Obama bids to turn Virginia blue

by James Oliphant

FAIRFAX, Va-- At a town hall meeting in a school gymnasium here in this sprawling suburb of Washington, D.C., Barack Obama Thursday pledged to improve "economic security" for women -- a clear effort to court female voters who had been supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

Obama touched on issues concerning unequal pay, child-care, and family leave and spoke about the pressures of balancing work and family.

The Illinois Democrat offered his wife, Michelle, as Exhibit A, describing how her dual role as lawyer and parent "pulls at her and tears at her."

"Though she does a remarkable job," Obama said, "at times she feels overwhelmed."

He assailed Republican John McCain's economic proposals, tying them to those of the Bush administration, saying they hadn't done enough for working families.

"We take it for granted that women are the backbone of our families, but we often ignore that they are the backbone of our middle class," he said.

After his remarks, Obama took questions from the crowd of about 3,000 that ranged from his position on stem-cell research to the national debt.

He was also forced to defend his decision to support a bill that passed the Senate Wednesday updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and modernizing the framework for wiretapping suspected terrorists. The bill offered liability protection to telecom companies that had assisted the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping
regime that the FISA bill replaces.

Obama earlier this year said he would oppose any bill that contained an immunity provision.

Thursday he said that the program was "necessary for our national security" and said he decided that it was more critical to have it in place than battle over immunity for the telecom industry. He said it was important that bill mandates that any surveillance of foreign agents must be approved through the FISA process, which calls for oversight by a secret intelligence court.

Obama was introduced at the event by Anne Holton, the wife of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. Kaine, a moderate, has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama because of his potential to deliver a key Southern state. Obama handily won the Virginia primary in February, and Democrats there hope that Obama can win the state for their party for the first time since 1964.

Kaine's chances were buoyed this week by the announcement from Virginia Sen. Jim Webb that he did not want to be considered for a spot on the ticket.