I attended Sen. Obama’s rally in Portsmouth. It was the first time I had ever heard him speak in person.

When he spoke about the economy, our jobs going to China and Mexico, and how expensive health care has become, I felt like he was talking to me directly.

Sen. Obama worked his way through good schools and achieved success in public service. He has committed himself to that work because he remembers what it was like to grow up and see his mom resort to food stamps sometimes, and to watch her spend her final days in a hospital arguing with an insurance company over her cancer bills.

He fought for jobs in Chicago when middle class families were hit by layoffs and suddenly found themselves in trouble.

We have a moral responsibility to ourselves, our children, and our fellow citizens to make sure that no parent has to wonder if they can put food on the table for their child or take their kids to the doctor.

I would like to see us return to an America driven by those principles. McCain has begun using the slogan “Country First,” but of the two candidates in this race, he’s talking about top-down tax breaks for people like himself and Obama is the one talking about helping the rest of us stay on two feet while the economy crashes.