Change on horizon, Obama tells supporters

RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., encouraged an audience in North Carolina Wednesday to vote for him on Election Day if they want to change the country's direction.

"After decades of broken politics in Washington," the Democratic presidential nominee said in Raleigh, "we are six days from change in America."

He reiterated his platforms on the economy, tax relief, healthcare, energy and education, telling the crowd that change would not be easy, but "we cannot afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another and make us afraid of one another. The stakes are too high to divide us by class and region and background; by who we are or what we believe."

Obama drew applause of approval when he stopped his speech -- twice -- to direct emergency personnel to people who needed medical assistance.

Obama praised the war record of his Republican challenger, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, then criticized him for voting for President George Bush's policies 90 percent of the time.

"Senator McCain says that we can't spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change," Obama said, "but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is embracing the same old policies that have failed us for the last eight years."

But in six days, he said, "we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history."