Remarks

I have seen Barack Obama take on the toughest, most important jobs and get real change. I was a state senator from the South Side of Chicago when I met a handful of people on a street corner planning what to do about the high-school dropout rate. They were led by this skinny guy, Barack Obama.

He came to work with mothers and churches in a community devastated by the closing of a steel mill. We were not a likely pair. But we worked with ministers and got state funding for a dropout prevention program that still operates to this day. Barack went off to law school, but he returned to Chicago.

When he came to the state Senate, I was the Senate minority leader, and he said to me, “You know, I like to work hard.” I said, “So go work with Republicans and reform our state ethics law.” Some people say I was doing him a favor. Those people did not understand that ethics reform means getting officials to limit gifts to themselves.

No one had been able to get change in decades. At first, a lot of members were opposed. They gave Barack a hard time. But he reached out to all sides and really listened. Everyone compromised, and we passed sweeping reform. That was the beginning. Barack took the lead on getting results for everyday people. He went on to pass a tax cut for working families and health care for all children, increase support for child care and made sure that workers received notice before their plant closed.

America, this is a unique man. Barack Obama, the next President of the United States, will deliver the change this country needs.