Obama Wins Guam

CNN has announced that Barack Obama has won Guam!

Thank you Guam! And thank you to our incredible Guam for Obama staff and volunteers, as well as all of our supporters who stayed up late the past three nights phonebanking Guam. Your work made the difference in an extremely close race. Thanks to your efforts, we've now won 31 out of 46 contests, and are even closer to clinching the Democratic nomination.

We have just a few days left before the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. If you ever needed proof — if you ever doubted — that your phone calls have an impact, this is it.

This is what it feels like to take politics into your own hands. This is what it feels like to make a difference.

"I will not let you down"

MUNSTER | Vowing to run an open White House, Barack Obama urged Northwest Indiana residents to vote for him in Indiana's primary in three days.

"I may not be perfect," Obama said. "But I'll always tell you what I think. I will not let you down."

The Illinois senator touched on new and familiar themes of his campaign during a town hall-style meeting at Munster Steel with mostly region union workers and company employees.

Obama sharply criticized a proposal by presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and John McCain to suspend the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax this summer to alleviate the burden of skyrocketing fuel costs on individual Americans.

He called the tax holiday a "political gimmick," and said the average American would only save $28 over three months.

Obama called the tax an unsecured economic solution, dependent upon oil companies' promise not to hike prices during the holiday. The tax, too, would siphon needed money from the federal Highway Trust Fund.

"It's a shell game. Literally," Obama said to cheering laughs.

Obama said Hoosiers on Tuesday would have to choose between "the politics of stunts, not the politics of solutions," and his "new kind of leadership."

That leadership, he said, would be more transparent than that of President Bush, whose executive orders Obama promised to overrule if found unconstitutional.

He cited the wisdom of former President Ronald Reagan, who said people should "trust, but verify."

"That's what you need to do with your government," Obama said. "We're going to open up government again, so it's not so secretive."

Obama again touted his plans to fix trade problems with China, and help create new jobs for American workers in the alternative energy industry. "It can start right here in Munster, if you've got the leadership," he said.

Obama noted the Hoosier state has lost almost 100,000 well-paying manufacturing jobs.

"These jobs aren't just a source of income. They're a source of dignity," Obama said. "It's not just the job that leaves."

He urged companies to incorporate job-saving practices like those made at Munster Steel. In trying to save costs and jobs, the company recently switched to a four-day workweek, staving off the need to lay off workers, said Fred McCraw, the company's chief union steward.

Prompted by audience questions, Obama said his White House would work with companies to ensure fair worker pensions and health care benefits.

He highlighted some problems with Social Security, and said he would eliminate the income tax on Social Security for seniors making $50,000 or less.

Obama's second swing through the region came just four days from Indiana's primary, which has been deemed a dead heat with Clinton.

Some polls have shown Obama trailing Clinton in Indiana, but leading the New York senator in other parts of the country. But Obama rejected polling as a way to govern or gauge political success.

"We don't need to lead by polls," he said. "We need to lead by principles."