Salazar to hail America at DNC
Senator to cite parallels with himself, Obama
By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 20, 2008 at 9:15 p.m.
Updated August 21, 2008 at 1:13 a.m.
Ken Salazar
Sen. Ken Salazar will talk about the American dream - and the parallels between his life story and that of his good friend Sen. Barack Obama - when he takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention.
"Both Barack Obama and myself are the personification of the greatness of this country," Salazar said Wednesday.
Colorado's Democratic senator will speak on the third night of the convention. Though he hasn't been told yet what time he will speak or for how long, he said he expects it to be "a very short speech."
Obama came to Colorado in 2004 to campaign for Salazar's Senate bid. As the only two freshmen Democrats in the Senate that year, they bonded quickly.
They attended a welcome breakfast with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Chief of Staff Andy Card and seven freshmen Republicans, Salazar said.
In the Senate chambers, they sat side-by-side. They lived on the same floor of the same building for two years, and often ate dinner together.
During that time Salazar - who grew up poor on a farm with no electricity - came to admire Obama, who was raised by a single mother.
Growing up, no one would have anticipated that either of them would become a U.S. senator, and that one of them would become a nominee for president, Salazar said.
"Those possibilities could only happen here in this country," he added. "They couldn't happen anywhere else in the world."
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Nobama writes:
Salazar "came to admire Obama, who was raised by a single mother". Gee, what a nice story. But, it's just typical Liberal jounalistic crap! This is a flat out distortion of the facts. Obama was NOT "raised by a single mother". The facts are: of Obama's first 11 years, only 4 were spent with a "single mother". He was with his Muslim Kenyan father for his first two years and then, later, about 5 years with his Muslim Indonesian stepfather. Then, after about age 11, he lived with his grandparents. Don't you think this is a fairly significant oversight, or down right lie, portrayed by the reporter, and maybe even Senator Salazar? I get sick and tired of this kind of propaganda, when the facts can be checked out with no trouble or effort. I challenge anyone to dispute this account. The reporter should be ashamed for not reporting the accurate facts. I don't care what Salazar said, assuming he was even quoted accurately.