Today Senator Obama released the following statement on the U.S. Treasury Plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Given the substantial role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in our housing system, I believe that some form of intervention is necessary to prevent a larger and deeper crisis throughout our entire economy. I will be reviewing the details of the Treasury plan and monitoring its impact to determine whether it achieves the key benchmarks I believe are necessary to address this crisis.

First, this plan must not focus on the whims of lobbyists and special interests worried about their bonuses and hourly fees, but instead on strengthening our economy and helping struggling homeowners who are also being hit by lost jobs, stagnant wages and spiraling costs of everything from gas to groceries. Second, the plan must protect taxpayers, not bail out the shareholders and management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Third, once we ride out the current crisis, the plan must move toward clarifying the true public and private status of our housing policies. In our market system, investors must not be allowed to believe that they can invest in a "heads they win, tails they don't lose" situation.

Ann of Muscatine, Iowa, is 77 years young. But she doesn’t let age get in the way of her campaign volunteer work. She’s phonebanked, held house meetings, and even was a precinct captain for Obama. “There’s a lot of young people on the campaign,” she says, “but I like working with young people!”

She’s also donated multiple times. “It’s just so easy to do on the website!” she says.

She lives in what she describes as a “very Republican town,” but assures us that the Obama presence is strong there. “The Democrats have won some local elections recently, and we’re hoping to get more Republicans and Independents on board with Obama.”

“We’re quite active here,” she says. Ann’s three grown daughters and three granddaughters have all been working with her on the campaign.

It was wonderful to work together with my granddaughters. They were nervous about volunteering at first, but pretty soon they got really into it and went right after people!

Ann, who owns a small preschool, supports Obama because “he seems to have a lot of integrity, and that’s important right now. We need new, fresh ideas.”

The issue that concerns Ann the most in the upcoming election is getting out of Iraq. “We’re all concerned about the war,” she says. “Here in Muscatine, we’ve lost some young people in Iraq, as every community has. I want our soldiers to come home.”

If we can get out of Iraq, we’ll have more money to spend on other things to help our country. And that’s something Barack Obama will help do for us.

Today is National Grandparents Day, created to honor proud grandparents like Ann. To mark the occasion, we’ve created special Obama e-cards that you can send to your grandparents to let them know just how much they mean to you, why you are involved with the Obama campaign and why their support is important to you. 

Voices for Change is a series featuring profiles of Barack Obama's grassroots supporters from across the nation. The people who make up this movement come from all different backgrounds, but they share a common goal of helping bring about fundamental change in Washington.

Ann of Muscatine, Iowa, is 77 years young. But she doesn’t let age get in the way of her campaign volunteer work. She’s phonebanked, held house meetings, and even was a precinct captain for Obama. “There’s a lot of young people on the campaign,” she says, “but I like working with young people!”

She’s also donated multiple times. “It’s just so easy to do on the website!” she says.

She lives in what she describes as a “very Republican town,” but assures us that the Obama presence is strong there. “The Democrats have won some local elections recently, and we’re hoping to get more Republicans and Independents on board with Obama.”

“We’re quite active here,” she says. Ann’s three grown daughters and three granddaughters have all been working with her on the campaign.

It was wonderful to work together with my granddaughters. They were nervous about volunteering at first, but pretty soon they got really into it and went right after people!

Ann, who owns a small preschool, supports Obama because “he seems to have a lot of integrity, and that’s important right now. We need new, fresh ideas.”

The issue that concerns Ann the most in the upcoming election is getting out of Iraq. “We’re all concerned about the war,” she says. “Here in Muscatine, we’ve lost some young people in Iraq, as every community has. I want our soldiers to come home.”

If we can get out of Iraq, we’ll have more money to spend on other things to help our country. And that’s something Barack Obama will help do for us.

Today is National Grandparents Day, created to honor proud grandparents like Ann. To mark the occasion, we’ve created special Obama e-cards that you can send to your grandparents to let them know just how much they mean to you, why you are involved with the Obama campaign and why their support is important to you. 

