Dec 4, 2006 10:54 pm US/Eastern
Obama Makes Impression During Stop In NYC
Illinois Senator Non-Committal To Run For Presidency
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a possible presidential candidate in 2008, spoke Monday night at a charity event about eliminating child poverty.
The Democrat quoted Ronald Reagan and told a story about Bobby Kennedy visiting the Mississippi Delta in 1967. He talked about the current minimum wage being insufficient and how single mothers like his do a heroic job.
Once his speech was over, he received a rousing standing ovation from the scores of people in the audience at a midtown Manhattan hotel. One woman couldn't stop taking pictures: "I love him," she said.
But the charismatic, sharply dressed Obama wouldn't say -- again -- if he was going to take a shot at the White House, disappointing the media horde hanging on his every word.
Instead, he had some kind words for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the powerful New York senator, who tops every national poll of likely Democratic candidates. He called her smart and tough.
"I'm not one of these people who thinks she can't win," he told reporters at a news conference after the charity event.
He also understood why the media kept asking about whether he and Clinton would square off in a primary: It's "fun" to set up those scenarios, he said.
When Obama was asked about the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old groom Sean Bell in Queens more than a week ago, he didn't shy away from the question.
Obama said his assessment of what happened was similar to that of Mayor Michael Bloomberg: The 50 bullets fired by five officers "strikes me as excessive," he said.
Obama said police operate with restraint 99 percent of the time, though "this may be one of the times they did not."
Police have said they fired on Bell's car because they believed someone in it had a gun, but no gun was found. Two of Bell's friends were wounded in the Nov. 25 shooting.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
