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In Montana swing, Obama speaks to Western issues

Sen. Barack Obama reaches for 8-month-old Natalie Pankratz-Osborn, of Missoula, at a rally at the Adams Center at the University of Montana on Saturday. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Christopher Wills Associated Press
Sen. Barack Obama reaches for 8-month-old Natalie Pankratz-Osborn, of Missoula, at a rally at the Adams Center at the University of Montana on Saturday. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

BUTTE – Hunting for votes out West, Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday rejected the idea that the region’s sparsely populated states aren’t important in the presidential race and renewed his promise to appoint a high-level adviser on Indian issues if elected.

Obama also cast his usual message in more Western-friendly terms, talking about clean-coal technology as a way to protect Montana’s mountains and civil liberties as part of the state’s tradition of independence.

An Obama supporter earlier had scolded all the presidential candidates for not addressing Western issues.

Obama, speaking at the Montana Democrats’ annual Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner, mocked the suggestion from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign earlier this year that his lead is suspect because he won lightly contested small states that hold caucuses while losing some big states with primary elections.

“There are people saying Obama wins all these little states, all these caucus states, these small little Western states. I don’t know about you, but I think they’re pretty important,” Obama told the crowd of 4,000.

And in a state where more than 6 percent of the population is American Indian, Obama talked about improving health and education for Indians. He promised to appoint a senior White House adviser on the subject and host an annual meeting of tribal leaders.

The campaign noted that Obama released a position paper involving Western issues before the Nevada primary earlier this year and has also spelled out his views on hunting and other rural concerns.

Even Obama’s standard stump speech took on a Western tone.

He acknowledged his support of clean-energy technology might worry voters in a region that produces lots of coal.

“I know Montana’s a coal state. My home state, Illinois, is a coal state, but we’ve got to make sure that we are investing in technologies that capture carbon because we can’t sustain the planet the way that we’re doing it right now,” Obama said, speaking to 8,000 people at a college arena in Missoula.

“Look at this incredible landscape around you. We’ve got to pass that on.”