dean made his appearance with Tom Allen, who is running in a tight race for the Senate against Susan Collins.


In a speech that stressed unity and not division, Dean said Obama has the ability to heal America and to be president for all Americans, not just those who agree with him.

"You are the first multicultural generation in our history. You see yourselves as culturally inclusive. You are on the right track of rebuilding this extraordinary nation," he told the crowd that frequently interrupted his speech with standing ovations.

He said as a nation and a society, "If we hold out to other countries the values of the founders of this country -- freedom, opportunity, hope, human dignity and human rights -- if we say we stand for that, we have to start here at home."

Everyone's vote is critical, he said, reminding students that Thursday is the day they can vote early and that vans will be available at the student center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to bring voters to the Farmington Town Office.

He warned of complacency, and recalled the 1960 presidential race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. He said this generation is ready for change, just as young people were back then.

"Nixon represented the past and Kennedy represented the future, just as Barack Obama does," he said.

"The single message I get from talking to people of your generation is, 'Would you please stop fighting about things you can't agree on and get something done about things you can agree on,'" Dean said to thunderous applause.

Dean also touched on Obama's platform on ending the $10 billion-a-month war in Iraq and using that money at home; tax cuts that would help 95 percent of Americans; and a health-care program that would cover everyone.

He mocked John McCain and Sarah Palin's attempt to characterize Obama's ideas as socialism and his health-care plan as socialized medicine.

"That is Medicare. This country passed Medicare in 1964 without a single Republican vote, and if people over 65 can have health insurance, then people under 65 should have health insurance," he said.

In an interview, Dean said the negative campaigning the Republican party is conducting in Maine and across the country by calling Obama someone that can't be trusted is only hurting McCain.

"I think people in Maine are offended that a candidate who wants to be elected is resorting to robo-calls and negative campaigning. People don't like that. I don't think it is hurting Obama because people don't believe them," Dean said.

Student Kristen Day, 19, of Augusta, said after the rally that she supports Obama because of his health-care plan and tax cuts that will help her and her single mother.

"I am ready for a change. As a country, this needs to happen," she said. "I want to be able to tell my kids that I lived through this time when we really made a difference."

Jeffrey Thompson, an English professor at UMF, said he supports Obama because of his thoughtfulness, his intelligence and the fact he represents this country's diversity and the next generation.

As for negative Republican ads, "When you start calling someone a terrorist or socialist, that's not right. They are bringing the campaign down to a level that doesn't speak well for the office."

About a dozen members of the UMF College Republicans sat together on one side of Lincoln Auditorium and markedly sat silently while those around them applauded during Dean's and Allen's speeches.


Angela Courchesney, 21, who is running as a Republican for the House District 87 seat and is a strong McCain supporter, said she was there because it was an opportunity to hear the Democratic side. She said she was surprised, though, that Dean would come to a small college campus.

"I guess that means Farmington is on the map," she said.