By F. Hager

Barack Obama will become the next president of the United States if all goes well in the next few days. Many Ethiopian-Americans are exuberant about the changes he will bring to America. They also hope his election will end the Bush Administration’s support for tyranny in Ethiopia.

But will an Obama administration be different when it comes to democracy in Ethiopia? Will the new team reevaluate the Bush administration’s coddling of human rights abusers in the name of fighting terrorism?

As things stand now, an Obama administration may not be all that different unless supporters of democracy make their case early and forcefully.

Why? Here are two reasons: 1) Ethiopia’s regime has found protectors in the American diplomatic, intelligence and military bureaucracy using tremendous financial resources at its disposal; and 2) at least two key Obama foreign policy advisors have historically been sympathetic to Ethiopia’s ruling group.

Obama’s top foreign policy advisor, Dr. Susan Rice, has a history of sympathy for the Zenawi regime. Rice was a member of the National Security Council and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affair under President Clinton.

Another troublesome Africa advisor to the Obama team is Gail Smith. Smith is also another NSC staffer during the Clinton years. She has a long and mysterious history of involvement with Ethiopia’s ruling Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF).

When Ethiopia’s current leaders were guerilla fighters, Gail Smith entered the then-province of Tigre through the Sudan, joined the fighters and spent considerable time promoting their cause. While she was a leading cheerleader of the TPLF, her husband, Don Connell, held the Eritrean franchise, espousing the Eritrean cause.

The personal interests of former diplomats and intelligence officials who have thrown their lot with the ruling party have complicated the Bush administration’s policy in Ethiopia.

Using tremendous financial resources at its disposal, Ethiopia ruling elite has carefully cultivated personal alliances with US diplomats stationed in Addis, State and Defense Department officials as well as people in the intelligence community.

In addition to clandestine contacts, Ethiopia’s ruling group has paid official Washington lobbyists enormous amounts of money to promote its image. By and large, this has been a successful strategy as the regime has literally gotten away with murder and with crimes against humanity.

There is a disturbing pattern of American officials keeping quiet whenever Ethiopia’s rulers violated human rights. These same diplomats later enter into mutually beneficial financial and other relationships with the ruling party.

Take, for example, the case of former US Ambassador Irvin Hicks. As soon as his ambassadorship ended, Mr. Hicks took employment with Sheik Mohammed Al-Amoudi – a businessman closely allied with the ruling party. Mr. Hicks was known for his inability to speak up against human rights abuses in the early years of the Zenawi administration.

Another example is Tibor Nagy, a former US Ambassador to Ethiopia. Mr. Nagy has been among the ardent defenders of Ethiopia’s leaders. Nagy wrote a 2007 New York Times op-ed piece (co-authored with another pro-regime former US Ambassador Vicki Huddleston) calling for the defeat of a human rights bill — H.R. 2003: Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007.

Nagy leveraged his ambassadorship to Ethiopia to become Associate Provost at Texas Tech University. Upon returning to Texas, Nagy quickly established a sister university relationship between the ruling party’s Mekelle University and Texas Tech.

Ambassador Nagy was also instrumental in making exclusive arrangements for the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences to exhibit the “Lucy” fossils. Lucy is the famous and very fragile 3.2 million-year-old skeleton that had never left Ethiopia before. Many experts, including those at the Smithsonian, considered the move reckless. But thanks to Nagy’s influence Lucy was whisked away from Ethiopia secretly in the darkness of night.

Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, is yet another high-level official with close ties to the Zenawi regime. Frazer first became enamored with the Zenawi group when she worked as a staffer at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2004.

Those were the years during which the Zenawi regime fabricated “evidence” of terrorists hiding behind every East African bush. It was also during these years that the foundations were laid for the secret Bush-Zenawi alliance that is now known as the African Guantanamo.

A lobbying group called the National Summit for Africa sponsored a 2004 exclusive event at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington. Jendayi Frazer was the main attraction and the keynote speaker.

Frazer has spent a disproportionate amount of time defending the Zenawi government since becoming Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 2004.

Because the Bush Administration considered Zenawi a major regional operative in the so-called war on terror, Frazer justified various criminal activities by Ethiopia’s ruling group. Frazer had, for example, refused to speak up against the stealing of the 2005 elections and the subsequent massacre of civilians by Mr. Zenawi’s troops. She has also been among the architects and cheerleaders of the 2007 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.

