Obama just picked up a major Iowa endorsement:
Via Mark Halperin (who annoys the hell out of me):
UAW Region 4 Delegates Throw Support to Obama’s Campaign for President
DUBUQUE - Delegates of United Auto Workers Region 4, which includes 30,000 members and retirees in Iowa, voted today to support Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The group announced its overwhelming support at the close of a weeklong conference where seven of the major Democratic presidential candidates addressed the group earlier this week.
"There are many talented Democrats in the presidential field this year, but Barack Obama is the leader who will bring the kind of change to Washington that America’s working men and women can believe in," said UAW Local 442 (Webster City, IA) President Paul Erickson. "For the last two decades, working families have been able to count on Barack Obama to stand up for us and our values. We are supporting him, because we know he’ll do the same thing in the White House."
More after the jump...
During his speech to the group on Tuesday, Obama asked for the group’s support and vowed to change the divisive, partisan politics in Washington that have blocked progress on the issues that working people care about the most.
"Politics didn’t lead me to working folks - working folks led me into politics," Obama said. "As President, I’ll stand up to the special interests and bridge the partisan divide, so that we can have universal health care in America, invest in our students and schools and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I thank the men and women of UAW Region 4 for their strong support for our campaign to change Washington."
UAW members said Obama’s ability to unite the country makes him the strongest candidate in the Democratic field and vowed to use the group’s widely respected organizational muscle to help him do well in the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
"Senator Obama’s ability to win the support of Republicans and Independents won’t just make him the strongest Democrat in the general election - it’ll make him the kind of President who can actually get things done for working Americans," said Iowa UAW retiree Andy Anderson. "This endorsement is not about lending our name to his campaign. We’re committed to his campaign and are committed to doing the kind of hard work at the grassroots level that’ll be critical to his success on Caucus Night."
Region 4 represents 64,000 active and 122,000 retirees in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Nice boost leading up to tonight's debate...
UPDATE: via Adam B:
Barack's speech to the UAW is here. Two excerpts:
We're ready to take the offense for organized labor. It's time we had a President who didn't choke saying the word "union." We need to strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best - organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. It's that simple. We need to stand up to the business lobby that's been getting their friends in Congress and in the White House to block card check. That's why I was one of the leaders fighting to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. That's why I'm fighting for it in the Senate. And that's why we'll make it the law of the land when I'm President.
There are few more important unions in this country than the UAW. You created the auto industry. You secured good-paying jobs for generations of workers. And you built the American middle class - the backbone of our economy. So I know someone once said what's good for GM is good for America. But it's time we also recognized that what's good for the UAW is good for America.
We need to help you compete with workers around the world by helping the auto industry compete with car companies all over the world. Yes, that means raising our fuel standards so we can make the fuel-efficient cars that are the future of your industry. But it also means giving you the help you need to retool your plants so we can build these cars right here in America. And if we can do that, we'll create thousands and thousands of jobs in the process.
But if we're serious about helping you compete abroad, we need to stand up for you here at home. That's why I called Mike Sheridan with Local 95 in Wisconsin the day they decided to strike GM, and gave him my support. And I made the same call to Dan Kirk with Local 72 when Chrysler workers went on strike. And Larry Sharpe and his members in Local 6 from my home state of Illinois can't be here today because they're striking International Truck and Engine, but Larry knows he has my support. Because when you hit the picket lines - whether it's with GM or Chrysler or anybody else - you aren't just fighting for your own rights, you're fighting for the rights of every American worker
Now, I know we've got a lot of good candidates in this race, and I know they're saying the right things when they come and talk to you. But politicians often say they're pro-labor at election time no matter what they've said or done before. And that leaves you wondering what they will say or do after the election. So when a candidate rails against NAFTA today, it's fair to ask her where she's been before. When a candidate says he opposes right-to-work laws or trade rules that hurt workers today, ask him where he's been before. Because what you need, what America needs, is a President who will fight for you when it's hard, and not just when it's politically convenient.
And that's exactly what I intend to do. Because politics didn't lead me to working folks - working folks led me into politics. I was standing with American workers on the streets of Chicago twenty years ago, and the reason I'm here today is because I don't want to wake up one day many years from now and see that we're still standing by while American jobs get shipped overseas.
So I'm not just here to give a speech. I don't like just talking about the problems we face in this country. I want to solve them. So I'm here to ask for your support, Region 4. I'm here to ask you to believe not just in me, but in your own sense of possibility, your own imagination about what America might be.