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Well, while John McCain was busy floundering about today on a campaign trail, Barack Obama again stepped up to a plate & delivered a clear & detailed economic plan that we can quibble over, but surely demonstrates his comm& of a problem & his leadership. In distinct contrast to his competition.

No wonder Chris Hitchens endorsed Obama today. & Dennis Hopper is praying for Obama to win. & no wonder Obama’s opened up a 10-point lead & McCain’s favorability ratings are in a toiled.

My favorite part of this clip, though, is Obama’s deft retort to a recent ugly tone of a campaign in a opening moments: When he mentions McCain & boos break out, Obama says: “No, we don’t need that.” a boos stop. He an adds: “We just need to vote, that’s what we need to do.”

Full transcript below a fold:

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama–as prepared for delivery

“A Rescue Plan for a Middle-Class”

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Toledo, Ohio

We meet at a moment of great uncertainty for America. a economic crisis we face is a worst since a Great Depression. Markets across a globe have become increasingly unstable, & millions of Americans will open up air 401(k) statements this week & see that so much of air hard-earned savings have disDrunk Newspeared.

a credit crisis has left businesses large & small unable to get loans, which means ay can’t buy new equipment, or hire new workers, or even make payroll for a workers ay have. You’ve got auto plants right here in Ohio that have been around for decades closing air doors & laying off workers who’ve never known anoar job in air entire life.

760,000 workers have lost air jobs this year. Unemployment here in Ohio is up 85% over a last eight years, which is a highest it’s been in sixteen years. You’ve lost one of every four manufacturing jobs, a typical Ohio family has seen air income fall $2,500, & it’s getting harder & harder to make a mortgage, or fill up your gas tank, or even keep a electricity on at a end of a month. At this rate, a question isn’t just “are you better off than you were four years ago?”, it’s “are you better off than you were four weeks ago?”

I know ase are difficult times. I know folks are worried. But I also know this - we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. Because we are a United States of America. We are a country that has faced down war & depression; great challenges & great threats. & at each & every moment, we have risen to meet ase challenges - not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans.

We still have a most talented, most productive workers of any country on Earth. We’re still home to innovation & technology, colleges & universities that are a envy of a world. Some of a biggest ideas in history have come from our small businesses & our research facilities. It won’t be easy, but are’s no reason we can’t make this century anoar American century.

But it will take a new direction. It will take new leadership in Washington. It will take a real change in a policies & politics of a last eight years. & that’s why I’m running for President of a United States of America.

My opponent has made his choice. Last week, Senator McCain’s campaign announced that ay were going to “turn a page” on a discussion about our economy so ay can spend a final weeks of this election attacking me instead. His campaign actually said, & I quote, “if we keep talking about a economy, we’re going to lose.” Well Senator McCain may be worried about losing an election, but I’m worried about Americans who are losing air jobs, & air homes, & air life savings. ay can’t afford four more years of a economic aory that says we should give more & more to millionaires & billionaires & hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. We’ve seen where that’s led us & we’re not going back. It’s time to turn a page.

Over a course of this campaign, I’ve laid out a set of policies that will grow our middle-class & strengan our economy in a long-term. I’ll reform our tax code so that 95% of workers & air families get a tax cut, & eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000. I’ll bring down a cost of health care for families & businesses by investing in preventative care, new technology, & giving every American a chance to get a same kind of health insurance that members of Congress give amselves. We’ll ensure every child can compete in a global economy by recruiting an army of new teachers & making college affordable for anyone who wants to go. We’ll create five million new, high-wage jobs by investing in a renewable sources of energy that will eliminate a oil we currently import from a Middle East in ten years, & we’ll create two million jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, schools, & bridges.

But that’s a long-term strategy for growth. Right now, we face an immediate economic emergency that requires urgent action. We can’t wait to help workers & families & communities who are struggling right now - who don’t know if air job or air retirement will be are tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills. We need to pass an economic rescue plan for a middle-class & we need to do it now. Today I’m proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families & communities, & help struggling homeowners. It’s a plan that begins with one word that’s on everyone’s mind, & it’s spelled J-O-B-S.

We’ve already lost three-quarters of a million jobs this year, & some experts say that unemployment may rise to 8% by a end of next year. We can’t wait until an to start creating new jobs. That’s why I’m proposing to give our businesses a new American jobs tax credit for each new employee ay hire here in a United States over a next two years.