Once the sun sets on the Bush Administration and following in the footsteps of previous American diplomats, one should not be surprised if Frazer parlays her relationship with Ethiopia’s rulers into a personally beneficial arrangement

Africa has been a low priority for various US administrations. African countries are held in low esteem by the American foreign policy establishment. Consequently, bureaucrats assigned to Africa are not necessarily America’s best and the brightest. An Africa assignment usually comes right before retirement, making the functionaries susceptible to compromising their integrity in exchange for a comfortable retirement.

To their credit, Ethiopia’s leaders have understood this dynamic and taken full advantage of it. Influence buying has clearly paid off for the Ethiopian regime.

Compared to Ethiopia’s Zenawi, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe looks like a boy scout. Yet, American officials bent over backwards to play down Zenawi’s human rights abuses.

The United States used its power and influence to play a constructive role in several elections throughout the world. In Kenya, Pakistan Ukraine and Zimbabwe, the US put pressure on the incumbents to play fair, to make compromises and to respect the will of the people.

Ethiopia has been the exception. The government of Prime Minister Zenawi of Ethiopia stole the 2005 elections and brazenly massacred civilians when people took to the streets to protest. Security forces “fatally shot, beat or strangled” 193 people in June and November of 2005. Forty of the dead were teenagers, including a girl and a boy aged

The Bush administration refused to condemn the killings or put pressure on Zenawi to desist from further violence. The administration was willing to overlook Zenawi’s crimes because, among other things, Ethiopian leaders were collaborating on secret projects that included the kidnapping of East Africans suspected of terrorism. The self-serving information about terrorists was frequently supplied by the Ethiopian regime.

Ethiopian leaders were emboldened by the support from the United States. Some 40,000 people were thrown into hastily constructed concentration camps. Many opposition supporters and leaders were killed or jailed.

US support for democracy in Ethiopia rarely went beyond lip service. Behind the scenes, it was even worse. The Bush administration used both overt and covert means to support Zenawi’s illegal rule and his dismantling of the opposition. Ethiopia’s opposition was practically decimated overnight. The press was muffled; human rights advocates were threatened and thrown in jail. Whatever flicker of democracy that existed leading up to the 2005 elections were quickly extinguished.

The Ethiopian government has entrenched itself in the American civil, military and intelligence bureaucracy. Even a change in administration will not easily dislodge long-established relationships disguised as US policy interests.

We are not suggesting that Obama’s advisors — Dr. Susan Rice or Gail Smith — have already been corrupted by Ethiopia’s lobbyists. But they have not admitted their past mistakes — the havoc and pain US support for an unpopular group has caused for 77 million Ethiopians.

There are suggestions even now that influential Obama advisors such as Dr. Rice are inclined to give “more time” to the thugs running this much-suffering nation. A continued support for Zenawi is frequently justified in terms of US interests.

Any more support for Ethiopia’s tormentors under any pretext is unconscionable and bodes ill for pro-democracy forces.

So-called foreign aid has been among the chief instruments in the oppression of Ethiopian people. Ethiopia’s regime presents a meek and honest face to foreign alms givers. (To Ethiopians, the Zenawi folks display an arrogant, disdainful and brutal face.) In return, the foreign enablers have generously rewarded the regime to the tune of $2 billion every year for the last 17 years.

Obligations of the Diaspora
Those of us in the Diaspora have an obligation and a new opportunity to come together and educate the international community about the duplicitous nature of Ethiopia’s leaders. We must:
• create an umbrella organization to expose the anti-democratic nature of the ruling Tigray Peoples Liberation Front;
• document the economic crimes;
• document regime atrocities and human rights abuses; and
• expose the regime by gathering facts and telling the truth to its enablers.

Now is the time to present our case to an Obama administration and to request that the Bush administration’s disastrous policies be immediately reviewed. Now is the time to ask that the United States disassociate itself from the oppressors of 77 million people.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]

PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Friday through Sunday finds Barack Obama with a five percentage point lead over John McCain, 50% to 45%, in the presidential preferences of likely voters using Gallup’s traditional model. He enjoys a more ample 10-point lead, 53% to 43%, using Gallup’s expanded model.

