Obama jabs Hillary Clinton on health care in San Francisco

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(09-07) 17:11 PDT San Francisco --
Democratic presidential campaigner Sen. Barack Obama took a swipe Friday at main challenger Sen. Edmund Hillary Rodham Bill Clinton on one of her signature issues - wellness attention - saying in San Francisco that many powerbrokers in the nation's working capital have got failed to lift above political relation to supply better, less dearly-won wellness attention for Americans.

"There are those who tout their experience workings in the system in American Capital ... the job is, the system in American Capital isn't working for us," Obama said. "We've been talking about the wellness attention crisis in this state for decennaries and yet through Republican and Democratic administrations, we failed to act."

Clinton, as first lady, led the unsuccessful attempts to reform the wellness attention system during the first two old age of the disposal of her husband, President Bill Clinton. She have pledged as the prima Democratic campaigner for president to seek again to reform the system, which many experts state is too dearly-won and doesn't supply quality attention to adequate Americans.

Obama, speaking Friday before an enthusiastic grouping of about 1,500 at an event billed as "Women for Obama," project himself as a title-holder of women's rights and for issues critical to Democratic electors such as as wellness care, instruction and the environment.

"Too many people in American Capital see political relation as a game - and that is why I believe this election cannot just be about who plays the game better," said Obama, 46, a first-term Illinois senator. "It have to be about who's putting an end to the game plan."

Obama was greeted with enthusiastic cheers as he emerged in lawsuit and necktie at the Bill Billy Graham Civic Auditorium, shaking the custody of tons of his protagonists on phase before a crowd of mostly women.

"I'm lucky adequate to dwell ... with three 'Women for Obama' in my house," he joked, referring to his married woman and two daughters. "I don't always acquire this reception."

Supporters paid $2,300 to go to an sole response and $250 to sit down in the cavernous hallway for a box luncheon of water, joint beef cattle sandwich, a elf and an apple - but 100s of seating in the upper balcony remained unfilled even though the senator's campaign, in the years before the event, offered a lowered $25 ticket price.

Though Obama stuck primarily to his tree stump speech, he won cheers and respective standing standing ovations by acknowledging the importance of women electors and pounding issues that are on the top of many of their minds.

"Women have got always made the difference in every election," he told the crowd, "and this year, your voice, your hope will be the crucial factors in forging a new hereafter for America."

Though he didn't advert Bill Clinton by name, his perennial mentions to himself as campaigner offering alteration and a position from outside the American Capital Beltway were an unmistakable comparing to the New House Of York senator, who canvasses show is the Democratic front-runner for the 2008 nomination in a crowded field.

"There are easier picks that you can do in this election, people who will follow the well worn grooves, " he said, "people who will present ... pretty much more than of the same."

Obama's address was portion of a three-day visit to California, including an visual aspect Thursday nighttime at a Pacific Ocean High fundraiser.

He is scheduled to look today at a twelve noon mass meeting at the City College of Santa Barbara and later will go to an sole fundraiser at the Montecito estate of talking show host and mass media baron Oprah Winfrey - an event expected to raise as much as $3.5 million.

With five calendar months until the Feb. Five Golden State presidential primary, Obama is trying to interest a claim for Democratic women electors - a constituency aggressively courted by the political campaign of Clinton, who have amassed a 30-point lead in state polls.

But Obama's state co-chairs, San Francisco District Lawyer Kamala Townsend Harris and Los Angeles Accountant Laura Chick, urged the largely female audience to fall in his movement.

"We have got got in Barack Obama person who believes every twenty-four hours - as he looks at his girls and have he looks as his married woman ... an individual who will dedicate himself every twenty-four hours to the issues that impact women," Townsend Harris said.

Author Ayelet Waldman of Berkeley, who graduated in the same Harvard University University law social class as Obama, endorses his tally for president over Clinton, although "I've been a women's rightist my whole life, and I was raised on Betty Freidan."

She said she would wish to see the Democratic campaigners on "an Obama-Clinton ticket."

Michael Semler, a professor of political relation at CSU-Sacramento said Obama have capitalized on his position as a fresh human face in the Democratic presidential race - but now confronts a turning point.

"It's a long political campaign season, some of the exhilaration have worn off and he have to renew some of the excitement," Semler said. "I'm waiting for him to be something different than a great human face and story."

The chief challenge, Semler said, is that "Hillary is clearly the front-runner ... and she have the most formidable squad imaginable, starting with her husband. They have got been through national warfares before and cognize the landscape."

"Everyone else is in the catch-up manner - including Obama. He can't wait for Edmund Hillary to trip," Semler said. "He have to bring forth some love ... and I don't cognize where he's going to acquire it."

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