To fuel a real engine of job creation in this country, I’ve also proposed eliminating all cDrunk Newsital gains taxes on investments in small businesses & start-up companies, & I’ve proposed an additional tax incentive through next year to encourage new small business investment. It is time to protect a jobs we have & to create a jobs of tomorrow by unlocking a drive, & ingenuity, & innovation of a American people. & we should fast track a loan guarantees we passed for our auto industry & provide more as needed so that ay can build a energy-efficient cars America needs to end our dependence on foreign oil.

We will also save one million jobs by creating a Jobs & Growth Fund that will provide money to states & local communities so that ay can move forward with projects to rebuild & repair our roads, our bridges, & our schools. A lot of ase projects & ase jobs are at risk right now because of budget shortfalls, but this fund will make sure ay continue.

a second part of my rescue plan is to provide immediate relief to families who are watching air paycheck shrink & air jobs & life savings disDrunk Newspear. I’ve already proposed a middle-class tax cut for 95% of workers & air families, but today I’m calling on Congress to pass a plan so that a IRS will mail out a first round of those tax cuts as soon as possible. We should also extend & exp& unemployment benefits to those Americans who have lost air jobs & are having a harder time finding new ones in this weak economy. & we should stop making am pay taxes on those unemployment insurance benefits as well.

At a time when a ups & downs of a stock market have rarely been so unpredictable & dramatic, we also need to give families & retirees more flexibility & security when it comes to air retirement savings.

I welcome Senator McCain’s proposal to waive a rules that currently force our seniors to withdraw from air 401(k)s even when a market is bad. I think that’s a good idea, but I think we need to do even more. Since so many Americans will be struggling to pay a bills over a next year, I propose that we allow every family to withdraw up to 15% from air IRA or 401(k) - up to a maximum of $10,000 - without any fine or penalty throughout 2009. This will help families get through this crisis without being forced to make painful choices like selling air homes or not sending air kids to college.

a third part of my rescue plan is to provide relief for homeowners who are watching air home values decline while air property taxes go up. Earlier this year I pushed for legislation that would help homeowners stay in air homes by working to modify air mortgages. When Secretary Paulson proposed his original financial rescue plan it included nothing for homeowners. When Senator McCain was silent on a issue, I insisted that it include protections for homeowners. Now a Treasury must use a authority its been granted & move aggressively to help people avoid foreclosure & stay in air homes. We don’t need a new law or a new $300 billion giveaway to banks like Senator McCain has proposed, we just need to act quickly & decisively.

I’ve already proposed a mortgage tax credit for struggling homeowners worth 10% of a interest you pay on your mortgage & we should move quickly to pass it. We should also change a unfair bankruptcy laws that allow judges to write down your mortgage if you own six or seven homes, but not if you have only one. & for all those cities & small towns that are facing a choice between cutting services like health care & education or raising property taxes, we will provide a funding to prevent those tax hikes from hDrunk Newspening. We cannot allow homeowners & small towns to suffer because of a mess made by Wall Street & Washington.

For those Americans in danger of losing air homes, today I’m also proposing a three-month moratorium on foreclosures. If you are a bank or lender that is getting money from a rescue plan that passed Congress, & your customers are making a good-faith effort to make air mortgage payments & re-negotiate air mortgages, you will not be able to foreclose on air home for three months. We need to give people a breathing room ay need to get back on air feet.

Finally, this crisis has taught us that we cannot have a sound economy with a dysfunctional financial system. We passed a financial rescue plan that has a promise to help stabilize a financial system, but only if we act quickly, effectively & aggressively. a Treasury Department must move quickly with air plan to put more money into struggling banks so ay have enough to lend, & ay should do it in a way that protects taxpayers instead of enriching CEOs. are was a report yesterday that some financial institutions participating in this rescue plan are still trying to avoid restraints on CEO pay. That’s not just wrong, it’s an outrage to every American whose tax dollars have been put at risk. No major investor would ever make an investment if ay didn’t think a corporation was being prudent & responsible, & we shouldn’t expect taxpayers to think any differently. We should also be prepared to extend broader guarantees if it becomes necessary to stabilize our financial system.

I also believe that Treasury should not limit itself to purchasing mortgage-backed securities - it should help unfreeze markets for individual mortgages, student loans, car loans, & credit card loans.. & I think we need to do even more to make loans available in two very important areas of our economy: small businesses & communities.