Today’s traditional likely voters result, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 24-26, is identical to that reported on Sunday. Obama’s five-point advantage falls at the midpoint of the lead he has held with this voter model over the past nine days, ranging from three to seven points.

Obama’s 10-point lead among expanded likely voters matches his largest leads on this basis. It also ties his standing among all registered voters, who now favor Obama over McCain, 52% to 42%. (To view the complete registered voter trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

There are now eight days left before the election. History offers few examples of a trailing candidate mounting a successful comeback in the last week of the campaign. Gallup Poll presidential election trends since 1952 point to 1980 as the only case in which a candidate (Ronald Reagan) was behind in the Gallup Poll a week before the election, but went on to win the presidency. In 2000, Al Gore overcame a pre-election poll deficit in the final week to win the popular vote — but not the Electoral College.

Campaign and political events occurred in both the 1980 and 2000 races which, arguably, could explain the late breaking shifts. Without such a “you know it when you see it” issue or event emerging in the next few days, a McCain victory would be without precedent. — Lydia Saad

(Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.)

By Barack Obama

CANTON, OHIO – One week. After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and twenty-one months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one week away from change in America.

In one week, you can turn the page on policies that have put the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street.

In one week, you can choose policies that invest in our middle-class, create new jobs, and grow this economy from the bottom-up so that everyone has a chance to succeed; from the CEO to the secretary and the janitor; from the factory owner to the men and women who work on its floor.

In one week, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope.

In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need.

We began this journey in the depths of winter nearly two years ago, on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Back then, we didn’t have much money or many endorsements. We weren’t given much of a chance by the polls or the pundits, and we knew how steep our climb would be.

But I also knew this. I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I believed that Democrats and Republicans and Americans of every political stripe were hungry for new ideas, new leadership, and a new kind of politics – one that favors common sense over ideology; one that focuses on those values and ideals we hold in common as Americans.

Most of all, I believed in your ability to make change happen. I knew that the American people were a decent, generous people who are willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations. And I was convinced that when we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks, or the full force of a status quo in Washington that wants to keep things just the way they are.

Twenty-one months later, my faith in the American people has been vindicated. That’s how we’ve come so far and so close – because of you. That’s how we’ll change this country – with your help. And that’s why we can’t afford to slow down, sit back, or let up for one day, one minute, or one second in this last week. Not now. Not when so much is at stake.

We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. 760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year. Businesses and families can’t get credit. Home values are falling. Pensions are disappearing. Wages are lower than they’ve been in a decade, at a time when the cost of health care and college have never been higher. It’s getting harder and harder to make the mortgage, or fill up your gas tank, or even keep the electricity on at the end of the month.

At a moment like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old theory that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is watching anyone on Wall Street because politicians and lobbyists killed common-sense regulations. Those are the theories that got us into this mess. They haven’t worked, and it’s time for change. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

Now, Senator McCain has served this country honorably. And he can point to a few moments over the past eight years where he has broken from George Bush – on torture, for example. He deserves credit for that. But when it comes to the economy – when it comes to the central issue of this election – the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with this President every step of the way. Voting for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he once opposed. Voting for the Bush budgets that spent us into debt. Calling for less regulation twenty-one times just this year. Those are the facts.

And now, after twenty-one months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he’d do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy. Senator McCain says that we can’t spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is embracing the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years.

It’s not change when John McCain wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO. It’s not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations or $4 billion to the oil companies or $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess. It’s not change when he comes up with a tax plan that doesn’t give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle-class Americans. That’s not change.

Look – we’ve tried it John McCain’s way. We’ve tried it George Bush’s way. Deep down, Senator McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” That’s why he’s spending these last weeks calling me every name in the book. Because that’s how you play the game in Washington. If you can’t beat your opponent’s ideas, you distort those ideas and maybe make some up. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run away from. You make a big election about small things.

Ohio, we are here to say “Not this time. Not this year. Not when so much is at stake.” Senator McCain might be worried about losing an election, but I’m worried about Americans who are losing their homes, and their jobs, and their life savings. I can take one more week of John McCain’s attacks, but this country can’t take four more years of the same old politics and the same failed policies. It’s time for something new.

The question in this election is not “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” We know the answer to that. The real question is, “Will this country be better off four years from now?”

