Hoyer: Obama can 'turn the page'

DENVER, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- America is ready for the change Barack Obama will bring after eight years of a "failure of leadership," U.S. House Majority Leader Steney Hoyer said Tuesday.

The United States is ready "to turn the page on eight years of debt, division" and decline in the economy, the Maryland Democrat told participants at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Surpluses were projected and the United States enjoyed a good reputation worldwide in the Clinton administration, he said. However, the George W. Bush administration "wasted all of it in a historic failure of leadership," Hoyer said.

"Surpluses squandered. National reputation tattered. Jobs lost," Hoyer said. "We need new leadership. We need change."

In Sen. Obama of Illinois, who is poised to accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, "we'll have a president of the United States who will call Americans to service to excellence," Hoyer said. "For the change we need, we must elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden as president and vice president of the United States."