This is how the candidates spent their day yesterday. Obama worked with four families that are facing very difficult times and presented his policies on the economy, health care, job creation, and education. He spent 30 minutes talking about the change we need to make to ensure a brighter future.

Obama listened to these families’ fears and worries; about how one had to put off an operation because they really couldn’t afford it. He talked about his tax cuts for 95% of American Families. How companies have an obligation to their workers when they make promises about pension programs. That law should be enacted to prevent companies from reneging on these promises, so that people can retire with dignity. To receive what they have worked their entire life for.

His well thought out policies, whether you agree or disagree with them, puts the average American first, not big corporations. His campaign is about the big issues facing each of us everyday – not once did we hear McCain, Palin or Republicans.

“There is not a Liberal America, there is not a Conservative America, there is only the United States of America.” This is one of his most powerful quotes during his program while he made his case to all of us. He means it when he says he is his brother’s keeper. Obama has pledged to always listen even if he disagrees and admits he will not be a perfect President. No matter what you believe in, I think most people value honesty, which seems to be in short supply lately.

Now to show you a contrast, how did John McCain and Sarah Palin spend their day yesterday.

John McCain slammed The Los Angeles Times Wednesday for refusing to release a videotape that the newspaper’s editors say shows Barack Obama praising a Chicago professor who served as a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was a U.S.-designated terror group. Speaking to two Florida radio stations, the Republican presidential candidate suggested a double standard in reporting by the newspaper and said if he were hanging out with neo-Nazis he’d bet the tape would be made public. The Times says it is standing by its promise not to show the tape, which it got from an anonymous source. The newspaper also has not provided a transcript of the 2003 farewell party for University of Chicago professor Rashid Khalidi. Among others in attendance at the soiree were former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. “Apparently this is a tape with a dinner that Mr. Ayers … was at, and also … one of the leading spokespersons for the PLO. Now, why that should not be made public is beyond me,” McCain told La Kalle radio. “I guarantee you, if there was a tape with me and Sarah Palin and some neo-Nazi or one of those, you think that that tape wouldn’t be made public? Of course, Americans need to know, particularly about Ayers, and also about the PLO. So hopefully there will be enough pressure on the L.A. Times that it’ll come out, but its really unfortunate that we have to go through this,” McCain continued. Palin too lambasted the newspaper for its inaction. “If there’s a Pulitzer Prize category for excelling in cow-towing, then the LA Times, you’re winning,” she said.

That is a big difference, one is working on the problems and difficulties facing America and the other is worried about a tape being released. It boils down to, one of them wasted an entire day trying to smear the other candidate. Now which one is actually concerned about you? Which one is listening to your concerns and fears?

My parting thought is one of Obama’s quotes:

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

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