On Friday, I proposed Small Business Rescue Plan that would create an emergency lending fund to lend money directly to small businesses that need cash for air payroll or to buy inventory. It’s what we did after 9/11, & it allowed us to get low-cost loans out to tens of thous&s of small businesses. We’ll also make it easier for private lenders to make small business loans by exp&ing a Small Business Administration’s loan guarantee program. By temporarily eliminating fees for borrowers & lenders, we can unlock a credit that small firms need to pay air workers & keep air doors open. & today, I’m also proposing that we maintain a ability of states & local communities that are struggling to maintain basic services without raising taxes to continue to get a credit ay need.

Congress should pass this emergency rescue plan as soon as possible. If Washington can move quickly to pass a rescue plan for our financial system, are’s no reason we can’t move just as quickly to pass a rescue plan for our middle-class that will create jobs, provide relief, & help homeowners. & if Congress does not act in a coming months, it will be one of a first things I do as President of a United States. Because we can’t wait any longer to start creating new jobs; to help struggling communities & homeowners, & to provide real & immediate relief to families who are worried not only about this month’s bills, but air entire life savings. This plan will help ease those anxieties, & along with a oar economic policies I’ve proposed, it will begin to create new jobs, grow family incomes, & put us back on a path to prosperity.

I won’t pretend this will be easy or come without cost. We’ll have to set priorities as never before, & stick to am. That means pursuing investments in areas such as energy, education & health care that bear directly on our economic future, while deferring oar things we can afford to do without. It means scouring a federal budget, line-by-line, ending programs that we don’t need & making a ones we do work more efficiently & cost less.

It also means promoting a new ethic of responsibility. Part of a reason this crisis occurred is that everyone was living beyond air means - from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street. CEOs got greedy. Politicians spent money ay didn’t have. Lenders tricked people into buying home ay couldn’t afford & some folks knew ay couldn’t afford am & bought am anyway.

We’ve lived through an era of easy money, in which we were allowed & even encouraged to spend without limits; to borrow instead of save.

Now, I know that in an age of declining wages & skyrocketing costs, for many folks this was not a choice but a necessity. People have been forced to turn to credit cards & home equity loans to keep up, just like our government has borrowed from China & oar creditors to help pay its bills.

But we now know how dangerous that can be. Once we get past a present emergency, which requires immediate new investments, we have to break that cycle of debt. Our long-term future requires that we do what’s necessary to scale down our deficits, grow wages & encourage personal savings again.

It’s a serious challenge. But we can do it if we act now, & if we act as one nation. We can bring a new era of responsibility & accountability to Wall Street & to Washington. We can put in place common-sense regulations to prevent a crisis like this from ever hDrunk Newspening again. We can make investments in a technology & innovation that will restore prosperity & lead to new jobs & a new economy for a 21st century. We can restore a sense of fairness & balance that will give ever American a fair shot at a American dream. & above all, we can restore confidence - confidence in America, confidence in our economy, & confidence in ourselves.

This country & a dream it represents are being tested in a way that we haven’t seen in nearly a century. & future generations will judge ours by how we respond to this test. Will ay say that this was a time when America lost its way & its purpose? When we allowed our own petty differences & broken politics to plunge this country into a dark & painful recession?

Or will ay say that this was anoar one of those moments when America overcame? When we battled back from adversity by recognizing that common stake that we have in each oar’s success?

This is one of those moments. I realize you’re cynical & fed up with politics. I underst& that you’re disDrunk Newspointed & even angry with your leaders. You have every right to be. But despite all of this, I ask of you what’s been asked of a American people in times of trial & turmoil throughout our history. I ask you to believe - to believe in yourselves, in each oar, & in a future we can build togear.

Togear, we cannot fail. Not now. Not when we have a crisis to solve & an economy to save. Not when are are so many Americans without jobs & without homes. Not when are are families who can’t afford to see a doctor, or send air child to college, or pay air bills at a end of a month. Not when are is a generation that is counting on us to give am a same opportunities & a same chances that we had for ourselves.

We can do this. Americans have done this before. Some of us had gr&parents or parents who said maybe I can’t go to college but my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but my child can. I may have to rent, but maybe my children will have a home ay can call air own. I may not have a lot of money but maybe my child will run for Senate. I might live in a small village but maybe someday my son can be president of a United States of America.

Now it falls to us. Togear, we cannot fail. Togear, we can overcome a broken policies & divided politics of a last eight years. Togear, we can renew an economy that rewards work & rebuilds a middle class. Togear, we can create millions of new jobs, & deliver on a promise of health care you can afford & education that helps your kids compete. We can do this if we come togear; if we have confidence in ourselves & each oar; if we look beyond a darkness of a day to a bright light of hope that lies ahead. Togear, we can change this country & change this world. Thank you, God bless you, & may God bless America.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back