Obama Boosts Broadband in 2008 Announcement Speech

Arlen writes: "As many as 17,000 people (according to police estimates) watched Senator Barack Obama officially announce his candidacy for President in Springfield Illinois today, he mentioned several things that Slashdotters will be interested in. The Senator said he wanted to free America from what he called "the tyranny of oil," and went on to promote alternative energy sources such as ethanol (a big political winner in the midwest where he announced, because of all the corn farmers). He also talked about using science and technology to help those with chronic diseases, which is likely to have been an allusion to his staunch support of stem cell research. Perhaps most of interest to Slashdotters however is that Obama made the following statement halfway through his speech: "Let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America. We can do that." Like nearly everything in his speech, this was met with robust applause from the crowd. You can watch a video of the entire speech at Obama's website."