by Glynn Wilson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 9 - Illinois Senator Barack Obama brought his bid to be the first black president of the United States to Birmingham, Alabama Monday and drew a diverse crowd of about 2,000 people who cheered the most when he challenged the Republican Party and President George W. Bush on the war in Iraq.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigns in Birmingham, Alabama

"This war should never have been authorized," he said. "It has already cost us a trillion dollars, with a T, and thousands of precious lives," he said. "We should bring the troops home now. If you elect me as your president that is what I will do."

He mentioned the selective political justice going on in America with a Republican administration jailing a Democrat governor and commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby, who was convicted of obstruction of justice in the investigation of White House officials leaking the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

"We know what's wrong with Scooter getting off," he said. "Even Paris Hilton got a little jail time."

Obama said he was inspired as a youngster by the Civil Rights movement that came largely out of Alabama, and he said in all his travels while running for president, people are coming out in a similar way.

"They feel in their gut that something's got to change," he said. "People are hungry for change."

He attacked the "nonsense" going on in Washington and said he senses people have "had enough," with the health care system broken, the education system "leaving children behind" and the "absence of an energy policy" that puts a strain on the poor and middle class with $3 a gallon gas.

"Wall Street never had it so good," he said. "While the growing gap between the rich and poor just keeps getting wider."

He said in spite of stories about veterans having to search for food in dumpsters, he was still optimistic about the future, even though he gets ribbed by the national press corps sometimes for being "a hope monger."

"America still has the capacity to come together," he said. "I am obsessed by the idea that we can bring out that core decency. We should all aspire to something higher, and say yes, we are our brothers' keeper."