I know these are difficult times for America. But I also know that we have faced difficult times before. The American story has never been about things coming easy – it’s been about rising to the moment when the moment was hard. It’s about seeing the highest mountaintop from the deepest of valleys. It’s about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose. That’s how we’ve overcome war and depression. That’s how we’ve won great struggles for civil rights and women’s rights and worker’s rights. And that’s how we’ll emerge from this crisis stronger and more prosperous than we were before – as one nation; as one people.

Remember, we still have the most talented, most productive workers of any country on Earth. We’re still home to innovation and technology, colleges and universities that are the envy of the world. Some of the biggest ideas in history have come from our small businesses and our research facilities. So there’s no reason we can’t make this century another American century. We just need a new direction. We need a new politics.

Now, I don’t believe that government can or should try to solve all our problems. I know you don’t either. But I do believe that government should do that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide a decent education for our children; invest in new roads and new science and technology. It should reward drive and innovation and growth in the free market, but it should also make sure businesses live up to their responsibility to create American jobs, and look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road. It should ensure a shot at success not only for those with money and power and influence, but for every single American who’s willing to work. That’s how we create not just more millionaires, but more middle-class families. That’s how we make sure businesses have customers that can afford their products and services. That’s how we’ve always grown the American economy – from the bottom-up. John McCain calls this socialism. I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that.

Understand, if we want get through this crisis, we need to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right. We don’t need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government – a more competent government – a government that upholds the values we hold in common as Americans.

We don’t have to choose between allowing our financial system to collapse and spending billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street banks. As President, I will ensure that the financial rescue plan helps stop foreclosures and protects your money instead of enriching CEOs. And I will put in place the common-sense regulations I’ve been calling for throughout this campaign so that Wall Street can never cause a crisis like this again. That’s the change we need.

The choice in this election isn’t between tax cuts and no tax cuts. It’s about whether you believe we should only reward wealth, or whether we should also reward the work and workers who create it. I will give a tax break to 95% of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paychecks every week. I’ll eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000 and give homeowners and working parents more of a break. And I’ll help pay for this by asking the folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rate they were paying in the 1990s. No matter what Senator McCain may claim, here are the facts – if you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime – not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes. Nothing. Because the last thing we should do in this economy is raise taxes on the middle-class.

When it comes to jobs, the choice in this election is not between putting up a wall around America or allowing every job to disappear overseas. The truth is, we won’t be able to bring back every job that we’ve lost, but that doesn’t mean we should follow John McCain’s plan to keep giving tax breaks to corporations that send American jobs overseas. I will end those breaks as President, and I will give American businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they create right here in the United States of America. I’ll eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-up companies that are the engine of job creation in this country. We’ll create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, and schools, and by laying broadband lines to reach every corner of the country. And I will invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy to create five million new energy jobs over the next decade – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced; jobs building solar panels and wind turbines and a new electricity grid; jobs building the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow, not in Japan or South Korea but here in the United States of America; jobs that will help us eliminate the oil we import from the Middle East in ten years and help save the planet in the bargain. That’s how America can lead again.

When it comes to health care, we don’t have to choose between a government-run health care system and the unaffordable one we have now. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change under my plan is that we will lower premiums. If you don’t have health insurance, you’ll be able to get the same kind of health insurance that Members of Congress get for themselves. We’ll invest in preventative care and new technology to finally lower the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the entire economy. And as someone who watched his own mother spend the final months of her life arguing with insurance companies because they claimed her cancer was a pre-existing condition and didn’t want to pay for treatment, I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care most.

When it comes to giving every child a world-class education so they can compete in this global economy for the jobs of the 21st century, the choice is not between more money and more reform – because our schools need both. As President, I will invest in early childhood education, recruit an army of new teachers, pay them more, and give them more support. But I will also demand higher standards and more accountability from our teachers and our schools. And I will make a deal with every American who has the drive and the will but not the money to go to college: if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford your tuition. You invest in America, America will invest in you, and together, we will move this country forward.

And when it comes to keeping this country safe, we don’t have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq. It’s time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus. As President, I will end this war by asking the Iraqi government to step up, and finally finish the fight against bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century, and I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.

I won’t stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy – especially now. The cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq, means that Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending on things we can afford to do without. On this, there is no other choice. As President, I will go through the federal budget, line-by-line, ending programs that we don’t need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.

But as I’ve said from the day we began this journey all those months ago, the change we need isn’t just about new programs and policies. It’s about a new politics – a politics that calls on our better angels instead of encouraging our worst instincts; one that reminds us of the obligations we have to ourselves and one another.

Part of the reason this economic crisis occurred is because we have been living through an era of profound irresponsibility. On Wall Street, easy money and an ethic of “what’s good for me is good enough” blinded greedy executives to the danger in the decisions they were making. On Main Street, lenders tricked people into buying homes they couldn’t afford. Some folks knew they couldn’t afford those houses and bought them anyway. In Washington, politicians spent money they didn’t have and allowed lobbyists to set the agenda. They scored political points instead of solving our problems, and even after the greatest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, all we were asked to do by our President was to go out and shop.

That is why what we have lost in these last eight years cannot be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits alone. What has also been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play. Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens. That’s what’s been lost these last eight years – our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that’s what we need to restore right now.

Yes, government must lead the way on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and our businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But all of us must do our part as parents to turn off the television and read to our children and take responsibility for providing the love and guidance they need. Yes, we can argue and debate our positions passionately, but at this defining moment, all of us must summon the strength and grace to bridge our differences and unite in common effort – black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; Democrat and Republican, young and old, rich and poor, gay and straight, disabled or not.

In this election, we cannot afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another and make us afraid of one another. The stakes are too high to divide us by class and region and background; by who we are or what we believe.

Because despite what our opponents may claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country. There is no city or town that is more pro-America than anywhere else – we are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots. There are patriots who supported this war in Iraq and patriots who opposed it; patriots who believe in Democratic policies and those who believe in Republican policies. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.

It won’t be easy, Ohio. It won’t be quick. But you and I know that it is time to come together and change this country. Some of you may be cynical and fed up with politics. A lot of you may be disappointed and even angry with your leaders. You have every right to be. But despite all of this, I ask of you what has been asked of Americans throughout our history.

I ask you to believe – not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.

I know this change is possible. Because I have seen it over the last twenty-one months. Because in this campaign, I have had the privilege to witness what is best in America.

I’ve seen it in lines of voters that stretched around schools and churches; in the young people who cast their ballot for the first time, and those not so young folks who got involved again after a very long time. I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see their friends lose their jobs; in the neighbors who take a stranger in when the floodwaters rise; in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb. I’ve seen it in the faces of the men and women I’ve met at countless rallies and town halls across the country, men and women who speak of their struggles but also of their hopes and dreams.

I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale. Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Her insurance company refused to pay, and their family just didn’t have that kind of money.

In her email, Robyn wrote, “I ask only this of you – on the days where you feel so tired you can’t think of uttering another word to the people, think of us. When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder.”

Ohio, that’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting around the bend; that insists there are better days ahead. If we’re willing to work for it. If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts. If we’re willing to reach deep down inside ourselves when we’re tired and come back fighting harder.

Hope! That’s what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough. What led them to say, “Maybe I can’t go to college, but if I save a little bit each week my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but if I work really hard my child can open one of her own.” It’s what led immigrants from distant lands to come to these shores against great odds and carve a new life for their families in America; what led those who couldn’t vote to march and organize and stand for freedom; that led them to cry out, “It may look dark tonight, but if I hold on to hope, tomorrow will be brighter.”

That’s what this election is about. That is the choice we face right now.

Don’t believe for a second this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.

In one week, we can choose an economy that rewards work and creates new jobs and fuels prosperity from the bottom-up.

In one week, we can choose to invest in health care for our families, and education for our kids, and renewable energy for our future.

In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo.

In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history.

That’s what’s at stake. That’s what we’re fighting for. And if in this last week, you will knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me, and talk to your neighbors, and convince your friends; if you will stand with me, and fight with me, and give me your vote, then I promise you this – we will not just win Ohio, we will not just win this election, but together, we will change this country and we will change the world. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America.
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Barack Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois, is the Democratic presidential nominee.

By LARA JAKES JORDAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

“They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,” Cavanaugh said. “They didn’t believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.”

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

Attorney Joe Byrd, who has been hired to represent Cowart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

Cowart and Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.

The investigation is continuing, and more charges are possible, Cavanaugh said.