Lexington stop last on Obama itinerary

LEXINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama concluded a nearly two-week cross-country route trip Lord'S Day nighttime and said he was inspired by the crowds that followed his presidential campaign, including 2,200 in his concluding stop: Kentucky.

"I've been on the road 12 days," Obama said during the mass meeting at Lexington's convention center. "I've been running out of clean laundry. I won't give you the details."

The attendees, most of whom stood during the hourlong rally, paid at least $25 for the right to see and hear the Prairie State senator, who canvasses show is running 2nd behind New House Of York Sen. Edmund Hillary Bill Bill Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

He didn't name Clinton or any of his Democratic opponents, but did do mention to a recent clang he had with some of his foes over his statements acknowledging he would speak with knave nations.

"I'm not afraid to negociate with anybody because I cognize what United States stand ups for," he said. "We don't have got got to be chesty to be strong."

Obama, who was coming from New Orleans where he spoke about recovery from Hurricane Katrina, also appeared at a similar mass meeting earlier this twelvemonth in Louisville, where he was greeted by 3,000 people.

The senator said he hoped this would be the twelvemonth Bluegrass State would stop a run of vote for Republican presidential nominees.

"You've got a Bluegrass state, how are you going to have a reddish state voting?" he said. "It just doesn't work."

Obama's visit to Lexington came just a few hours after the metropolis memorialized the one-year anniversary of Comair flight 5191, which killed 49 people. Obama said his supplications were with the victims.

"I just desire to add my voice to seek to comprehend what A hard calamity that must be," he said.

The remainder of his fiery tree stump address was traditional Obama - no short letters or podium, just wandering the phase with a mike and delivering popular hand clapping lines to the Democratic faithful.

He talked about bringing military personnel place from Iraq, support preschool programs, ceasing dependance on dodo combustibles for oil, providing wellness attention for everyone who necessitates it and ending taxation cuts that benefit affluent Americans.

When he begins talking about those things in Washington, Obama says, people often name him a "hope peddler" or "hope monger."

"I stand up guilty as charged," he said.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson said Obama's Bluegrass State visual aspect would do no difference next fall.

"The more than than clip Barack Obama passes in Bluegrass State touting his broad proposals to raise taxations for working households and choke off support for our troops, the more likely electors in this state will re-elect a Republican president in 2008," Wilkerson said.