Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America at the Associated Press annual luncheon. Obama's speech took full advantage of his trademark public speaking skills. More critical of his democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in his opening statement than attendees of the luncheon might have expected, Obama talked about how he was not born into any amount of wealth and understood what it took for an American to work hard to succeed.

Obama was critical of the Bush Administration's tax cuts for the wealthy. Addressing the issue of Republican presidential candidate John McCain saying he was "out of touch" with the American people, Obama said that McCain was using his words against him and that he would "like to have" a debate with McCain over who was better able to relate to the American people.

Far and away, the most surprising moment of the luncheon came when the speech moderator accidentally referred to Osama bin Laden as "Obama bin Laden." Addressing a sincerely shocked audience, Obama coolly

corrected the moderator then noted this was not the first time he had heard such a misstatement.

Also, Obama said John McCain was running for "George Bush's third term" and that he was the candidate running "for the American people." McCain, said Obama, did not understand how to solve the foreclosure crisis sweeping through America.

Stressing he wanted to get the public more involved in politics should he become President, Obama said that our country needed to find a balance between protecting individual liberties and protecting our security regarding the Shield Law and FISA.

When addressing the fact that he is often labeled as being "too liberal," Senator Obama said he ran on a platform that is not liberal nor conservative, but one that is focused on uniting society to solve problems. Obama described Hillary Clinton as a "formidable" opponent, and said her reluctance to withdraw from the presidential candidacy race helped attract interest in each campaign and was actually good for the Democratic party.