Obama: ‘Together We Can Change America’

Appearing via satellite from the campaign trail in Albuquerque, N.M., Senator Barack Obama was met with wild cheers from the 2,500 delegates, alternates and guests at CWA's 70th annual convention in Las Vegas. Here are excerpts from his speech:

It's not an accident that hardworking families are struggling so much. It's because, for eight long years, we've had a White House that's been hostile to workers and a Washington that's been beholden to the special interests. It's not just that this administration hasn't been fighting for you — they've actually tried to stop you from fighting for yourselves. This is the most anti-labor administration in our memory. They don't believe in unions. They don't believe in organizing. They've packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies.

And that is why we cannot afford to let John McCain serve out George Bush's third term. It's not change when John McCain stands with George Bush 95 percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year. It's not change when he sides with George Bush and the business lobby to say "no" to workers' rights, "no" to organizing, and "no" to the Employee Free Choice Act.

Change is building an economy that rewards the work and workers who create it. Change is universal health care. Change is having a president who's been an organizer, who knows what it's like to walk with you on that picket line and who lets unions do what they do best: organize our workers.

But it's not going to be easy, CWA. And that's why I need your help. If you keep marching with me and knocking on those doors, and making those phone calls, and registering voters, and talking to your friends and co-workers and neighbors; and if you vote for me, then I promise you this: we will win the general election and then — you and I — together are going to change America and change this world.