Northwest Indiana Bureau

GARY, Ind. (CBS) ― Sen. Barack Obama came to Northwest Indiana Thursday and blasted President Bush's plan to halt troop reductions in Iraq and vowed to end the war in his first year in the White House.

Obama, who has said he favors a measured withdrawal from Iraq, said, "It is time to bring the war to a close.'' He added that the war has lasted longer than the Civil War and both world wars and has distracted from the true mission of fighting terrorists in Afghanistan.

"We should have never gone there [to Iraq] in the first place,'' he said. "I will end this war in 2009.''

The president on Thursday ordered an indefinite halt in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after July, embracing the key recommendations of his top war commander.

Later, Obama  acknowledged that a fuller withdrawal would likely last into 2010, saying it would take 16 months to implement a drawback of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Obama went on to blame Bush's economic policies for failing the middle class, which resonates here in a community hit hard over the years by layoffs on the steel industry.

CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports Obama outlined his ideas for a new $30 billion economic stimulus package, specifically geared toward addressing the mortgage crisis.

It would include $10 billion for a fund to prevent foreclosures, and $10 billion to help state and local governments like those right here, hardest hit by the situation.

Within minutes of entering the gym at Roosevelt High School, Obama tackled the economy and bashed the Bush administration for ignoring cities and individuals that are struggling financially.

"They haven't been listening to you. They've been listening to the fat cats, big-time donors," Obama said. "Under George Bush, we've seen tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans who didn't need them and weren't even asking for them."

After a 30-minute speech, Obama took questions from the audience.

Funeral home owner and Lake County Commissioner Roosevelt Allen asked how an Obama presidency would help fix crumbling infrastructure in some of the nation's poorest cities.

"We've got to invest in infrastructure because it makes us more competitive," Obama said.

"He indicated that he would create a fund of $60 billion," Allen said. "I hope that that's adequate."

Obama also outlined a plan to invest $150 billion over 10 years in green technologies like solar, wind and biodiesel.

It has been decades since such a level of presidential campaign excitement has been seen in the city of Gary.

Among those who braved the elements to come watch the speech was former Gary Mayor Richard G. Hatcher, who was there when Sen. Robert Kennedy visited during his presidential campaign.

"It reminds you of that time when Bobby Kennedy was here, and people just came out in such huge numbers, and they were so excited just to be able to see him. In fact, at the time he said he couldn't even keep a pair of cufflinks, because people would pull his cufflinks out," Hatcher said. "This spirit that I feel now is exactly the way it was then, except it may be a little higher."

Later, Obama granted CBS 2 a few moments to talk one-on-one about a couple of issues specific to life in Chicagoland.

On the violence that is killing Chicago's teens at an alarming rate, Obama said, "This just has to stop. The way to stop it, we've got to be much more serious about keeping handguns off the streets and out of children's hands of the mentally deranged. We've got to close gun show loophole. But we've also got to recognize that our children are being lost to the streets. And that means parents have to do a better job of parenting. Fathers have to be involved with their children."

And about the problems currently plaguing the airline industry he said, "It's an example of another federal agency that's been asleep on the job while the Bush administration has been in office. It's clear that a lot of these standard monitoring and oversight of the airline industry has not been carried out the way it needs to. That's something that will change when I'm president."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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