Hmm. Should have said, "state" not "district." I actually lived in the district he vacated to become a Senator. Whatever.

A quick visit to Obama's web site yielded these gems:

He believes firmly that health care should be a right for everyone, not a privilege for the few.

Barack Obama's first bill as a U.S. Senator was the HOPE Act (Higher Education Opportunity Through Pell Grant Expansion Act) (S.697), which would help make college more affordable for many Americans. The bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant from the current limit of $4,050 to a new maximum of $5,100.

It's time to help the auto industry invest in more fuel-efficient cars, and we believe the federal government has a role in helping them do it.

When people's expected benefits get cut and they have to choose between their groceries and their prescriptions, what will we say then? That's not our problem?

When our debt climbs so high that our children face sky-high taxes just as they're starting their first job, what will we tell them? Deal with it yourselves?

This isn't how America works. This isn't how we saved millions of seniors from a life of poverty seventy years ago. This isn't how we sent a greatest generation of veterans to college so they could build the greatest middle-class in history. And this isn't how we should face the challenges of this new century either.

No matter how noble you may think a cause is, taking money, forcibly, from one person to give it to another is wrong. Exceptions will be few and far between, not 30% of your income. If Social Security, Pell Grants, "free" health care, etc. are the bread, hybrid cars are left as the circus.