Voices for Change is a series featuring profiles of Barack Obama's grassroots supporters from across the nation. The people who make up this movement come from all different backgrounds, but they share a common goal of helping bring about fundamental change in Washington.

Have you joined your Obama Organizing Team yet?  There are just 57 days left and we are mobilizing supporters all across Iowa.  Making a difference in your neighborhood is the best way to help our campaign for change, and if you don’t get involved, you are going to miss out on meeting people like the Walsh’s--- their amazing story is attached below.

Our campaign is built by people just like the Walsh’s in neighborhoods across the state.   Just sign up to join your Obama Organizing team and someone from our campaign will help you get looped into the work being done near you!

A striking lawn display

Bellevue couple's decorating rolls into politics

BELLEVUE, Iowa -- How can you tell when the presidential campaign is in full swing? When preferential campaign signs start popping up everywhere -- on bumpers and windows, on lapels and banners and, of course, on bowling balls.

Yep, a Bellevue couple trumpets its support for Barack Obama with the presidential candidate's name emblazoned on a bowling ball in their front yard. Actually, because Jerry and Gayle Walsh are both Irish, they've taken some liberties with the Democrat's name, spelling it "O'Bama."

"We're voting for the Irishman," said Gayle, 64, laughing. The couple owned an Irish pub in Chicago before retiring to Bellevue.

The Obama ball is the latest addition to the Walshes' garden, which sports dozens of colorful standard bowling balls alongside lawn bowling balls and whimsical objects such as statuary, farm machinery parts, heat register grates and other rusted metal paraphernalia. The two frequent flea markets, garage sales and auctions to find unusual and peculiar accoutrements to surround their house on Second Street.

…

Both Jerry and Gayle tend their garden, he in one of the 200 or so Hawaiian shirts he wears everywhere.

The Walshes also take their politics to the streets. They wear Obama pins to start polite political discussions and have yard signs showing their support for the Democratic candidate. Jerry, 70, knows exactly the number of days until the end of the current administration, when they hope Obama will take over, although they predict a very close election.

Gayle might create another political bowling ball, to sit on a pedestal a bit lower than O'Bama's.

It would say, "O'Biden."

From the Associated Press:

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama said Saturday they will put aside partisan politics for a joint appearance at Ground Zero to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, in a statement, said they will appear together at the World Trade Center site on Thursday "to honor the memory of each and every American who died" in the 2001 attacks.

The campaigns already had agreed to suspend television advertising critical of each other on Sept. 11.

... "All of us came together on 9/11 - not as Democrats or Republicans - but as Americans," they said. "We were united as one American family. On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity."

From the Wall Street Journal:

Presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama offered very different visions for solving Social Security's financial problems Saturday in separate appearances before AARP, a Washington lobby that advocates for older Americans.

... Sen. McCain has vacillated when describing his position. At times he has declared forthright that he will not raise taxes, period. Other times he has said that everything would be on the table in a bipartisan negotiation.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said today in a statement: "McCain prefers an 'everything is on the table' approach to urging a saving Social Security compromise."

Sen. Obama has been much more forthright about how he would bring the program into balance. He says he'll raise taxes of those earning over $250,000 a year.

... "I'll work with members of Congress from both parties to ask people making more than $250,000 a year to contribute a little bit more to keep the system sound," Sen. Obama said. "It's a change that would start a decade or more from now, and it won't burden middle-class families. In fact, 99% of Americans will see absolutely no change in their taxes -- 99%."

From Bloomberg:

Obama and McCain addressed the AARP's annual ``Life@50+'' conference separately, both by satellite.

... Obama criticized McCain's proposal to create personal accounts, which would allow workers to divert a portion of their Social Security payroll tax to privately held accounts. That approach is similar to a plan President George W. Bush touted in 2005, which Congress refused to enact.

..."Privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George Bush proposed it, and it's a bad idea today," Obama said.

