Opinion: Barack Obama rides a choo-choo train to talk about change

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

WYNNEWOOD, Pa. -- As he travels by train across southeast Pennsylvania today, Sen. Barack Obama is lobbing a few shots from along the rails at his opponents.

‘You asked me about Sen. Clinton,’ Obama said, seeking to answer a question that actually no one present had asked. ‘She is a fine senator from the state of New York...She and I will be working together to defeat John McCain.’

But then he suggested there is a significant difference between the two Democrats vying to take on McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. ‘You do have a choice in this primary,’ he said, before charging that Clinton would represent a continuation of providing clout to ‘say-anything-do-anything special interests.’

Obama claimed that Clinton would be more controlled by those special interests because she has been more willing to take their money.

‘She’s taken different positions at different times on....

issues as fundamental as trade, or even the war, to suit the politics of the moment,’ he said. ‘In the last few months, she’s launched the kitchen sink strategy: throwing everything at me and seeing if something sticks.’

Obama, who doesn’t have much Washington experience, said he does not think Washington experience is very helpful for the presidency.

‘I am in this race not to play the game better. I am in this race to put an end to the game playing,’ he said. ‘I’m not in this race to fit in to Washington. I am in this race to change Washington.’

Obama also took his shots at the media, charging that the campaign has been too dominated by ‘fake’ controversies and distractions. ‘That may make for good headlines. That may make for good television,’ he said. ‘But it doesn’t make for good government.’

Obama cited coverage and commentary about what might or might not be on his suit lapel. ‘I’m not interested in having debates about flag pins,’ he said, even though it was Obama last October who described the removal of his flag lapel pin as a statement against false patriotism surrounding the Iraq war and then he restored the pin for a day last week and removed it again for the last TV debate.

‘I’m interested in having a debate about how I’m going to put people back to work, and how I’m going to make sure our kids can go to college and how we’re going to bring our troops home from Iraq.’

This morning, as he boarded the 1930 antique ‘Georgia 300’ lounge car, the freshman Illinois Democrat asked whether he could pull a cable to blow the locomotive’s whistle. ‘Am I allowed?’ he politely asked.

The whistle responded loudly to his tugs. ‘That is too much fun,’ Obama said.

The day’s 100-mile ‘whistle stop’ tour, dubbed ‘On Track for Change,’ will end with a rally at the state Capitol in Harrisburg this evening. Along the way, he’s making several stops, including ‘visibility slow rolls’ to greet voters and allow for better photos by local papers and television stations.

Obama’s car for the day includes a galley, meeting table, staff seating area and a twin bed, complete with a pink ‘Pullman’ bedspread.

With the media for a change traveling in front of Obama, his car is at the back of the train, complete with red, white and blue bunting and a custom-made, lit campaign logo on the very back. Obama is traveling with his Pennsylvania pal Sen. Bob Casey, as well as Paul Tewes, his state director who also led Obama’s winning Iowa caucus campaign.

-- John McCormick

John McCormick writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau.