Obama makes run to middle

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said he credits his family and financial struggles with keeping him grounded.

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INDIANOLA, Iowa — Sen. Barack Obama yesterday said his family's being "normal" helps him better understand the plight of everyday voters, positioning himself as more in touch than his Democratic rivals as they all make their final pitches before the Iowa caucuses.

Mr. Obama, 46, told a voter in Newton that just five or six years ago, he and wife Michelle were "still struggling" after having borrowed to pay for their education.

"Neither of us were rich," he said. "We hadn't started a college fund yet for our kids; we were trying to figure out when are we going to do that. We hadn't started saving for retirement. We had some credit cards that we had to deal with."

The discussion started when undecided voter Karen Jaminet, a 39-year-old mother of two, told him that she is considered middle class based on income but is still "scraping by." She asked what he could do to help, and before explaining his plan for tax breaks and health care, he launched into a description of his own family life.

Mr. Obama told her he did the grocery shopping, adding that Mrs. Obama still shops at Target.

"We still remember what it's like to end up at the end of the month and things are getting a little tight," he said.

It's an argument that can work against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has been a national figure for 16 years, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who came from modest means but has earned millions as a trial lawyer.

Click the arrow to watch a video of Sen. Obama speaking in Knoxville, Iowa. Story continues under the video.

Ms. Jaminet, who works as a designer for the Newton Manufacturing Co., later said she liked his explanation of his health care plan since it would help her save money on her premiums.

"My insurance goes up every year," she said. "I get a raise, and I'm never ahead."

As for Mr. Obama's being normal, she said it was a believable response. "Sometimes, people talk a certain way. Hillary is just now coming out and saying 'I'm a normal person,' " she said, referring to a recent tour Mrs. Clinton did in Iowa, in which she had everyday friends and supporters tell personal stories about her.

The "normal" message resonated with many.

Julie Reeves of Oskaloosa was undecided for months, but is now an Obama precinct captain. "He's got the same heart as all the rest of us. He's a real person," she said.

But Patrice Blankenship, an undecided voter from Ottumwa, is leaning toward Mrs. Clinton because she considers her "brassy."

"And just because you shop at Target doesn't make you a regular person, especially when it's right before an election," she added.

Mr. Obama relayed a conversation with his wife, in which she said he should be president now while he still remembers the hard times.

Now that he's a senator and has a best-selling book, he realizes things could be different a decade from now.

"I think we'd still be good people, but you lose track of what folks are going through and how this economy is working for a few people really well but it's not working for most people that well," he said.

Mr. Obama is locked in a tight battle to win the Iowa caucuses Thursday night. In stops yesterday, he addressed concerns of people who say he doesn't have enough experience by quoting former President Bill Clinton.

"My experience is rooted in the real lives of real people, and it will bring real results if we just have the courage to change. ... They are not my words," Mr. Obama said, revealing that Mr. Clinton said them in 1992.

"Bill Clinton was right then, and I'm right now," he said. "I've got the experience that is rooted in real lives."

Mr. Obama said his experience included working "alongside" steelworkers as a community organizer, and as a civil rights lawyer working with people "that had been denied access to the polling place because of what they looked like."

At several stops, he mentioned that he was raised by a single mother, and said that as a black man, he has defied the odds.

Before they all hit the campaign trail, each of the major Democratic candidates appeared on a Sunday talk show.

On ABC's "This Week," Mrs. Clinton played up her experience as first lady, saying she was "intimately involved in so much that went on in the White House, here at home and around the world" and that as a senator she has "deepened and broadened my experience."

As for Mr. Obama quoting her husband on the campaign trail, "By the time Bill ran, he was the senior-most serving governor in America, and he'd had tough elections every two years, and then two more after that," Mrs. Clinton said on ABC.

Mrs. Clinton told voters Friday that she understands their needs.

"For too long, our hardworking middle-class families have been ignored," she said in Story City, adding the country needs a president "who will champion middle-class families."

Mr. Edwards, appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," called himself a fighter, a theme he uses on the campaign trail.

"I've been fighting for these changes my entire life in different ways. I spent 20 years in courtrooms fighting big corporate power," he said. "I've done the same thing in public life, and I'm proud of that."

In Davenport on Friday, Mr. Edwards told voters he wants to leave the country better off than we found it. "I was born for this fight," he said.

Jennifer Jarvis, a shop owner from Story City, said she is leaning toward Mr. Edwards.

"I just don't think Hillary has enough experience. And Obama, I don't think he's old enough," she said.

Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, joined Mr. Obama yesterday to offer his first-ever presidential endorsement.

"I just can't be on the sidelines," Mr. Conrad told The Washington Times. "He is a uniter, the real deal, and we desperately need that."

Mr. Obama talks on the stump about attracting Republican voters, many of whom are showing up to his events.

Brian Fleming, a sales director at a casino in Burlington, has been a Republican voter in the past but plans to become a Democrat on Thursday and participate in the caucuses for the first time. "It's definitely time for a change. I trust him," he said.