"It would take the one rock-solid, guaranteed part of your retirement income and gamble it on the stock market," the Illinois senator said. "That's why I stood with AARP against this plan in the Senate, and that's why I won't stand for it as president."

Obama said under the current approach, "most middle-class families pay this tax on every dime they make, while millionaires and billionaires only pay it on a very small percentage of their income." Hence, he said, he would lift the ceiling in about "a decade or more from now."

From the Los Angeles Times:

Obama, speaking in a pole barn where youngsters usually show off their livestock, offered a sharp critique of McCain's widely viewed convention speech, acidly noting that some of the Arizona senator's top advisors were lobbyists until they went to work for his presidential campaign.

"Suddenly he's the change agent," Obama said. "He says, 'I'm going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.' Who's he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who's one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign, who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Who? Who is it that he's going to tell that change is coming? I mean come on. They must think you're stupid."

... "This is coming from the party that's been in charge for eight years. They've been running the show," Obama told some 800 supporters here at the Wabash Valley fairgrounds.

"I guess maybe what they're saying is, 'Watch out, George Bush. Except for economic policies, and tax policies, and energy policies, and healthcare policies, and education policies, and Karl Rove-style politics, except for all that, we're really going to bring change to Washington. We're going to shake things up.' "

From the Terre Haute Tribune-Star:

The race for president will be close in Indiana, and Democrat Barack Obama made an appeal to his supporters at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds to get involved.

"We can use volunteers," he said. "Sign up today, and we'll put you to work."

After the event, his campaign supporters signed up new volunteers to canvass neighborhoods or make telephone calls.

"We are taking Indiana very seriously," Lauren Kelly told the crowd before Obama spoke. She is a field organizer working out of Obama's Terre Haute campaign headquarters.

Some volunteers left the event and immediately went to neighborhoods to spread the word about their candidate.

...Jonathan Swain, Obama's Indiana campaign spokesman, said the election is down to the final two months, and there will be a big push to make sure people are registered to vote and understand how to register.

Also, volunteers will be canvassing and doing telephone banks to spread the word about Obama and his agenda for change.

This coming week, a group called Women United for Change will be doing phone banks around the state and calling 100,000 undecided voters to talk about Obama.

... "It is going to be a close election here in Indiana. It is tight," Obama told the crowd of more than 900.

Historically, Indiana tends to vote Republican in presidential elections. The closeness of this year's race "shows this is a change election," Obama said. "Remember what's at stake."

Barack and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh on the campaign trail . . .

Polls open in 58 days.

Today, Las Vegas residents united to discuss women's issues and get out the vote in our neighborhoods. Tomorrow we'll be hosting a Women's Tour Canvass Kickoff in Reno.

To start the day, Las Vegas Congresswoman Shelley Berkley fired up a gathering of at least 70 women at a roundtable talk featuring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9) and actress Nancy Lee Grahn.

Rep. Berkley discussed the issues with which Senator Obama disagrees with McCain, from equal pay for equal work, to a woman’s right to choose, to his recent choice of Sarah Palin to be his Vice President. Berkley had the room clapping and cheering when she proclaimed that she had nothing in common with Palin except that “She’s from Alaska and likes to shoot moose. I’m from Las Vegas and I like to shoot craps.”

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Tomorrow is national Grandparents Day. To mark the occasion, we’ve created special e-cards that you can send to your grandparents to let them know just how much they mean to you.

You can choose one of three card designs to show your grandparents why you are involved with the Obama campaign and why their support is important to you. You can add your own personal message, and your card will be automatically delivered on Sunday, September 7th. 

It only takes a minute to choose and personalize a card.

Barack's grandparents played an important role in shaping the person he is today. They instilled in him their small-town Midwestern values, and a belief that with hard work, you should have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream and make a better world for future generations. And that's what our campaign is all about.

So tonight, take a few minutes and send an e-card to your grandparents or older friends, and share Barack’s story and why you’re supporting him.